There was a time when the Washington Redskins were a perennial league powerhouse. To fans of the team, it must seem like the team’s greatness and glory years are little more than a distant memory. In all likelihood, many current, younger fans never saw Washington play great football. But, it happened. In the 1970s and 1980s, the team was a dominant force, relying yearly on veteran players. Under the leadership for some of those glory years of the late, great Hall of Fame Head Coach George Allen, the Redskins regularly traded draft picks for solid, generally in-their-prime players … a formula that had them in the playoffs just about every season.

In some years, the Redskins made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Along with the Cowboys, Raiders and Steelers, Washington’s Redskins were a team that demanded - and received - respect from every opponent … a team whose fans knew would win lots more games than it lost. The formula employed by Coach Allen of trading draft picks for players worked spectacularly well - in the short term. Long term … it had to fail. And eventually it did. Washington’s players finally aged and saw their skills diminish … but there was no help coming because there were no high draft picks available to the team.

The result was, inevitably, a fall from superiority to mediocrity. Many years have passed since the George Allen era and the Redskins have never been able to recapture the glory. Under the ownership of Daniel Snyder, the team continues to look for a way that will enable it to be great once again. In recent years, the Redskins have relied more heavily on free agent signings instead of draft picks … and it hasn’t worked. They’ve remained significantly weaker than their divisional opponents - the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles.

During this current off-season, the “Skins,” for the first time in memory avoided big free agent signings so it’s possible that they’ve finally committed to rebuilding through the draft. Clearly, fans of the team hope that is the case.
They will need more than one very good draft in order to catch up with the intra-divisional opponents and be competitive with them. It’s not going to be easy, of course, because the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles are all loaded. But good drafts have a way of equalizing things more quickly than expected. Meantime, Washington figures to be “the divisional weak link” in the upcoming season and a betting underdog. The question is: will they be a live underdog? And the answer: wait and see. Fans of the Washington Redskins can look forward to a team that may finally have a plan that it’s willing to follow … a commitment to young players. Those who bet may want to take a long, hard look at the Redskins before investing any money on them. The safer wager may be one in which money is bet on the opponent.