NFL Schedule Preview: Washington Redskins

It’s 24 days until the new NFL season begins but for a football mad guy like me that’s just too long so I’ve taken it upon myself to go over each NFL schedule and try and predict for all of you what may happen once the season rolls around.

This is it – just one more team to go and then we’re done as we end our scheduling journey in the NFC East with the Washington Redskins who went 5-11  in 2011. Here’s how I think their season will go:

• Week 1 at New Orleans Saints – Loss
• Week 2 at St Louis Rams – Win
• Week 3 vs Cincinnati Bengals – Loss
• Week 4 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Win
• Week 5 vs Atlanta Falcons – Win
• Week 6 vs Minnesota Vikings – Win
• Week 7 at New York Giants – Loss
• Week 8 at Pittsburgh Steelers – Loss
• Week 9 vs Carolina Panthers – Win
• Week 10 BYE
• Week 11 vs Philadelphia Eagles – Loss
• Week 12 at Dallas Cowboys – Win
• Week 13 vs New York Giants – Win
• Week 14 vs Baltimore Ravens – Loss
• Week 15 at Cleveland Browns – Win
• Week 16 at Philadelphia Eagles – Loss
• Week 17 vs Dallas Cowboys – Win

Overall Record for the Washington Redskins in 2012: 9-7

The Washington Redskins are fortunate this year to have one of the easier schedules in the NFL and with a bunch of new offensive weapons there is reason for optimism here. There’s still the same difficult assignments the NFC East brings up and the added challenge of the NFC South and AFC North but the Redskins get a real boon with their extra games being against the Rams and Vikings – while not cakewalks by any means that’s two easier games than their division rivals are likely to get.

The two most important stretches of this schedule are fairly easy to notice – the three games before the bye and the four games after it. Before the bye there are road games at the Giants and Steelers before hosting the Panthers in what is sure to be some fun football to watch with Cam Newton up against Robert Griffin III. The four games after the bye feature each of their division rivals as well as the Baltimore Ravens. If this Redskins team is going to compete for a playoff spot they must win at least four if not five of these seven games.

That’s the schedules for all 32 teams now done and dusted but we’re not finished yet. Next week we are going to finish this series with a bang as we use these regular season predictions to come up with playoff predictions, a strength of schedule and a 2013 draft order which NFL Spin Zone Senior Editor Josh Sanchez will then use to give us his first mock draft of the next class. Be sure to check that out next week.