Team Mediocrity. That's the Redskins, who continued to play to the level of their competition during coach Jim Zorn's first season, continuing a tradition that stretches back to the Norv Turner era (1994-2000) and has gone on since virtually without interruption.
Washington was 3-0 against NFC finalists Arizona and Philadelphia but managed to lose to awful St. Louis and Cincinnati (then 1-11-1) and barely squeak by winless Detroit and lowly Cleveland.
With the Cardinals reaching the NFC Championship Game, the Redskins are now one of just three franchises that have been in the league the last 17 seasons and have failed to advance to a conference title contest. The others are the Bengals and the Lions.
Washington's task is complicated by its membership in the NFC East with Philadelphia (in its fifth NFC title game in 10 years), the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants and Dallas, which had the conference's top record in 2007.
At the key positions of coach and quarterback, the Redskins are the least qualified of the four franchises with the still-learning Zorn and Jason Campbell (16-20 in two-plus years as the starter) compared to the Eagles' Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb, the Giants' Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning and even the Cowboys' Wade Phillips and Tony Romo.
While Reid and McNabb have been to a Super Bowl and multiple Pro Bowls, Coughlin and Manning have won a title and Phillips and Romo have taken teams to the playoffs, neither Zorn nor Campbell has topped .500.
While Zorn and Campbell are still unproven, too many of their teammates are getting long in the tooth. All five offensive line starters -- tackles Chris Samuels and Jon Jansen, guards Pete Kendall and Randy Thomas and center Casey Rabach -- are all over 30. So is fullback Mike Sellers.
On defense, an aging group includes left tackle Cornelius Griffin, middle linebacker London Fletcher, strongside linebacker Marcus Washington and left cornerback Shawn Springs. That's not counting right end Phillip Daniels, who missed 2008 with a knee injury, and his replacement, Jason Taylor, who struggled before being replaced by Demetric Evans.
There are few young replacements on the roster for any of the 30-somethings except for cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who is heading toward free agency. Tackle Stephon Heyer has been adequate filling in for Samuels and Jansen. The same goes for H.B. Blades, subbing for Washington. Evans is solid but nothing more, as is defensive tackle Anthony Montgomery.
Making matters worse, the Redskins have just four picks in April's draft, having traded their choices in the second, fourth and seventh rounds.
