Redskins barely missed a top-10 offseason, per ESPN rankings

The Washington Redskins ranked 11th overall in ESPN’s offseason rankings.

The 2020 offseason was a momentous one for the Washington Redskins. It signified a new era that was to be ushered in to start the 2020s. They moved on from Jay Gruden and interim head coach Bill Callahan in favor of Ron Rivera, who found success during his nine-year run with the Carolina Panthers. And in the front office, Bruce Allen was ousted in favor of Kyle Smith who is set to work collaboratively with Rivera moving forward.

Those changes were just the tip of the iceberg. From there, Rivera worked on bringing a lot of fresh blood into the roster. A lot of depth was added and the team has no shortage of potential role players available. While they may not be very competitive in 2020, they’re set up for future success beyond this season and have a chance for their young pieces to grow and for other contributors to emerge.

The Redskins plan is getting some love from plenty of NFL analysts, and that includes ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. He rated the Redskins as having the 11th-best offseason in the league and gave this reasoning as to why they were worthy of this spot.

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"Washington landed Ron Rivera as its new coach, and the two-time Coach of the Year went right to work attempting to fix the defense. Washington brought back Kendall Fuller, reunited Rivera with longtime Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis, and took one-year fliers on defensive backs Sean Davis and Ronald Darby and linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis. The secondary has been a mess in Washington for years, and moving on from Josh Norman likely qualifies as addition by subtraction. The team topped the transformation off by using the No. 2 overall pick on pass-rusher Chase Young."

The word “transformation” is probably the most appropriate way to describe what happened. And the No. 11 ranking is certainly fair. While the ‘Skins didn’t add a lot of top-tier talent, they added pieces that could potentially emerge for them. If they don’t, they’re on short-term deals that will afford the team to part ways with ineffective players. And armed with a ton of 2021 cap space, the Redskins will be able to fill their biggest remaining holes at that time.

As for why the Redskins didn’t rank higher than 11, Barnwell had some reasons:

The Kendall Fuller deal was a bit too rich for his liking
The Redskins sold low on Trent Williams and Quinton Dunbar
Washington didn’t upgrade their receiving weapons enough

We’ll agree to disagree on the Fuller signing — a price of $10 million per year for a versatile player who has excelled in the slot seems fair — but the other two points make sense. Barnwell acknowledged that Bruce Allen deserves blame for the Williams situation and that Dunbar was arrested for armed robbery recently, so it seems that he understands why the price for those two was driven down. But his criticism is fair.

As for the receiving weapons, that’s another fair point. The team probably should’ve found a way to add a veteran tight end or a veteran receiver better than Cody Latimer. That said, they have a lot of intriguing young talent at receiver in Terry McLaurin, Steven Sims, Kelvin Harmon, and Antonio Gandy-Golden, so if they progress, this perceived issue may not be too bad. But for the time being, the criticism here is understandable.

Next. Breaking down Redskins D-Line for 2020. dark

Overall, this take seems to be a sensible one. The Redskins had an above-average offseason and seem to be getting on the right track after some frustrating seasons. The fact that the Redskins rank ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants in these offseason rankings is a good sign as they look to become more competitive in the NFC East.

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