About a month ago, on April 15, the NFL released its schedule, and we found out Washington opens up against Pittsburgh at home on Monday night, plays twice more in prime time, and on Thanksgiving at Dallas, and in London.
The offseason is traditionally the season of optimism for all 32 franchises; that's half the fun. Washington fans last season finally tamped down expectations and enjoyed a season in which those were exceeded. If exceeding expectations is in the plans this season, the team has got a high bar to clear. When The Post non-scientifcally polled readers (most of whom I believe are fans), it got 2,234 responses. Going game by game down the schedule, here's how those readers were split on whether Washington would win each particular game:
57% feel the Redskins would beat the Steelers at FedEx Field on Monday, Sept. 12th.
86% have them beating the Cowboys at FedEx six days later.
56% think Washington wins a road game at the New York Giants on Sept. 25th. (These two teams always play in Week 3, don't they?)
94% think an Oct. 2 game against Robert Griffin III's new team, the Cleveland Browns, is another W.
62% have the short trip up to Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium as a Washington victory.
90% chalk up the Philadelphia Eagles as a sixth win.
88% have the road clash at Ford Field in Detroit as a W as well.
Let's stop here for a second. I realize the same 57% who picked the Steelers might not have picked the Giants or the Ravens wins, so not everyone is predicting 7-0. But collectively, more than half the people in the poll think each of the first seven games is a win.
Washington was 9-7 last year, 9-8 including the playoff game. They certainly seem to have gotten better with all-pro cornerback Josh Norman - who joined the team April 22, after at least the first 2,001 responses to the poll - and the seven members of the draft class. But do we really think Washington is so much better that they get to the end of October undefeated? They might not get to Sept. 13th undefeated, if we're being completely honest. The always-steady Steelers were 10-6 last season.
Only 35% see a trip to London to face the Cincinnati Bengals as a win, so the collective mind-set is capable of being realistic.
66% see a Nov. 13, post-bye home game against the Vikings as a win. Both the Bengals and the Vikings won at least 11 games and made the playoffs last season.
All but 28% see the playoff rematch with the Packers going Green Bay's way, even with the game being prime time and at FedEx.
57% see a happy Thanksgiving against the Cowboys.
Just 19% think a Dec. 4 road trip to Arizona is a win.
78% feel the Eagles the following week is a bounce-back win, though.
Only 25% feel a home Monday nighter against the defending NFC champion Carolina Panthers is a win.
91% see a road win Dec. 24 at the Chicago Bears.
And 84% see the team closing out the season by sweeping the Giants, and the six-game NFC East slate.
That's 12-4 overall, 6-2 on the road and 6-0 against division opponents from the collective mind-set. Those are pretty high expectations.
The Sports Junkies were on the radio Thursday morning, discussing having gone through the game-by-game exercise around schedule-release time, and come out with 7-9 or 8-8. When USA Today predicted the score of every game next season, 7-9 is what they came up with for Washington as well. ESPN's John Keim went game by game on April 15 and got to 9-7. SB Nation's Hogs Haven website ran best-case/worst-case scenario pieces; The best case was 12-4. The worst was a 3-3 start that devolves into 4-12.
The truly amazing part is that all these predictions were made before Norman was in the fold, and before Josh Doctson, Su'a Cravens and the other rookies were drafted. We haven't had a training-camp job switch, or a preseason injury, or a regular-season wake-up call, for the home team or any of its opponents. Kirk Cousins wasn't name the starter until last Aug. 31, if you'll recall.
An NFC East sweep seems hardest to believe, as the Giants (6-10 last year) and Eagles (7-9) had very active offseasons, and the Cowboys (4-12) should be improved simply by getting more than four games out of quarterback Tony Romo and nine from star wide receiver Dez Bryant in 2016. There are some pretty important players who played 16, 14 or 10 games last season that Washington could ill afford to lose this year. Very infrequently does all go according to plan in the NFL, so even if this is the season of eternal sunshine, something between 12-4 and 4-12, between best- and worst-case scenario, is more likely.
However, I'm clearly not above writing offseason stories that will carry little weight by the time September arrives. Reality will bite once the full contact begins, so might as well enjoy the offseason optimism.
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