Whether the Redskins finish at .500 or one game under, this season is definitely a letdown. But true Washington fans know that when it comes to failure to deliver, there have been much more spectacular Redskins’ flameouts.
2017? Doesn’t even make the Top Ten for most disappointing seasons.
With a little help from Pro Football Reference.com’s Simple Rating System (SRS), we looked back over the futility of the last few decades and beyond to put together a list of 10 Redskins teams from the Super Bowl-era that failed, miserably, to live up to the preseason hype.
Here they are, listed in order of pain, from theTaylor-Swift-I’ll-Get-Over-This “starter” heartbreak to the more enduring Hank-Williams-This-Is-Gonna-Hurt-Forever despair.
10. 2014 Washington Redskins: 4-12, last place in NFC East
The Redskins replaced the recently-fired Mike Shanahan with Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden, trusting him to right the ship and guide Griffin in his development as an NFL quarterback.
Neither project went as smoothly as planned, Washington barely improving upon its disastrous 2013 season while Griffin struggled to stay on the field due to injury and inconsistency. It would be Griffin’s final season as Washington’s starting quarterback, the former Baylor Bear overtaken by Kirk Cousins on the depth chart at the beginning of the 2015 season.
9. 1994 Washington Redskins: 3-13, last place in NFC East
Much like Gruden’s first season as Washington’s head coach 20 years later, in 1994 the Redskins put their faith in a former offensive coordinator to guide them back to winning ways. Following the disappointing 1993 campaign, Richie Petitbon was replaced by Norv Turner, who had coached Troy Aikman and the potent Dallas Cowboys offense the previous three seasons.
Things got worse for the Redskins before they got better, however, Washington posting its worst regular season record since 1961 in Turner’s first season as head coach.
8. 2010 Washington Redskins: 6-10, last place in NFC East
The 2010 season began with plenty of hope and promise, Washington bringing in several new faces with strong reputations, including Shanahan, quarterback Donovan McNabb, and offensive tackle Jammal Brown. This hope gradually faded as McNabb struggled to replicate the success he had had in Philadelphia, Shanahan eventually benching him for Rex Grossman.
One of the season’s key turning points occurred when the Eagles crushed the Redskins 59-28 in a pivotal Week 10 matchup, the game soon dubbed the “Monday Night Massacre.” The same day it was announced McNabb had signed a five-year contract extension, his former team soundly defeated Washington on its home turf, McNabb intercepted three times in the contest.
7. 1998 Washington Redskins: 6-10, second-to-last place in NFC East
Following a year in which they barely missed the playoffs, the Redskins came into the 1998 campaign ready to contend again. Additionally, Washington had seemingly addressed one of its glaring weaknesses in the offseason, adding reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Dana Stubblefield and former collegiate All-American Dan Wilkinson to a defensive line which had struggled against the run in 1997.
Suffice it to say, Stubblefield, Wilkinson, and the rest of the Redskins roster did not live up to expectations. Washington dropped its first seven games, any playoff hopes all but gone before the team even reached its Week 8 bye.
6. 2002 Washington Redskins: 7-9, second-to-last place in NFC East
Steve Spurrier came to Washington in 2002 with an abundance of accolades, having led the Florida Gators to six SEC Championships and winning the SEC’s Coach of the Year Award five times. The Redskins rewarded Spurrier’s accomplishments at the collegiate level with a five-year, $25 million contract, at that time the most lucrative deal an NFL coach had received.
Nonetheless, Spurrier did not return the franchise’s faith in him with much on-field success, Washington finishing below .500 in 2002 and again in 2003, after which Spurrier resigned. The 2002 season was the first time a Spurrier-led team finished with a losing record since his first season at Duke in 1987.
5. 1993 Washington Redskins: 4-12, last place in NFC East
Washington began the 1993 season with something it hadn’t had in over a decade: Richie Petitbon, a new head coach. Joe Gibbs, who had led the Redskins to three Super Bowl titles since taking over in 1981, retired following the 1992 season, and had been replaced by his longtime assistant, Petitbon.
Petitbon, a highly respected defensive coordinator, failed to achieve the success Redskins fans had come to expect during Gibbs’s tenure.
The 1993 season marked the first time Washington recorded double-digit losses in a season since 1980, the year before Gibbs became head coach.
4. 2004 Washington Redskins: 6-10, last place in NFC East
The 2004 season shared many similarities with the 2010 campaign, the Redskins hiring a Super Bowl-winning head coach to stabilize the franchise, a plan which at first did not succeed.
Joe Gibbs’ return to the sidelines began with a disappointing 6-10 finish, the trade for running back Clinton Portis not paying dividends immediately as many fans hoped. Gibbs got the Redskins back to winning ways in 2005, however, the team earning a wild card spot and defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the playoffs before losing to Seattle the next week.
3. 2006 Washington Redskins: 5-11, last place in NFC East
The 2005 season marked the last time the Redskins have advanced beyond the Wild Card round in the playoffs, with Washington going 10-6 and losing to eventual NFC champions the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional round.
The following season the Redskins regressed significantly, finishing with the worst record of any Joe Gibbs-coached squad.
The 2006 Redskins also set a notorious record, recording just 12 takeaways, the fewest in any full NFL season up to that point. After taking a step forward in 2005, a year later the Redskins took two steps back.
2. 1988 Washington Redskins: 7-9, third in NFC East
Most seasons after winning a Super Bowl will inevitably disappoint, but not many would have expected the Redskins to drop off so immensely after triumphing in Super Bowl XXII. Washington became just the seventh reigning Super Bowl champion in the league history to miss the playoffs the next year.
Additionally, 1988 marked the first time a Redskins team coached by Joe Gibbs finished below .500, the lone season Washington finished with a losing record in his first tenure as head coach.
1. 2013 Washington Redskins: 3-13, last place in NFC East
For all the hope Robert Griffin III’s stellar rookie season in 2012 conjured up in the hearts of Redskins fans, that hope was quickly replaced by misery in Griffin’s sophomore campaign.
Washington went from division winners to basement dwellers in the NFC East, following up a 10-6 season in 2012 with one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
In the aftermath, coach Mike Shanahan was fired by the Redskins after four seasons at the helm, unable to replicate the success in Washington that he had had in Denver with the Broncos, where he won two Super Bowl titles.
• Josh Luckenbaugh can be reached at jluckenbaugh@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.