2009 Fantasy Recap – Washington Redskins

The Redskins- We have to take a moment to pay our dues to the Jim Zorn era.  It was one of the most disastrous personnel moves in NFL history, it tormented one of the country’s best fan bases, and proved why not just anyone could coach an NFL team.  Thanks Jim, for the laughs… and for sabotaging the fantasy potential of Clinton Portis with your inept offensive schemes.

2009 showed that Clinton Portis is officially old, despite being only 29. Yes, he went down to injury, but he was only averaging 4.0 yards per carry before he did so, vs. a 4.5 YPC in his career.   He’s healthy now, and will be running in a Mike Shanahan RBBC.  He could bounce back to fantasy relevance in 2010.

Santana Moss took dips in every statistic that matter to a fantasy WR in 2009, although he’s been dosing on the HGH all off-season, so we expect him to improve.  He played in all 16 games and didn’t finish inside the top 30 fantasy WRs.  That’s not cool at all.

Jason Campbell had the best fantasy statistical numbers of his career in 2009, throwing for 3,618 yards, 20 TDs, 15 INTs, as well as rushing for 236 yards and a score.  He was rewarded with a trade to Oakland for a measly 4^th round draft pick in 2012.  Ouch. 

Chris Cooley suffered a season-ending injury early on, but Fred Davis stepped in and the passing game didn’t skip a beat.  

Passing Offense  

Rushing Offense  

2010 Offensive Line Analysis

Washington Redskins 2010 Oline analysis – provided by UltimateFFstrategy.com

2010 Offensive Philosophy

The Redskins made some big changes after another disappointing season going 4-12. 

The Shanahans are back!  Dan Snyder opened the checkbook, once again, to hire offensive genius Mike Shanahan.  His hire was also a buy one get one free deal because Shanahan brought his son Kyle with him to run the offense.  Don’t sleep on Kyle just because of the nepotism, he was the mastermind behind the offensive surge in Houston for the past two years. 

AIR: There is new life in the Washington passing game with Donovan McNabb at the helm and with the Shanahans running the show.  He doesn’t have the young speedy receivers he did in Philly (nor his youth anymore) but Santana Moss should have a years worth of gas left in the tank.  In Philly, McNabb did a nice job getting young guys like DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin involved so he should help Devin Thomas’ development better than Jason Campbell ever did.  Cooley is coming back from breaking his ankle but everything points to him having a great year.  Before the injury year Cooley was in top 10 TE fantasy points for 4 straight years and now he has a better quarterback who loves the tight end just as much (McNabb targeted Celek 112 times last year).

GROUND: The Redskins are now a halfway house for washed up running backs. Their roster includes Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson, and Willie Parker.  Portis has the most left in the tank out of all of them and is getting a lot of praise in training camp for being in the best shape of his career.  What looks good for Portis is that he has thrived in Shanahan’s system before in 02 & 03 where he finished as the 4^th and 5^th best running back.  Larry Johnson will command some snaps away after having a very solid off-season; he is said to be looking better than Portis by some who are following the ‘skins closely.  Portis should still be the guy, but Shanny did invent the RBBC for all intents and purposes.

QB

Donovan McNabb - This is a tough one. He's still got gas left in the tank, and will be learning a new offense. Shanny offenses have been solid fantasy-wise historically, but not necessarily to QBs.  He loses a little something on the target front as Santana Moss is old and Devin Thomas has yet to prove he can ball w/ the best consistently.  He'll have dependable targets in Cooley and backup Fred Davis.  Devin Thomas is a kid to watch in the first half of pre-season games (i.e. when McNabb is playing). At 6'2 215lbs, he's got the size to be a force in this league, and showed a slight glimmer of this in a 100 yard 2 TD game toward the end of last season. He fore-went his senior year in college for the NFL, so his slow start is to be expected. McNabb finds himself in unfamiliar surroundings, with a slightly lesser pass catching corps. The difference? One giant inter-division chip on his shoulder. He'll be looking to stick it to the entire city of Philadelphia for shipping him out of town. 

RB

Clinton Portis - I have been ignoring Portis all summer long. I just finished up some research on him, and I went from shock to humbled quickly. I was shocked at all of the positive things being written about his chances this season - I think I read the infamous tagline "Portis showed up to camp in the best shape of his career" lines at least 12 times. I was mostly just scoffing and writing these lamebo comments off. Then I became humbled, because it all started to make sense, when it should have been obvious the entire time - hey, I may have a genius fantasy mind, but I didn't claim to be on fire at all times. Shanahan shipped Portis off to the Beltway in the first place and is now head coach in DC. Portis has been playing with a slew of weak QBs since he arrived in DC 6 seasons ago, and now he's got a stud in Donovan McNabb. That's motivation. But if that's not enough, ruminate on this... rather large portions of the 8 year $50 million contract that he signed in 2004 are coming up, including $7+ mill this season, $8+ mill in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Now, he has no shot in hell of seeing out the rest of this contract, but maybe this and next season is possible? Here's another nugget I thought of, how much strife was there between Jim Zorn and Portis over the last two seasons? A shitload. But let's come back down off our high and settle on this, Portis, though 29 years old, has the mileage of a 32 year old with his 2100+ carries. Is he good for another 300+ carries? No. Not with Willie Parker and Larry Johnson on the depth chart. But these days, he doesn't need 300+ carries to make him a solid RB2 for a fantasy squad. Give him 275 or so carries and 20-30 recepts (McNabb loves to dump that ball), and he can probably finish just outside the top 10 again. There are more exciting picks, yeah, but Portis is healthy and will bounce back in 2010.

Larry Johnson - He's my 2nd least favorite player in the league (trailing only Michael Vick), but if given a shot in DC, he would be a strong contributor to fantasy football squads this season.  Issue is, his only prayer for "a shot" is if Portis were to go down - which is a decent possibility - hence LJ's value is as a handcuff only in 2010.  He's hit the dreaded 30 year old mark in age, but has the mileage of only a 26-27 year old due to injury or having a $#!t attitude.  After being release from KC, he had a couple of old-school Larry moments in Cinci averaging 4.4 YPC while Cedric Benson was recovering from a hip injury.  If you land Portis, spend a late rounder on LJ.

WR

Santana Moss – Santana Moss had his knee scoped this off-season - the one that seems to hobble him annually over the last few years.  According to the news, he's been taking HGH (muscle stimulant) and his owners can only hope that's true, because this Moss will be playing with the most talented QB of his career this season in Donovan McNabb.  Moss can be considered a sleeper this year, because wherever his drafter gets him, there is plenty of upside.  He's only 31, and while he's battled myriad injuries in his career (shin splints, knee and back issues), he was able to remain fantasy relevant with Jason Campbell, Patrick Ramsey (sorta), and had a pro-bowl caliber year with Mark Brunell in 2005.  Don't be shocked at a little bounce back season for Santana.

Devin Thomas – Someone needs to step up on the 'Skins WR corps this season, because Santana Moss is in the twilight of his career.  Devin Thomas enters his 3rd season, and because of the "3rd year WR break out rule" he should have a fine season.  That was a joke. If he breaks out, it's going to be because McNasty is in town, and should be able to get him the ball w/ some level of consistency.   Thomas did not show much last season, so my expectations are tempered, but he's worth a shot at this point.

Malcolm Kelly - At this point in the draft, you should be gambling on guys who haven't had the chance to do anything in the league.  Kelly was a high draft pick just two seasons ago, and will now be catching balls from Donovan Mcnabb.  It' s a long shot, but work a late-round flier if you have WR room on your roster.

TE

Chris Cooley – While the arrival of McNabb goes directly in the "plus" section of Cooley's evaluation sheet, it's not enough for me to move him much up the stacks.  Fact remains, as I've said a few times already, TEs are way deep.  I'd be ecstatic to have Cooley as a backup, but if he were my starter, I would hope I'm sitting on plenty of firepower in other areas on my team.  He busted his ankle really badly in 2009 limiting him to 7 games, and that opened the door for Fred Davis to come into the picture and make an impact.  Cooley is the unquestioned starter, but Davis has earned snaps for 2010.  I look to the situation in New Orleans with David Thomas and Jeremy Shockey for comparison.  Don't buy into the McNabb hype.  Let's see how pre-season goes and go from there.

Fred Davis - Decent handcuff to Cooley if you are wasted in the last round of the draft and don't see anything better on the board - assuming you can see.

2010 Washington Redskins NFL Draft by Round

Click Here for the 2010 Washington Redskins Off-Season Movement Report!

Click here for our 2009 Analysis on the Washington Redskins - Published July 2009