More of The Same Works for Redskins
Intact Roster Leads To Winning Streak

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Much of the rest of the NFL looked at the NFC East in the offseason and saw depth and talent. Dallas had Tony Romo, Terrell Owens and Marion Barber making up a terrifying offense. Philadelphia had a healthy Donovan McNabb at quarterback, multi-talented Brian Westbrook out of the backfield and cornerback Asante Samuel as an impact free agent. And the New York Giants had a Super Bowl trophy.

The conclusion: The Washington Redskins were the easy pick for last place in a division stocked with playmakers.

The Redskins themselves, though, found it necessary to reiterate one point. "We went to the playoffs last year," wide receiver Santana Moss said yesterday in a tone that indicated he believes people forgot. "I mean, come on."

Off to a 4-1 start that most of the league considers surprising, the Redskins are still reminding others of the four-game winning streak that capped off last season and put the team in the playoffs. With all the offseason tumult -- Joe Gibbs's sudden retirement, a lengthy coaching search that led to Jim Zorn -- that salient fact was easy to forget.

"That's why we didn't do a lot," executive vice president for football operations Vinny Cerrato said.

They didn't pursue a major free agent. Their most significant veteran addition came in the form of defensive end Jason Taylor, who was acquired in a trade with Miami only after defensive ends Phillip Daniels and Alex Buzbee went down with season-ending injuries on the first day of training camp.

The same team that finished 9-7 and lost a first-round playoff game at Seattle was left intact to come back and try to improve under a first-year head coach. An approach that might have seemed out of character is now being praised by the players.

"For us," fullback Mike Sellers said, "it's all about keeping continuity."

Cerrato said that was a contributing factor in the Redskins' lack of activity in an offseason that featured a weak free agent class.

"In free agency, there wasn't anything that was out there where we thought it was worth paying what was being asked," he said.

So rather than pursuing other players, they restructured the contracts of several veterans -- among them running back Clinton Portis -- so they could keep the roster together. Their only significant inquiry was for Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Ocho Cinco, who had vowed not to play for the Bengals, but trade talks didn't yield a deal. Of the players on the 53-man roster now, 10 arrived in 2005 or earlier, 10 more in 2006. That core of veterans includes 13 starters.

"We have a good locker room," Cerrato said. "When you have good guys and a good locker room that [has] good players, why change? And usually the most successful teams have the least amount of turnover. We thought we could compete with these guys."

Given the start to the season, which includes wins at Philadelphia and Dallas, players said yesterday the organization's self-evaluation made sense.

"You get used to playing with guys," said cornerback Shawn Springs, who was a seven-year starter with Seattle before he signed as a free agent in 2004. "You know what to expect from guys and how other guys are going to play. You know what you're going to get from guys. We're not guessing"

That, players and coaches said, makes handling newcomers easier. The Redskins have 10 rookies on their active roster. None is a first-round pick, and only one, safety Chris Horton, is making a consistent impact. The three second-round picks from this draft -- wide receivers Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly and tight end Fred Davis -- have six catches combined.

"We added depth in the draft," Cerrato said. "We didn't think we had a lot of starting positions open."

Still, some veterans said the presence of all those first-year players adds something of an edge to practice.

"To me, this is the first time with this team where the young guys came in, and they were just going to be the impact [players], be the guys that are going to help us go to the next level," Moss said. "Before you get a couple of young guys, and two might make it. One of them [is] going to be a player, the other one [is] going to just be around. This year, you could spot four or five guys that you say, 'They're going to play and be players at some point.' "

That hasn't happened to the level where the rest of the league sees an impact, other than with Horton, a seventh-round draft choice who has three interceptions and is now the starting strong safety.

Thomas caught two balls in Sunday's win over the Eagles. But he also was involved in a play that shows the togetherness of the veteran core. After the Redskins took the lead in the third quarter, they were driving again when Campbell completed a third-down pass to Moss. Thomas was called for pass interference because he began blocking his defensive back too early.

"I just wanted to rip on him, maybe just to make me feel good," Zorn said. "But as I started, I just backed off because everybody else was on him. All of our players were on him, because he chose to do something individually opposed to what we were doing as a team."

So five weeks in, the Redskins are quite comfortable with who they have and how they're going about their work. The assembling of this roster, though, does not necessarily represent an organizational shift in philosophy.

"It's what happened this offseason," Cerrato said. Thus far, it has yielded results that might remind people where Washington ended up last season. Now, the hope is that approach will allow them to go further this year.

"Just being able to know that the guy beside you that you're playing with, you can trust he's going to be where he's supposed to be or do what he's supposed to do," Sellers said. "That trust factor's there with everybody. We knew we could compete with who's here."