Redskins: Talented Players On Losing Teams Get Little Recognition by Diane Chesebrough

Since the hiring of head coach Mike Shanahan in 2010, the Washington Redskins have gone through two less-than-stellar seasons, posting 6-10 and 5-11 records respectively. While there has been improvement on the field, there has not been in the record and so fans and media have not had a lot to rave about. A majority of the time, the topic of conversation has been about players transitioning into new systems, a lack of depth at key positions and mediocre-to-poor quarterback play. Because of the problems that the team has had the last couple of years, players on the team who really deserve some recognition have gotten little or none. This isn’t because they’re bad players but because the bottom line (i.e., W-L record) overshadowed their individual talent.

Shanahan has this team going in the right direction, having both drafted and signed as free agents young, hungry, talented players that aren’t in Washington just for the paycheck. But it doesn’t matter how high a guy was drafted, how many points he scored in college, how fast he ran in the Combine or how well he did for his previous team. This is the NFL. Guys have to be good to get onto any team. But, other than the occasional highlights that are seen on ESPN and the NFL Network every Sunday night or Monday, if the team a player is on is not getting attention because of losing, the guys on the team are not likely going to get much attention either.

That’s a crying shame for some really talented guys on the Washington Redskins’ roster and hopefully, this season the situation will change for them.

Linebacker London Fletcher is one player that finally got some air time over the past couple of seasons because his accomplishments could not be ignored. The 37 year-old middle linebacker has 224 consecutive starts and 1,242 career tackles. Since his third year in the league (except for 2010 when he had 87) he has had no less than 90 tackles in any given season. But he still had to wait 13 years to make the Pro Bowl. This is, in part, because Fletcher is not a flamboyant, “Look-at-me-I’m-so-great!” type of player. It is also because the Redskins have not been winning and so his name was not mentioned on a regular basis during Prime Time, no matter what a beast he was on the field.

Running back Tim Hightower is a good example of another talented player who did not get much national attention. While only starting five games last season before going on Injured Reserve with a torn ACL, Hightower was on pace to have a good year, ending his season with a 3.8 yard-per-carry rushing average and total of 321 for five games he started. In comparison, Super Bowl winning New York Giants’ running back Ahmad Bradshaw – who played in 12 games – posted 659 total yards and had a yards-per-carry average of 3.9 on the season. Had Hightower stayed healthy the whole season, he might have had even better stats than Bradshaw, who averaged 54.9 per game. Hightower was on pace to average 64.2 yards per game.

Redskins’ receiver Anthony Armstrong, who one of his college coaches said was timed at 4.29 seconds in the 40-yard dash, has learned how to catch the ball since college and his combination of speed and ability is valuable. Listed at 5’ll”, he plays taller than that and, given the opportunity with an accurate, mobile quarterback, can make some plays.  Against the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers in 2010, number 13 went up against safety Charlie Pepraha and grabbed a nice 48-yard touchdown pass out of the air from then-quarterback Donovan McNabb. The Redskins ended up winning that game.

In the 2011 win against the Seattle Seahawks, the wide out caught a 50-yard pass from quarterback Rex Grossman to give the team the lead in the middle of the fourth quarter (the Seahawks were winning 17-7 at the time), beating Seattle cornerback Brandon Browner and pulling down the pass in the corner of the end zone.

Washington receivers Terrence Austin and Leonard Hankerson are just two players with talent who have not gotten many opportunities to show what they can do because of either injury or the numbers game.

Robert Griffin, III said to us during his introductory press conference back in April, “When you’re successful, people are going to want a part of you. They’re going to want to talk to you and see what’s going through your mind. I plan on being successful. I hope the Redskins – the teammates that I now have – will join me in that battle. Hopefully the spotlight – all the cameras and all the flashes – will get worse for everybody because that means we’re doing what we’re supposed to do and that’s win football games.”

If Washington does well this season, many Redskins players who have talent but have not had a lot of opportunity will get the recognition they deserve. Then perhaps theirs will become household names.

Hail.