[sportscurmudgeon]

Unaccustomed as I am to being a voice of sweetness and light, I will say that I think the Redskins are on a much better path today than they were 2 years ago. They have not arrived at the end of the path (playoff contender on a regular basis) and the path is not level and paved every step of the way.

But this one is a better path than existed at the time Allen and Shanahan came to town. They conducted two drafts and two off-seasons. They did not hit home-runs with every draft pick, but they acquired good contributors in addition to two players who might turn out to be excellent (Williams and Kerrigan). Most importantly, they did not succumb to the temptation to spend a ton of money to bring in high-priced free agents whose major motivation in coming here was to get paid and sit on their fat wallets. That was the path this team was on for about 10 years prior to Allen/Shanahan...

Just because that is the way Allen/Shanahan behaved in their two off-seasons, I think the path they are on now is far better than the one the Skins were on 2 years ago.

Yes, the McNabb trade blew up in their face. However, that is not an indictment of the strategic path they have the team on. That is the failure of a tactical move they made. Another tactical failure was the blunderous way that Shanahan handled the "McNabb situation" last year. That could not have helped solidify the idea that "we are all in this together" among players in the locker room and it will take a bit of time to get that stink out of there.

The team has a lot of picks this year in the draft - - and might get more if they compensatory ones for losing free agents to other teams. Let me assume they have 10 picks in the draft as an example. If that is the case, then the real test of the path that the team is on will be to see how well the Redskins' scouting department can come up with good value picks in at least 7 of those 10 selections.

The path of "build through the draft and make judicious use of free agency" is a good path to follow. HOWEVER, it is the scouting department that has to deliver a solid draft board year after year in order for that path to get you to the playoffs.

To be polite, the Skins drafts of the years from about 2002 - 2008 left a whole lot to be desired. Was that the fault of the owner/GM - - or was it the scouting department? Starting two years ago, the owner butted out of the draft and the GM/coach are reputedly good at team building, so the spotlight now is on the scouts.