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Time to debate something positive and hopefully worthwhile: which returning Redskins veteran will make the biggest improvement year over year?
As we always do here (and on The Audible), we try and weed out a few options to focus the debate around the next best choices. For example, Preston Smith is widely considered to be one of ten or so players in the entire league that everyone expects to break out in a major way (pretty sure a recent ESPN Insider article ranked him #1). That kind of easy answer in our debate is no fun--for the most part we all agree. So...Preston Smith is not an option for today's specific debate.
In my own humble opinion, I think there is still a lot of meat left on the bone that is Kirk Cousins' game. Despite what he did down the stretch last year, there are still plenty of people both inside and outside of the beltway that believe Kirk is more game manager than game breaker. Let's holster that question today, and take Kirk off the table.
Let's also remove--for discussion purposes--any player that really didn't play last year. Junior Galette would not have to do much to top his 2015 season!
Before I toss out my top contenders, let me say that this roster is tantalizingly full of candidates in this debate. Holy crap is that cool. We are truly on the cusp of a genuine Golden Age of Redskins football.
I'll start with two guys you all have heard me talk about too much already: Jamison Crowder and Spencer Long. In short, I have Crowder as a 9-10 target per game receiver in this offense. If Long wins a starting OL job in camp, he will easily qualify as a top candidate for this title.
I don't want to steal all the best possible names, so I will just throw out one other before turning it over to you guys: Matt Jones. Between the fumbles and the less-than-stellar yards per carry (3.4) he racked up in 2015, there is some serious room for improvement. The spotlight will be on him, and the opportunity will be there for him to put together a pretty studly season.
Over/Under on legit candidates in this debate is 11.5, so have at it.