Much has been made about the size and strength of our offensive linemen in our zone blocking scheme. People have complained that we utilize smaller, weaker, yet quicker linemen to run this system, but I would like to point out that this really isn't the case at all.

I have done a comparison of the offensive lines in the NFC East, two of which utilize a zone blocking scheme(or at least use aspects of it), and two with more traditional RULE blocking schemes.

Below is the breakdown of the height and weights of the projected starting offensive lines in the NFL East. Mind you, this is a working lineup, and some could be subjected to change prior to the season starting.

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Looks like RG3 will get along with Trent and Fred just fine. Griffin was spotted with Snoop Dogg Saturday night for an endorsement for Adidas. He retweeted this video from Snoop himself. It's not a very significant happening, but just from the fact that Snoop is wearing a Rastafarian hat w/ hippie glasses I get a feeling the news will stir this as Griffin being easily impressionable or some stupid shit like that.

During a slow news steam like in the year anything could probably pass for news.

Who the hell cares about Kevin Garnett? Fan favorite and Redskins great, London Fletcher is turning 37 today. This argument against age slowing players down in the NFL just keeps getting better as time goes on. A staple to our (slowly, but) still improving defense. If we could ask him one question it would probably be "What fountain of youth are you and Ray Lewis bathing in?" (of course not together..... they wouldn't fit. Just imagine those two huge guys in a tub/fountain together)

Here's to our jolliest of good fellows. The Last of the Over the Hill Gang!

If there is one thing that I'm sure about it's that every one of us are excited for the season to start. With our new (potential) franchise quaterback, receivers that know how to receive AND run afterwards and what people call a "playoff ready" defense we have the makings of an exciting team. Well I'm here to give you floties so you won't drown in your Kool Aid.

Our first game, which all of you know, will be against the Saints. Last year they ranked 13th in run defense, not too shabby, while ranking a whopping 30th in pass D. When you look at that you say "Bombs Away". What we seriously have to remember and repeatedly ignore all the time is that RG3 has never read an NFL defense. A similar thing has happened 4 years ago with the case of Mark Sanchez. The Jets were not known to be a passing team. They were known as a ground and pound/ tough defense team. Their QB happened to not be a f*ck-up and they made it to the AFC championship with a Rookie at QB.

This is the main reason I think our games will be slow. While the Redskins are busy bringing in our new rookie along slowly (hopefully) they'll probably be boring us to death. Just go back to last year and look at Andy Dalton's early games. I'm undoubtedly sure none of them will have you on the edge of your seat. If you think of rookie QB success your first thought should be AFC North quarterbacks. All of their teams had similar records when they brought in their franchise players.

• Baltimore Ravens w/ Joe Flacco: 2007 season 5-11, 2008 season 11-5; starting RB Ray Rice
• Pittsburgh Steelers w/ Ben Roethlisberger: 2003 season 6-10; 2004 season 15-1; starting RB Jerome Bettis
• Cincinnati Bengals w/ Andy Dalton: 2010 season 4-12; 2011 season 9-7; starting RB Cedric Benson

Now I'm not comparing Helu and Royster to Bettis and Rice, but the central point is that we're most likely going have a run based attack. The problem is our runners are prone to injury. Compared to other teams we are much better with the RBBC approach. We have Hightower (the closest thing to an all purpose back), Helu (the closest thing to an explosive back), Royster (a change of pace back) and Young/Morris (b/w the tackle and blocking backs).

All in all Griifin should have a better rookie season than say, a Blaine Gabbert or Heath Shuler. What he probably wont do is have a Cam Newton season.

I have been hearing a lot of rumors lately that RGIII can in fact hover...

Is this the case? After watching Leno last night I'm not sure that there is anything he can't do. Will they have to put in new rules to stop him from hovering? Can they even implement new rules after the season has started?

Another question I have is, who would win in a fight, Chuck Norris or RGIII? What about in a math competition?

Thank the Lord for whomever invented fantasy football. I look forward to my fantasy draft every single year.

The fantasy draft symbolizes the NFL season is near. It’s like Christmas Eve before the week one games.

But, unlike some of my better prepared players, I just get really drunk and start picking Redskins players around the 4th round. "Oh Santana Moss is available! Take that shit bitches, he’s having a comeback year. 2005 all over again. WHAT WHAT!"

Then the next day I look at my roster like you look at a fat girl in your bed after a night of Jager. MISTAKE! All my friends are laughing at me and I don’t feel good, plus I should probably go to a clinic of some sort.

Won’t happen this year. I’ll try to stay sober and make wise picks. But if I don’t , let’s see how Pro Football Focus has rated our beloved Redskins for the upcoming fantasy season, shall we?

Robert Griffin III :

PFF has rated the Redskins’ new quarterback 8th overall in their fantasy rankings. He is projected to throw for 3,749 yards, 23 TDs and 20 INTs. Also he is projected to rush for 579 yards and 4 TDs.

To put his fantasy projection into perspective, he is between Peyton Manning at seven and Matthew Stafford at nine.

Excuse me for a minute… *grabs lotion* *pap pap pap pap pap pap*…Okay, I’m bbbbback. Fuck, the keyboard got sticky.

The eighth best quarterback should go in what, like the third round or something?

I would take him in the first round.

Roy Helu Jr. :

Mike Shanahan can ruin your fantasy football wetdream. I do not recommend drafting a Shanahan running back under any circumstances.

Why? Because you think he’s about to start Roy Helu, and Roy will go off for 148 yards and a TD.

Shanahan waits until 12:00 on gameday, once your roster is set to throw in Ryan Torain…who sucks.

But in case you were wondering what Helu is projected to do by PFF, here it is.

830 rushing yards and 7 TDs, and 36 receptions for 249 yards and 1 TD.

Fred Davis :

Players shouldn’t be suspended for smoking pot. If anything they should be recognized for extra effort. I mean, imagine getting paranoid, hiding under your bed covers high…then playing football in front of 80,000 people and a coach yelling in your face. HOLY SHIT! I would freak out and wonder if the camera guy is focusing on me because he knows I’m high.

Kudos to Fred Davis.

Anyway, Freddy Fred ranks as PFF’s 10th best fantasy tight end. they have him pegged for 65 catches, 768 yards and 5TDs. Personally, I think he’ll have better numbers than that, but not bad.

Pierre Garcon :

I have a couple of friends that take fantasy way too seriously. If I call them in August it goes something like this,

"Yo, Dougie Doug. What’s up man?"

"Chillin. Just doing this fantasy mock draft."

"Oh, you’re doing a FANTASY MOCK DRAFT? I was sure that you would be knocking boots with some dime piece instead. Well, have fun. I’m going to get drunk."

He’s the type of guy that tells me I drafted Pierre Garcon too early. Which I will. And I don’t care. It’s my fantasy team.

I don’t care if PFF ranks him as the 39th best receiver in fantasy. I’m taking him in the fifth round.

I know it’s slow moving in the NFL in the spring. But enjoy boys and girls! HTTR.

Be sure to read more of my stuff @ www.theburgundywarpath.com

Since Jenkins was lost so early last year, someone said this second round pick can become the 2012 second round pick. There is truth to that, except we already know that this second round pick will not be a bust. Redskins fans got a chance to see offensive lines cave with this big 309 lb 6' 4" beast barreling down on them. Although much was made of his Clemson teammate Da' Quan Bowers, it became evident in preseason play that Bowers might have benefited by having Jarvis Jenkins next to him.

As a fan, I am extremely excited about the prospect of his return to the Redskins defense for a few reasons. First, I absolutely love the way this rookie handled his adversity. Instead of rehabilitating at home in SC, he chose to remain with his teammates. Secondly, unlike most rookies, though he is still young, he has spent the past year studying film and learning the defense. Third, in an interview with Brian Tinsman Jarvis reveals a tenacious attitude, which is needed at DE in the NFL. He says, “I’m a run-stopper, I’m physical at the point of attack,” he said at his Draft day conference call with the D.C. media. “I can play double teams, I can beat double teams, I’ve been seeing them all through Clemson.” In an another interview with the Washington Times Jarvis says, "I'm going to be a 10 times better player than I was before."

Just think, for the first time in a while, we will have major play makers (game changing play makers) on both sides of the ball. While RG3 is giving Defensive Coordinators fits, Jenkins, Coefield and Kerakpo will be giving fits to the O-lines as well as Tony Homo and Vicks Vapor Rubs.

This year's prospects bring a lot of excitement and hope of winning some games. Vegas has us only winning 4 games this season, I think they will be proved wrong by the new Beast of the East, Washington!

By Mark Pierce

The NFL parlance is chock-a-block filled with phraseology that concerns in one way or another what has come to be known as “building a championship franchise.” If you listen carefully, you can hear that’s the way it is said. Often with a tinge of bravado. The verb building is always used. ”They’re building the right way.” or ” This team has been built from the bottom up.” And don’t forget rebuilding. As in, “don’t expect too much out of them this year, they’re rebuilding.” The metaphor is particularly apt, emphasizing as it does the sort of de facto construction process teams experience.

Rebuilding is a normal occurrence for all NFL teams. Players age, performance diminishes, stars become former stars. The good franchises always seem to keep their down years to a minimum. One can point to the Steelers, or the Giants, or the Patriots, or any number of other well respected teams as examples of franchises that manage this.

But the Washington Redskins have been under construction for over twenty years. To say that they have encountered an unusual number of setbacks in their hopeful fabrication of a championship franchise is to be kind. Fans have seen it all, and are for the most part repulsed by even casual usage of the word rebuild. The sound of it summons the sour stench of losing.

In those two decades, the Washington Redskins became the butt of a cruel league joke. They lost and they lost again, often ignominiously. They became losers. In the wake of mounting frustration, a culture of losing developed which then became resistant to even the best intentioned efforts to change it. And that is the primary alteration the Washington Redskins had to effect before any meaningful growth could occur. A cultural transformation had to take place.

Enter Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen in 2010. In short order, bench warmers and neer-do-wells were shown the door. At the first training camp, the thing everyone commented on was how different the experience was from those of previous administrations, in particular of the one immediately preceding it. There was order. Exceptions, even for stars, were not made. These guys were in charge.

It certainly wasn’t perfect; see Albert Haynesworth, Donovan McNabb. But for all that there was a growing sense that the Redskins were headed in the right direction. Now, with the drafting of Robert Griffin III, the promise of great teams ahead is in the air. The foundation has been laid. Only fifteen players from the pre-Shanahan-Allen era are still on the roster. Those guys will tell you: the culture has been changed.

As a fan, I am grateful to the organization. I can hold my head up in a public discussion of football again. Living as I do amidst throngs of Patriots fans, that’s important to me. More importantly, it matters to Redskin fans everywhere.

OK while we are in the long slow offseason rumination mode I thought I would check out the success rate for NFL draftees by round. Bad idea, depressing stats. But I have an idea why McRib will be fairly effective, and it is at least partially based on statistics...more after the jump

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I'm always fascinated to observe how offenses and defenses are constantly evolving and adapting to leverage every possible advantage on the field. In today's NFL, the advantage favors the offenses because of the current league rules; wide receivers no longer need to grapple against corners while route running, and refs are protecting quarterbacks and receivers to avoid unnecessary hits. Defenses are still struggling to find the balance of playing aggressively against the pass and doing so within the rules, but defensive positions are changing too.

Two particular positions on defense that are evolving are at safety and middle linebacker. Concerning the former, you may have already seen and heard how safeties are being asked to do more now than ever before. Traditionally, defenses employed two different versions of this position on the field, one for coverage and the other for run-stopping. However, the versatility of tight ends and running backs has changed all that. More after the jump..

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