Redskins 2007 opponents announced

Per the Official Site the Redskins will play...

At home -- Our NFC East division rivals: Cowboys, Eagles, and Giants. The Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions from the NFC North. The Bills and the Dolphins from the AFC East. And the Arizona Cardinals as 4th seed rival.

On the Road -- Our NFC East division rivals: Cowboys, Eagles, and Giants. The Packers and Vikings from the NFC North. The Patriots and Jets from the AFC East. And the Tampa Bay Bucs as our 4th seet rival.

Not looking forward to the Pats on the road, or the AFC East in general. I thought they were the strongest conference top-to-bottom in the NFL. They have two postseason contenders and lead the league in wins.

I can suffer the NFC North as I think Chicago isn't nearly as good as that record and the Vikings, Packers, and Lions are all subpar teams. We can escape that with 3-4 wins (assuming we actually, you know, improve this offseason).

The Cardinals are perennial failures, so that is also good news. I also like the game against the Bucs, as I think we're quickly developing a rivalry with Tampa Bay. We lost to them in 2003, beat them in 2004, lost to them (once) in 2005 but then beat them out of the playoffs later in the season, and here we face them again in 2006. Given the structure of NFL schedules, it is unlikely that non-division rivals play each other every year, let alone do so 4 times in a row (and face each other in the postseason). Perhaps if both of our teams rebound off of weak 2006 campaigns, we can make this an interesting continuation in a budding future-rivalry. I'll settle merely for a win, though.