Everyone's favorite syndicated deep-thinking radio host, Colin Cowherd, spent several minutes focused on the Redskins yesterday, and while the results may have been as enlightening as a Lehman Brothers seminar on fiscal responsibility, they're nevertheless worth noting. Because, of course, Cowherd's show airs locally on ESPN 980, the official Jury Duty provider of Sports Bog content and the flagship station of Daniel Snyder's media empire.

And so even as some folks in that media empire's constellation continue to flail away on behalf of the maroon and black, Cowherd has set himself up as a Redskins antagonist, albeit one who's salary is indirectly and partially paid by the team's owner.

The crux of his complaint, aired yesterday morning, went like this:

"I've been critical of the Redskins for a lot of reasons," he said. "One, go look at their last seven, eight drafts. Weak. Way below average. Daniel Snyder has overpaid, in my opinion, he has not paid attention to the draft as much as he should, and he has overpaid for free agents. There are certain signs with the team I'm not in love with. I don't think you should be putting front-office personnel on the air, I think that's problematic. I don't think the Patriots or Steelers would do that.

"That said, it's not my team. Not my radio station. But, I've been critical of the Redskins this year...I pretty much buried them, played funeral music for the Redskins after Week 1. But there's a reason I did that, and that is I do not believe they have the playmakers to compete with Dallas, Philadelphia and the Giants.

"Ok, through three games: Dallas 96 points, Philadelphia 90, Giants 83, Redskins 60. that's a problem. And you have to remember, the Cowboys have scored 96 points, and that's against the Packers and Eagles defense, two of the best in the NFC, especially the Eagles defense. So the Cowboys are scoring a ton of points and they've played two really premier NFL defenses. So it's nothing against the Redskins. Their division is brutal, they have the worst quarterback in the division, they have the freshest youngest coach, they don't have enough playmakers and yes, some of their front-office signs to me are problematic over the last seven, eight years."

While I wouldn't necessarily use Week 3 points scored to judge a team's number of playmakers (Colts: 52 points), there's nothing terribly controversial here. In fact, there weren't really any classic Cowherd moments until after the break, when he had evidently heard from some irritated Skins fans and decided to re-visit the issue.

"I'm getting all the Redskins people who think I just pick on their team here," he said. "And I said it before, you look at their drafts and I don't love their drafts. And who are their three best players right now? Jason Taylor, he's hurt. The three best talents on that roster are who, Jason Taylor, uhhh, Clinton Portis? Ok, Jason Taylor free agent, uhhhh Clinton Portis came over, you know, was that a free agent or a trade? Randle El came from the Steelers. Uhh, who's the other, Santana Moss? Trade. I mean, the only really star they have from the draft, and I wouldn't even say star, I think emerging star is the Landry kid from LSU, the safety. Jason Campbell's not a star. Give me a break. I mean, c'mon, give me a break."

(Fyi to team staffers: file "Cowherd" just before "Czaban" and just after "Canfora, La" in the "Enemies" folder. You're welcome.)

Look, I certainly couldn't speak wisely on the three best players for, say, the 49ers, nor would I or anyone else try to defend the Redskins' recent draft history, nor does this feel like the best week to defend the Redskins from media bullies, much less media bullies who appear on Redskins media properties. But that was idiotic, even considering the source.

Randle El one of the team's three best players? Landry the only star from the draft? Of the team's three offense/defense Pro Bowlers last year--Chris Cooley, Chris Samuels and Sean Taylor--all three were drafted by the team. Two are still on the team, and I wouldn't blame the front-office for not longer having Taylor, a man that Cowherd has likely heard of. Can't way to see what rating FactCheck.org gives to this segment, and I guess the Redskins get a small dose of credit for allowing a national host to spew nonsense about them on their own network.

(And speaking of the network, here's what Cowherd had to say about that: "When when I used to work in local radio I never liked being on the stations that had the rights to the teams, because you always had to be nicer to the teams. I wanted to be on the station with no rights, then I could just take on everybody, be honest about everybody....

"There are guys who do local work who are not afraid to sling some arrows, and that's great. And we respect those people, and we know who they are. And, you know, what has happened in Washington D.C. is, the guy who owns the Redskins owns the radio station.

"And it's tough, that's a tough spot to be in. He's paying your salary. You've got to be kind of careful, careful when you're in D.C. if you're too critical of the Redskins, Daniel Snyder may just say, 'You're out of there.' But that said, the people on that station have been fairly critical of the Redskins, as they should be.")