Washington Football Team: Are ESPN analyst’s expectations for WFT realistic?

Though the Washington Football Team made seismic changes to its offense this offseason, everybody knows this roster was built to win by playing suffocating defense.

Last season, they finished fourth in the NFL in points allowed per game (20.6), second in total yards conceded (304.6), second in passing yards (191.6) and fifth in sacks at 2.9 per game.

In the front office’s defense, Washington’s defense is loaded at almost every position — with linebacker being the only question mark — so they didn’t have to be aggressive in free agency.

When the dust settled, the only high-end addition they made was in the form of cornerback William Jackson, who spent the first four years of his career overlooked with the Bengals and should be a perfect complement opposite former third-rounder Kendall Fuller.

Will Jackson be the finishing piece to the Football Team’s defense? ESPN analyst Dan Orlovksy certainly seems to think so, because he thinks Washington’s defensive unit makes them the biggest threat to the reigning champion Buccaneers in the NFC.

Is Orlovsky being realistic or delusional here?

ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky has high expectations for the Football Team’s defense.

This is exactly what makes Orlovsky such a polarizing figure amongst NFL fans. He normally makes strong points in his arguments but, more often than not, finishes them off with an outlandish opinion that just destroys all of his credibility.

While Washington’s defense clearly has best-in-the-league potential, did Orlovsky really have to put the team as a whole in the same class as Tampa Bay?

Absolutely not, and we say that despite how well they performed against the Buccaneers in the playoffs last season. Let’s keep in mind the Football Team will likely start a quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who’s never started a playoff game in his 16-year career.

Anyway, let’s get back to Orlovksy’s comments on WFT’s defense, because that’s something actually worth debating. In our eyes, his expectations for the unit are spot on.

For starters, with Chase Young, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne and Montez Sweat leading the charge, Washington clearly has the best defensive line in the league.

If you can get after opposing quarterbacks, you’re gonna put yourself in a great position to win games, and the Football Team’s DL flaunts four players with star potential.

Getting beyond that, however, 2021 first-round pick Jamin Davis is an excellent addition to the linebacker room alongside Jon Bostic and Cole Holcomb.

Throw Jackson — who, while he doesn’t post big interception numbers, is a premier lockdown cornerback — and a rejuvenated Landon Collins into the mix, and you simply have all the ingredients of a defense that could be elite at all three levels.

Having said that, can we see the offense perform in a regular season game before we throw around predications that Washington is the biggest NFC threat to Tampa Bay, please?