Portis: Redskins will be among top five teams

Coff

Careful with your verbs.

Coff

One thing I like about this thread is that there is very little contention, and that is out of the ordinary for a "preseason-predictions" thread (hell, it's out of the ordinary for any thread). It's great to hear that CP is optimistic, and I think we all appreciate it. As far as being a top 5 team, few of us really believe that, but it is great to see people express something other than a "best case scenario outlook" without getting lambasted for being "anti-Redskins," which is so often the case. I think it all reflects a calmer attitude in the Redskin community, and I believe a lot of it has to do with not having to deal with the stress of having Gibbs on the sideline; most would agree that he is universally recognized as the greatest person in the organization's history, and if not irrefutably the greatest, then at least arguably so. But it felt as though, every week, his legacy was on the line, and though he certainly lived up to it (in my opinion), the stress was nonetheless very high.
Now we go into a new year, with a new coach, and with very little on the line; on top of that, we are re-building somewhat, and there is no urgency to win NOW! Who here thinks that we will win less games in '09 than in '08? Very few people, I'm guessing, and that is a great feeling! And the importance of this is that this year we can watch and see how Zorn and Campbell and Co. develop, knowing full well that there is a learning curve, and that the future is around the corner, and the team will continue to progress. But there is less urgency, and less tension, and as a result the season can be more enjoyable (granted, urgency and tension brought us to the playoffs 2 of the last 3 seasons, which was more than the previous 11, so I might be eating my words in a few months!).
I miss Gibbs and I'm psyched to see Zorn take his place, and yet I don't feel any internal contradiction for having these seemingly opposite sentiments. Go Skins.