Ashburn, Va. — The 2015 National Football League year fast approaches and the preseason schedule has been announced. Somewhat surprisingly, the Washington Redskins will stay off national television for all of their preseason games. This is rather strange considering what a huge year this will be for the franchise, what with it finally getting a General Manager in Scot McCloughan and with the quarterback situation being what it is. Perhaps that state of affairs will begin to work itself out as current “starting” QB Robert Griffin III works out with some of his teammates down in Florida next week.
While specific dates and times will be announced at a later date, Washington’s schedule starts with the team at home against the Detroit Lions sometime during the weekend of Aug. 13. The Redskins then travel to Cleveland to play the Browns in the Aug. 20 through Aug. 24 time frame. Next the team will take a short jaunt up I95 to play the Baltimore Ravens during the last weekend of the month and it plays its last preseason game at home, hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars the first weekend in September. The first regular season game will be played the weekend of Sept. 13. The league should announce specific dates before the end of April or in early May.
All four games will be shown locally on NBC4 and Comcast SportsNet and can be heard on the Redskins Radio Network.
Washington defeated the Browns, 24-23, at FedEx Field in Week Two of the 2014 preseason. It will be interesting to see whether or not Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel will have earned back a playing spot. He recently returned from a stay at a rehab facility after a tumultuous rookie season. This year’s training camps will be interesting for more teams than just Washington… the Browns offensive coordinator John DiFilippo and and quarterbacks coach Kevin O’Connell will have their work cut out for them just as the Redskins’ Sean McVay and Matt Cavanaugh will.
The Redskins have won their last four preseason meetings with Cleveland and have earned victories in six of their last seven preseason games against the Browns dating back to 1980.
The Lions and the Redskins haven’t met up in the preseason since 1996. If it’s true that the Lions have been the worst “drafters” in the league since 2002, hopefully they won’t have selected offensive tackle La’El Collins this year with their first round (23rd overall) selection in the draft and the Redskins’ new edge rusher can get to whichever of the Lions’ quarterbacks plays in this game.
A win in this game would give the Redskins victories in eight consecutive preseason home openers since 2008.
This will be the second consecutive year that Washington has played the Ravens in the preseason and the eighth time in the last 11 years that the two teams have played each other before the regular season. It’s actually a good thing that this is the team the Redskins play as their third preseason opponent. Given that it is the game in which starters generally play the longest; as a perennial good team, Baltimore should be a good test of where Washington’s starters are as a team.
The Redskins have won each of their last four preseason finales versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This year they will try to do it against Jacksonville. It’s too bad that this is the least important game of the preseason (as if any of them were other than to get into “football shape” as well as give the players some real contact against players in different colored jerseys). The Jaguars signed former Denver Broncos’ tight end Julius Thomas during free agency this year and it would be interesting to see how the Redskins “new” defense — and in particular, the secondary — handles a really good tight end like Thomas under new coordinator Joe Barry.
Hail.