Redskins Defense Not as Far Away as It Seems

I don't know what will happen to Skins' defense in 2017. But it's not as bad as it appears. In 2016, many times the D would stop the team impressively for two plays in a row, then yield a ridiculous third down conversion. The Skins cannot improve their defense radically with a few moves; it will take more than that. Mainly, they need better coaching. Then they need better talent on the line. If they can somehow find one DL who can congest the center, that is probably the one single greatest thing they can do in the offseason to take the biggest jump forward in overall quality. The rest, I'm afraid, will take time, talent and development.

Best scenario for the defense: Norman calms down, continues superior play. Breeland rebounds to 2015 form. McCloughan buys a nosetackle and drafts a first-rate DL; gets another two DL picks who actually do develop under new coach Tomsula's tutelage. Galette returns and plays well. Finally, Cravens develops into a good whatever-he-is. If all these things happen, and Skins offense resembles teams of 2015 and 2016, the defense will be above league average.

The Skins don't need much. They are a playoff team right now. To be a Super Bowl winner, they must develop either an above average defense or take their offense to the highest possible level, with Cousins developing his winnership skills, so to speak, or a truly killer RB developing so that the skins' offense is close to unstoppable. Then even an average or slightly below average defense will suffice.

There are no teams out there great on both sides of the ball because the rules make it impossible to pay for top talent at all positions. So every team will be lopsided. The Skins are an offensive team. Their thing is moving the ball easily and scoring points. That's not going to change, nor should it. Rather, that ability should be protected and improved. And if the defense can chip in some help, so much the better. But don't kid yourself the Skins are going to develop a killer defense; no, the story of the next five  years will be what the Skins offense can do, assuming Cousins is resigned, as they'd be crazy not to. Really, all the Skins need to do is become average on defense. And all that requires is stopping some runs up the middle, and preventing opponents from converting low-percentage third downs. Very doable. It will be very interesting to see what sort of results new DL coach Jim Tomsula can produce.