Thanks to the steady play of Kirk Cousins and leadership of Jay Gruden, the Redskins are the 2015 champions of the NFC East. At 8-7, Washington has a two-game lead in the tire fire of a division and can rest players if they choose to because the team is locked into the No. 4 spot in the conference. The mediocrity of the playoff-bound Washington football team raised an interesting notion:
Washington is definitely going to be the worst team to ever to get to rest its starters in week 17.
— Football Perspective (@fbgchase) December 27, 2015
Sure, there have been sub-.500 teams to reach the postseason, but are the Redskins the least-deserving team to ever have the option of playing backups in their last regular-season game?
Since the NFL switched to the four-division format in 2002, a format that opens the league to this possibility more often, there’s one team that can compete with Washington — the 2006 Seattle Seahawks.
That Mike Holmgren-led club entered the final week at 8-7 and with an NFC West crown under wraps. But unlike Washington, which has won three-straight and four of five, the Seahawks had lost three in a row. Washington’s point differential right now is minus-2; Seattle finished the season minus-6, but were minus-22 entering Week 17 before beating Jay’s brother Jon 23-7.
Holmgren chose to play his regulars in 2006; Gruden has yet to decide on that.
The Seahawks would beat the Cowboys 21-20 in the Wild Card round before succumbing in the divisional round to the Bears in a 27-24 overtime thriller. So, while we all may accept and know in our hearts the Redskins are only in the playoffs because of the overflowing barf bag that is the NFC East, it doesn’t mean they can’t go on a run in the playoffs.
Karma. It’s not a real thing.
