Washington Football Team: Week 1 Reality Checks for Washington vs Chargers

After what always seems like an eternity, the football calendar does turn, every year, from offseason to regular season. And this week, the Washington Football Team launches into a season with the consensus view of them being more optimistic than they’ve seen in quite a while. And while some optimism always goes beyond reality, there certainly is no shortage of reasons for fans to be thinking the arrow is pointing up for this franchise.

The Football team is the defending NFC East champion. They have upgraded dramatically at quarterback, wide receiver, cornerback, and linebacker, and unless you’re overly worried about Camaron Cheeseman in the long snapper role, it’s hard to find any areas where they took a step back from a season ago.

Now, while their 2020 season was a dramatic over-performance versus expectations, it certainly wasn’t without major blemishes. The run defense was abysmal, the quarterback play was erratic and nerve-wracking for a variety of reasons, and the team was historically lucky in the slate of quarterbacks they faced, leading to some inflated results (if you can call 7-9 inflated). So anyone looking back on last season as the foreshadowing of a Super Bowl run in 2021-22 is looking with the kind of Burgundy-and-Gold-colored glasses they only give out to the most egregious of cases of Ashburn Syndrome. The roster is good…but don’t get caught thinking it’s great.

Washington was lucky to end up in the playoffs last season. This franchise has a history of failing to stack winning seasons. They have a journeyman quarterback and the worst owner in professional sports.

And yet, with all of that said, last season was a building block; one on which this franchise has the opportunity to stack some real progress this season. So, without further ado, we’re off for another season of Washington Football Team Reality Checks. Let’s jump into our WFT Reality Checks for Week 1.