Have the Redskins progressed or regressed since their season ended?

by Jamual Forrest

The Redskins to this point have had a significant amount of turnover with their coaches and they’re just 41 days into their offseason. Sean McVay has moved on to Los Angeles with the Rams, along with Joe Barry, Aubrey Pleasant, and sought after free agent coordinator Wade Phillips. Barry went to Los Angeles as linebackers coach after being fired (along with multiple members of the defensive staff) for a poor stint as the defensive coordinator for the Redskins. Pleasant left after reportedly receiving an underwhelming contract offer from Washington, and Wade seems to have chosen the Rams over the Redskins mainly due to lack of talent already on the defense. Both coordinators were replaced in-house, by quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh and outside linebackers coach Greg Manusky. Again, with such change just 41 days into the offseason, it begs the question: have the Redskins have progressed or regressed? Keep in mind, we haven’t even addressed the pending free agents yet.
It’s important to keep things in perspective. Although the season ended on what was indeed a terrible play, the season itself was not terrible. The team flourished offensively, which landed McVay his head coaching job. Secondly, with becoming a constant winner change is expected, positive change. Although talent-wise, Joe Barry was not given a fair shake, he was given two years to muster up competent play on his side of the ball and failed to do so. The defense actually regressed in the second year under his leadership. Gruden was left no choice but to fire Barry after the season’s end in an attempt to keep the respect of his players and for the sake of fans of the team. So, it must be noted, playoffs or not, there were going to be a multitude of changes being made this offseason.
Free agency presents the biggest issue: the Redskins have decisions to make on Kirk Cousins, Pierre Garcon, Desean Jackson, Vernon Davis, Chris Thompson, Ty Nsekhe, Will Compton, and Chris Baker, who all were big contributors to this 2016 season. The majority of these players have stated they want to be back in Washington but realistically, due to drastic upgrades needed defensively, all will not be back. Everything that has happened up until this point does not determine regression. All being said now is merely perception. The staff is indeed competent, but it’s not possible to say whether the Redskins have truly regressed or progressed prior to the signing or re-signing of players critical to success.
I would be naïve to not bring up the rumblings going on inside Redskins Park. Rumors state, via Washington Post Insider Mike Jones, Bruce Allen is putting Scot McCloughan on notice after two underwhelming offseasons, and an underwhelming 2017 can mean big trouble for all parties involved. The current stance (an indecisive one) on Cousins is troubling, and their reputation for not treating their own with respect (financially) is troubling as well, but we simply do not know the absolute truth of these situations until it is really time to start talking to pending free agents. Until this period, the Redskins have simply been stagnant and talks of regression or progression shouldn’t exist at this very moment.