[Zorn on the 4th of July]

Didn't see this when I originally posted the thread, from the Washington Post:

"I mean, the score, the record, they'd say that we're horrible, that we don't know how to play football," Haynesworth said. "But I've been around these guys a lot. I think they know how to play football. I think we're all just going different directions, and we need somebody to lead us in the right direction."

SmootSmack, I should have made the post clearer: I contend that the root cause of the Redskins' woes is a lack of player leadership in every phase of the game, and I'm worried that people are focusing too much on personnel moves rather than developing a winning atmosphere. We should find players (either currently on the roster or not) who make the other ten guys on the field better. The difference in skill between the best and worst players at any position in the NFL is much smaller than a lot of people will admit. Plus, because football is a team sport, it is statistically impossible to separate an individual's performance on the field from the performance of the other ten players on the field at the same time. Impossible.

It's easy to point at poorly-performing teams and say that their players are worse than those on a team that is winning all the time. Hell, the individual stats would probably even correlate nicely: better teams have better players. But correlation is not causation. Imagine if the worst teams in the NFL played error-free, inspired football. Would they be that much worse than the most talented team that is just going through the motions? No. Ask the Saints. Ask the Colts.

Acquire better players and we will improve. But that improvement will hit a ceiling without the focus and psychological toughness that allows teams to win games late in the fourth.