What Might Have Been

There was an "almost famous" country song some years ago by the band Little Texas called "What Might Have Been". In that song, the lyrics say, "you can't look back again, there's no use giving in, there's no way to know, what might have been".

This could be the theme for the first six games of the Washington Redskins 2012 season.

We entered the season with renewed hope resting on the shoulders of our new signal caller Robert Griffin III, and our new-and-improved offense we fit in around him. Our defense, although a bit changed on the back-end, was still considered a strength of the team. Boy how a preseason and five games can change that.

The wonderful front-office brass leading this team, went into the off-season with one thing in mind: Get more explosive on offense. That happened, but because of this, we may have overlooked other important parts of this team. Offensive line starters and depth were a major issue, and that depth was not addressed with a quality free agent, or a high draft pick. Instead, it was left to chance(Brown's hip), and a few later round rookies. Well, we got burnt badly when the five grueling days a week of intense Yoga did not pay off in the healing of a 31 year-old's hip. Brown went out, Polumbus came in, and we revert back to the lyrics of the song...........what might have been. Had Brown been healthy, or had we more adequately addressed the position in the off-season knowing that Yoga was not going to do the trick, we may never have had to witness Jordan Black entering the game against the Bengals, and getting "Justiced".........yeah, this is a new verb used when a linemen gets abused by a defender in a game, because Polumbus would have then been a swing tackle, and although he's far from great, I imagine he certainly would have done a better job than Black.

What might have been if our new number one receiver Pierre Garcon hadn't have gotten injured in his first game with the Redskins, causing him to miss most of the next five games with us? We could have used him against the likes of the mighty Rams and Bengals, where our receivers totaled 206 and 221 yards respectively in both losses. Maybe he could have been a target late in the game against Tampa Bay.

What might have been if Brian Orakpo hadn't torn his pec, and Adam Carriker han't blown out his knee early in the season? Would we have been able to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks, without compromising our secondary by bringing full-house blitzes, and playing cover zero? Would Sam Bradford, Andy Dalton, Josh Freeeman, Matt Ryan and Christian Ponder have had the time to sit in the pocket like they did?

What might have been if Brandon Meriweather hadn't injured his knee in a meaningless preseason game, then only have it re-injured two weeks ago in a freak accident in pregame warmups? What might have been if Tenard Jackson wasn't so stupid, and didn't get suspended for the year for his violation of the leagues substance abuse policy? We could have had two decent safeties on the back end of our defense, and maybe not allowed such gaudy numbers to the likes of Brees, Bradford, Dalton, Freeman, Ryan and Ponder.

All this being said, we are 3-3, and one game back in our division. That one game deficit can be made up this weekend with a win over our division rival New York Giants.

Injuries are part of the game, and suspensions happen. This is just something that you have to live with in the NFL, but it still begs the question that I have been asking throughout this post............what might have been?

Alas, this article would not be complete without one more question: What if we didn't give up all those picks to acquire Robert Griffin III in the 2012 draft? Would we even have won a game this season?

What might have been........................