4 Washington Redskins

WHAT'S NEW

> The Elias Sports Bureau doesn't keep official track of this stat, but it's probably safe to say that last season Gregg Williams had the worst salary-to-takeaways ratio of any defensive coordinator in the history of football. Williams, properly called the assistant head coach-defense in the Redskins' unwieldy parlance, made a reported $2.6�million (a league record for an assistant coach) in 2006 while overseeing a unit that created just 12 turnovers (a modern NFL record for futility). To bolster the defense, which plummeted from ninth in the league in '05 in yards allowed to 31st in '06, the Redskins drafted LSU strong safety LaRon Landry sixth overall and signed several free agents, including cornerbacks Jerametrius Butler, David Macklin and Fred Smoot, and, most important, middle linebacker London Fletcher.

WHERE THEY'RE HEADED

> Fletcher was at home in Cleveland when the telephone rang at 12:01 a.m. on March�2--one minute into the NFL's free-agency period. " London," said the voice on the other end of the line, "this is Coach Gibbs from the Washington Redskins." Over the course of the next 10 minutes Fletcher listened as a battery of assistants, including Williams, secondary coach Jerry Gray and special teams coach Danny Smith (all of whom had worked with Fletcher in Buffalo) expounded on the ways in which Fletcher could affect the Redskins defense. Fletcher boarded a D.C.-bound plane less than 10 hours later, and by the time he and fellow free agent Smoot took their seats at that evening's Atlanta Hawks-Washington Wizards NBA game, he had agreed to a five-year, $25 million contract.

The Redskins coveted Fletcher not only because he's a 5' 10", 245-pound dervish who is the NFL's leading tackler since 2000, but also because he's a passionate leader with the ability to inspire listless teammates. "They want me to be the quarterback of the defense, somebody who looks into the eyes of the other 10 men on that field," says Fletcher. "We're going to get the job done. On key third downs we're going to get the stops. On fourth down we're going to get the stops." Although Fletcher turned 32 in May, the Redskins have no fear that he'll join the line of high-priced, over-30 free-agent disappointments that has marked Daniel Snyder's eight years as owner.

The havoc Fletcher wreaks up front should ease the burden on a secondary in which no player picked off more than one pass in '06 and that allowed an NFL-high 55 completions of 20 yards or more. The team blames much of its incompetence on a combination of poor luck and poor depth. The addition of Butler, Macklin and Smoot, who have started a combined 183 NFL games, will provide a stable of experienced cover men to turn to when the legs of starters Carlos Rogers and Shawn Springs go wobbly. But the key to the secondary's improvement may be the 6' 2", 205-pound Landry, who is athletic enough to go sideline-to-sideline at the line of scrimmage, allowing Pro�Bowl free safety Sean Taylor to roam downfield, where he can most effectively deploy his hard-hitting, ball-hawking style. "[With] the things we can do now defensively," says director of player personnel Vinny Cerrato, "we should get more turnovers."

On offense, former first-round pick Jason Campbell enters a season as the starting quarterback for the first time as a pro. When informed in training camp that he is the franchise's 17th starting QB since 1993--a group that includes two other Skins No. 1 picks, Heath Shuler and Patrick Ramsey--he responded succinctly, "Oh, man, that's not good." Consider that a rare loss of poise for the 6' 5", rocket-armed 25-year-old, who impressed in the seven games he started last season after assuming signal-calling duties from Mark Brunell, passing for 1,297�yards and 10�touchdowns while connecting on 53.1% of his throws. "He's a special guy, that's what he is," says associate head coach-offense Al Saunders, who wants Campbell to improve his completion rate by 10%. "He's made tremendous progress."

Campbell's growth will be aided by the presence of running backs Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts, both of whom catch the ball as well as they run it. (The two combined for 1,677�rushing and 615�receiving yards last season.) While Betts has a skill set that Saunders says "reminds me a lot of what Priest Holmes did for us in Kansas�City," the Redskins plan to feature him as a bruising change-of-pace back behind Portis.

If only Washington had such an embarrassment of riches on the other side of the ball. Though the defense as a whole won't perform as poorly as last year's unit-- Fletcher won't allow that--it brings back intact a line that, while bedeviled by injuries, produced just 10 sacks. That should leave the Redskins at least one premier pass rusher, and likely a full year of experience for Campbell, away from their second winning season this decade.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP