George Wallace, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Year three of the Mike Shanahan-era kicks off Sunday afternoon in the Louisiana Superdome.
Talk about throwing yourself right into the fire. The Redskins take on a high- powered offense led by Drew Brees. Not to mention, the Saints will have a huge chip on their shoulder after the offseason they have had. Bountygate, suspensions, two interim coaches, Drew Brees’ contract situation. Shall I go on?
The Redskins have gotten younger in the offseason and Coach Mike Shanahan feels that this team is heading in the right direction with rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III.
“My plan with Robert is to make sure he has the right supporting cast, where we don’t put all the pressure on one guy,” Shanahan says.
“I really like what I’ve seen from Robert. I like our football team right now. We’ve got some youth, we’ve got some guys really determined to do things the right way,” he says.
There are new pieces to the puzzle and the hope is that they gel pretty quickly, while also counting on a defense that jumped from 31st in 2010 to 13th a year ago.
The Redskins went from six wins in 2010 to just five a year ago.
Will they take the next step in year three of the rebuilding process?
Shanahan says he is focused on one thing at a time.
“What I try to get our football team to do is not worry about what people predict. All I say is just focus on the first game, don’t worry about what people are saying. Everybody has opinions,” he says.
The dress rehearsals are over and the curtain goes up for real on Sunday.
Tune in to find out.
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