It's late on a Friday afternoon...perhaps it's early on a Friday evening. I thought the best way to use our time on this was to have a bit of a vote on which player performed against the greatest odds to help the Redskins get into the postseason.
Since I have used his picture with the article, clearly my mind jumped straight to Madieu Williams. I am not sure how much any of us legitimately expected out of WIlliams at first. It occurs to me that he was likely not who the coaches envisioned would be our starter in the back of the secondary for much of the season.
Today, he is a safety that has approximately 100 tackles and an interception and has been very much part of the defensive turnaround. He isn't afraid to put his nose in on run support and he has factored better in pass coverage as the season has progressed. It is hard to just put the New York Giants debacle out of your mind, but the truth is that Williams made a mistake and hasn't seemed to let it ruin his ability to improve. A lot of guys are done after single-handedly letting a winning score get by them.
There are other men though that have performed against sizable odds in 2012. How can you get past the season that our running back out of the sixth round just had? Alfred Morris proved all 31 other teams wrong for passing on him en route to his 1,600+ yard season. Who thought Robert Griffin III would be THIS good?
At receiver, Garcon and Morgan are supposed to be top dogs, but Aldrick Robinson stood tall and made some amazing plays. Logan Paulsen has been a beast blocking and running intermediate routes.
I could go on further, but for me, I might have to take the kicker off the street. There is no way we would be in the playoffs if we didn't unearth a kicker that broke the rookie record for consecutive field goals made. Kai Forbath not only defied the odds in general (record-setting performances are, by definition, improbable), he defied the odds associated with being a kicker for the Washington Redskins.
I'll throw up a poll, but feel free to nominate and debate any player not mentioned in the comments section below.