Stay with me for a moment, and that isn't entirely true. Depending on who you ask, the Redskins were the 13th or 14th best offense in the league last year. I am indebted to Ryan Wilson at Fanhouse for catching this DC Sports Bog post I had somehow missed last week (but nothing gets by Ben). A direct quote from Al Saunders reveals the importance of Algebra in our offensive philosophy:
I'd say "in all seriousness bla bla bla..." but things were hardly serious after Saunders explained his complicated easy complicated who knows(?) playbook, which he quickly taught The Times' David Elfin, drawing the ire of Covering the Redskins' Bram Weinstein:
"If you're signing him, I'm holding out of camp," Triple X ESPN Radio's Bram Weinstein said.
"I'm more reliable," Elfin protested.
"Yeah, you might be, but I'm a gamebreaker," Weinstein countered.
"This is why it just cracks me up when all you guys make fun of that playbook, okay?"
The optimist in me has diarrhetic dismissal for all those conclusions, and I can only proceed as though Al Saunders isn't giving his offensive genius enough credit. However much I appreciate his point -- it must be terribly frustrating to read snarky comments about his 700 page playbook all season -- this offense is, despite David Elfin's seeming ability to learn it in half an hour, sophisticated. My hopes for offensive explosion in 2007 remain unabated as we are still learning. I am also going to try to refrain from attacking our '06 offense, that criticism typically manifested as an X paged convoluted tomb (who am I kidding, though? I've taken my shots at it), because, frankly, I think we did a pretty damn good job last year considering the circumstances. Mark Brunell couldn't throw the ball downfield, we transitioned to a brand spanking new quarterback, we lost our starting RB and WR for stretches, and yet still finished in the top half of the league offensively.
That said, this time next year there won't be any excuses. Let's hope none are needed.