None
Even though, the Washington Redskins have managed to upgrade the roster from where it was last season, there is a realistic possibility that it won't be enough to for them to maintain their spot as the kings of the NFC East.This is because, during last season, the Redskins ran an offensive system where Kirk Cousins was primarily a game manager who was in charge of handing the ball off to the running backs and making the opposing defense pay for having eight men in the box against the running backs by calling some play action passes. Where they would fake the handoff to the running backs making the opposing defense believe that he going to run the ball. As a result, the opposing defense will keep the box stacked thus giving the Redskins receivers more man to man coverage and Kirk Cousins more open space on the field to lead his receivers to the ball which would have increased the likelihood of the pass being completed. This allowed the team to keep drives alive while forcing the opposing team to put more players in coverage to decrease the likelihood of the offense scoring a substantial amount of points in a short period of time thus giving the running backs room to run the ball again. The combination of these factors enabled the offense to stay on the field for a prolonged period of time in fact,during last season the offense was on the field for an average of 31:29 minutes. This means that the defense received the proper rest between drives which enabled them to have enough energy to execute a properly tackle to a player when they are running with the ball or being able to keep up with wide receivers.
However, one would expect that the Redskins are going to severely alter their offensive system for this upcoming season because the organization wants to see if Cousins is the type of player who deserves a franchise quarterback contract. Which means that the Redskins are going to go from a run heavy offense to more of a passing offense in order to elevate his decision making and ability to make all the throws without having the running game to preoccupy the defense. For instance, the Redskins will dial back on the play action bootlegs where he would fake the handoff to the running backs and roll out in the opposite direction to hit the wide open tight end. Instead they will call the traditional three to five step drop passing plays in order to gauge whether Cousins can make the right decision with the football when the defense is ready for a pass. The combination of these factors means that the offense spent less time on the field because of incompletions, interceptions, sacks or big plays that result in short drives. This means that defense would have to go back on the field without the proper amount of rest which leads to the defense being more susceptible to giving up yards and points because they were not able to regain some energy between possessions to be able to stop the opposing offense.
