Is Washington - Not The Cowboys - Among NFC's Best 4 Teams?
FRISCO - Dan Orlovsky recently made an appearance on ESPN's NFL Live, where he named the Washington Football Team as one of his top four teams in the NFC.
WFT was joined, in his view, by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Arizona Cardinals.
So, no Dallas Cowboys in the bunch.
The Washington Football Team has been known as a defensive powerhouse, so it can be expected that the defensive side of the ball has garnered some national praise. But Orlovsky showed his love to the other side of the ball for the WFT, too.
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Orlovsky said, "I think, first of all, this offense is going to be predicated on a ton of speed. This might be the fastest offense in the NFL."
He then discussed the speed of Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel, and how the recently-acquired Samuel can be a key to this offense. Two other players he said to look out for to be contributors were wideout Dyami Brown and running back Antonio Gibson.
Orlovsky continued, "Those are four guys that have absolute gas on offense."
Is Washington an offense opposing teams should fear? We've recently said that about the Dallas Cowboys' offense, but should we be considering Washington's offense to be equal to or better than what we see in Dallas?
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One of the biggest question marks for the Football Team in Washington is the quarterback position. There's no "announced'' starter yet, and the battle is between a 38-year old veteran who is on his ninth NFL team and who has never made the playoffs (Ryan Fitzpatrick) and an undrafted 28-year-old (Taylor Heinicke) who is on his fifth NFL team.
It is presumed that coach Ron Rivera knows it's going to be Fitz. but the coach has announced it'll be a "competition.''
Orlovsky addressed the quarterbacks saying, "Now Fitzy has those roller-coaster rides, right? Because he plays with no fear of failure. He's just going to play that YOLO, chuck-and-duck style of football. But he plays his best when he's got a defense that can bail him out a little bit. And that's what he's got in Washington; a dominant defense."
If this is "a quarterback league,'' one would think Dallas can register an advantage with Dak Prescott on its side. But we shall see.
The only thing that might be certain is that no matter what analysts think or say, the true test for the Washington Football Team offense will be on the field, matching up against this re-tooled Dan Quinn-led Dallas Cowboys defense twice next season. The Cowboys and Football Team meet on December 12 at FedEx Field and December 26 at AT&T Stadium.
We will have a better idea then if the WFT is top-four in the NFC ... or even top-one in the NFC East.
