Football Outsiders NFC East Offseason Review

Per Ryan Wilson. Typically I'd quote the entire Redskins section, though I'm beginning to suspect that's dishonest and want to encourage reader(s) to scope out the entire thing via a link to FO. Cliff notes go something like this:

1. Redskins had few draft picks.
   
2. Redskins failed to draft a DE or D-Linemen, which is questionable given their lack of a pass rush last year.
   
3. Jordan Palmer was a strange pick in the 6th round.
   
4. Tyler Ecker was not as good as Ben Patrick, and the 'Skins could've gotten Ben Patrick for just a bit more.
   
5. Sartz and Blades have a long ways to go towards making the team.
   
6. Offensive line depth is still a concern.

I think all are accurate, though I've grown apathetic towards our draft. I expressed concern over the defensive line throughout the offseason, though am willing to trust the coaching staff's apparent peachy assessment of it, given their refusal to address it in free agency or the draft. If Coach Gibbs thinks the D-Line is fine, I'm not going to second guess him. He's been wrong before; I'm wrong all the time. 2007 represents an excellent accountability opportunity as the entire free world graded our D-Line an F except our coaching staff, who passed them. If Gibbs survives conventional wisdom, that tells us something about the latter relative to the former. Ditto on the swap. It is infrequent that there is such a huge disconnect between what an NFL staff thinks and the rest of the league/observers think, though here's to hoping the Redskins are vindicated.

But we did get a defensive end: