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Yes, the start of training camps is two months away, but it’s never too early to consider the coming season. A look at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Redskins in 2012.

Dream scenario (9-7): This would mean Washington's first winning season since 2007, Joe Gibbs' final year as head coach. What has to happen to make it a reality? Well, lots, frankly. Robert Griffin III will need to be very good right away at taking care of the ball and limiting the kinds of mistakes it's reasonable to expect from rookie quarterbacks. Most important, the Redskins' offense must play very well around him. They'll need health from Tim Hightower and continued development from promising fellow running backs Roy Helu and Evan Royster. They'll need Pierre Garcon to play like the potential No. 1 wideout his free-agent price tag says they believe he can be. They'll need the offensive line to stay healthy and play well, with left tackle Trent Williams as its anchor. The Redskins' dream scenario sees Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan cementing their place among the league's top pass-rushing duos, DeAngelo Hall harnessing his ability and playing like a top corner, and something emerging from the muddle they take to training camp at safety. The defense looked like a young defense on the rise last year, and if the Redskins are to threaten or possibly exceed .500, it will have to continue that rise.

Nightmare scenario (5-11): That would mean the same record as last year and one game worse than the year before, and it would drop Mike Shanahan's three-year record as the team's head coach to a rather uninspiring 16-32. That would be what's called, in official NFL terms, "not good." In the Redskins' nightmare scenario, Griffin struggles with the transition, the wide receiver group is as uninspiring as Washington's free-agency critics believe it is, and the offensive line falls apart thanks to injury for the second year in a row. In the nightmare scenario, the secondary remains a big-time weakness of the defense and costs the Redskins dearly in division games against the likes of Eli Manning, Tony Romo and Michael Vick. If all of this happens, the Redskins would enter the 2013 offseason with far more to fix than they currently believe they do, and with questions about Shanahan's future as coach. I don't think there's much that can happen to wreck the Griffin honeymoon between now and January, but if the rest of the team plays well around him and he commits too many turnovers, that particular nightmare scenario could make Redskins fans nervous about the new franchise quarterback going into next season.

The winner of the how-to-order-the-Friday-links contest this week is Michael from Nashville, who suggested tying the order to fantasy sports. I went to the ESPN fantasy football page and looked up the points leaders from last year, and the links are hereby provided in order of each team's highest-scoring fantasy player from 2011.

New York Giants (Eli Manning, 273)

Tom Coughlin says "it's probably going to be close" when asked whether Hakeem Nicks will be ready for the regular-season opener. Nicks broke his foot in practice Thursday and is scheduled to have surgery today to insert a screw into it. The Giants' say the estimated recovery time is 12 weeks, which would be the middle of August, and Coughlin said Nicks is confident he can make that. We shall see.

As I wrote Thursday afternoon, if there's a positive to take out of the Nicks news it's that the Giants will be able to give more offseason and preseason reps to wide receivers Domenik Hixon, Jerrel Jernigan, Ramses Barden and Rueben Randle, and extended looks at those players will help them determine which, if any, is best suited to replace free-agent defector Mario Manningham as the No. 3 receiver behind Nicks and Victor Cruz. Hixon says he's feeling good and ready.

Philadelphia Eagles (LeSean McCoy, 270)

The concern with the Eagles is that Michael Vick's history says he's likely to miss at least a game or two due to injury this season. And if he does, there's very little in the way of experience among the backup options behind him. Jeff McLane breaks down the Eagles' backup quarterback situation, which should be Mike Kafka at this point.

As Sal Paolantonio reported the other day, second-year center Jason Kelce will be taking over the responsibility for making the protection calls at the line of scrimmage. The Eagles gave Vick that responsibility last year, and shifting it to Kelce will give Vick less about which to worry, and I think that's probably a good thing.

Dallas Cowboys (Tony Romo, 265)

Jean-Jacques Taylor writes that third-year wide receiver Dez Bryant has had a nice, blissfully quiet offseason and that he's on the verge of greatness. As we discussed many times last year, Bryant is a physical mismatch for almost anyone who tries to cover him, even at the NFL level. It's about committing to his own development and route-running, and once he does that he'll be as good as anyone.

And yeah, two from ESPNDallas.com this morning, as the crew there debates whether the Cowboys can beat the Vegas over/under of 8.5 wins for 2012. I bring this up as a preview to the "Dream/nightmare scenario" posts that are coming from each of our division's teams this morning. So, you know. Look forward to that.

Washington Redskins (Rex Grossman, 141)

In a bit of irony, the Redskins (and the Cowboys) are among the defendants in the NFLPA's collusion case against the league for the spending practices during the uncapped 2010 season. It's ironic because the union says the only way it found out about what it alleges to be collusive behavior was because the league punished those teams for not adhering to the secret agreement regarding 2010 spending. What you should take from this, once and for all, is the fact that the union's collusion case is in no way whatsoever aimed at helping the Redskins and Cowboys getting any relief of those cap punishments. That part of this case is over, they will pay the penalties and that's really it. I promise. No matter how nicely you guys ask.

The Redskins put Robert Griffin III's locker between those of London Fletcher and Brian Orakpo, which LaVar Arrington says could be crucial to the rookie's development. One of the Redskins' strengths as a team is the veteran leadership they have in their locker room, and they'll surely want to put Griffin in the best possible position -- literally as well as figuratively -- to benefit from that.

Yeah, sorry about the Vokle chat. Sometimes our technology just doesn't do what we want it to do. There are plans in the works to try again. I hope you'll give us another shot if we try next week.

Anyway, back to the blog. As a twist on the usual Power Rankings, we had a panel of ESPN experts put together something called the NFL Future Power Rankings , basically projecting how the Power Rankings will look three years from now. It's Insider, so you have to pay to read it and I can't give it all away to you here. But if you are interested, the piece explaining how the panelists came to their conclusions is available to everyone and is here.

Here's how the NFC East teams fared, and partial explanations for why:

3. New York Giants

Trailing only the Packers and the Patriots, the Giants got a score of 81.13 out of a possible 100, with coaching, front office and quarterback their highest-scoring categories. Here's Trent Dilfer on the quarterback in particular:

He has the baby-brother look, but Eli Manning turns 32 this season, and since his 1-6 record as a rookie, has started all 16 games in seven straight seasons. He has had his INT issues, but is an elite passer when he gets comfortable with his targets. He has many good years ahead.

7. Philadelphia Eagles

Quarterback was the only place where the Eagles didn't score high, as uncertainty about Michael Vick's age (32) and future in Philly pushed them down to a 5.75 in that category. They had an overall score of 74 out of 100, buoyed but very high marks in front office, draft and coaching. Mel Kiper on their drafting:

A remarkably good draft in 2012 could shore up the defense and make the Eagles Super Bowl contenders. If Vick has any health issues, is Nick Foles the next guy in line? You never know what they'll do at that spot. But they have a system, draft very well and, at least based on my board, maintain a really strong sense of value and how to maneuver.

14. Dallas Cowboys

The highest score the Cowboys got was their 7 in quarterback, and their overall score was 62.06 out of 100. Their lowest marks were for draft and front office, and this is Gary Horton on their roster:

Age is a concern. And unless they do a good job in free agency and the draft, the talent level will drop off in the next couple of years. They should remain fairly young at WR and RB, and they seem to be rebuilding their offensive line. Defensively, they are not very young and their best playmaker of the future will be rookie CB Morris Claiborne, but a lot of replacements are needed.

20. Washington Redskins

An overall score of 56.38 out of 100, with the highest mark their 6.75 in coaching. The panel gave them a 6.25 for quarterback, which is generous since their current starter has never played an NFL game. But the assumption is that he'll fit in well and that he has the talent to be a franchise quarterback. Dragging the Redskins' score down the most is the 4.75 for the current roster. Here's Horton on that:

Obviously, this future will be built around rookie QB Robert Griffin III. The challenge will be to surround him with talent on both sides of the ball with limited high draft picks. Washington doesn't have a lot of young, talented guys at the offensive skill positions. The Redskins tried to upgrade the passing game in free agency and TE Fred Davis is a solid player. On defense, age is a real problem and with the exception of young edge rushers Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan, upgrades will be needed.

So like I said, Insider if you want to read it all. And remember, no one's saying this is definitely how it'll all turn out -- just the way it looks to those experts' eyes from here.

The 2011 season was not the most, well, beastly season in NFC East history. It was the first time in a full, 16-game season that no team in the division won at least 10 games, and for much of the year the talk around the division was that it wasn't what it used to be.

Buncha baloney if you ask me. Even forgetting for a second that an NFC East team won the Super Bowl, this division still does one very important thing better than any other: rush the passer. The NFC East's 181 sacks led all NFL divisions in 2011, and by quite a bit. (The AFC North, which had three playoff teams, was second with 160). The Eagles tied for the league lead with 50. The Giants tied for third with 48. The Cowboys tied for seventh with 42, and the Redskins tied for 10th with 41.

Look deeper, into the film-based, number-crunching stats from Pro Football Focus -- stats that take into account more than just sacks when evaluating the extent to which teams rushed, hassled and affected opposing quarterbacks, and the division still rules. The Eagles rank No. 1 in PFF's 2011 team rankings, the Cowboys No. 3, the Giants No. 6 and the Redskins No. 9. No division prizes this critical aspect of the game more than the NFC East does, and it shows up in the numbers.

So, as we slug our way through a slow news month in the NFC East, I thought it'd be a good idea to check in on the pass rushes of our four teams and see how they're doing -- what they've done to get better or worse, what their 2012 prospects look like from this far out and yes, how they rank against each other. You guys asked for more polls, and I promised I'd listen, so there's one right here for you to vote on. After you finish reading, of course. I'm addressing them in order of how many sacks they got in 2011, in case you're wondering how I decided. Seemed fair.

Philadelphia Eagles

Key contributors: DE Trent Cole, DE Jason Babin, DT Cullen Jenkins. PFF ranked Cole the No. 1 overall 4-3 defensive end in the league last year. Babin ranked 10th overall and third in pass rush, finishing third in the league with 18 sacks. Jenkins ranked as the No. 4 pass-rushing defensive tackle, and Derek Landri was No. 10. Defensive line coach Jim Washburn and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, each of whom is entering his second season in his current position with the Eagles, believe the front four is responsible for the pass rush. And while they got a lot of publicity for how wide they like to line up their defensive ends, they like to get pressure from the defensive tackles as well.

Newcomer: DT Fletcher Cox. The Eagles traded up in the first round to pick Cox because they believed he could be an impact pass-rusher from one of those interior spots right away. They need to toughen up against the run, and that will have to be part of Cox's game. But what appealed to them was his ability to get to the passer. Rookie linebacker Mychal Kendricks could conceivably factor in here too, but the Eagles don't ask their linebackers to rush very much in the new scheme.

Stock watch: UP. The addition of Cox, as well as the possible return to full health of Mike Patterson and 2010 first-round pick Brandon Graham, give the Eagles incredible depth at a position at which they were already very strong in 2011. It's possible they'll rush the passer even better in 2012.

New York Giants

Key contributors: DE Jason Pierre-Paul, DE Justin Tuck, DE Osi Umenyiora, DE/LB Mathias Kiwanuka. No one's roster goes as deep as the Giants' does in terms of star-caliber defensive ends. Pierre-Paul was fourth in the league with 16.5 sacks in just his second NFL season. Umenyiora had nine in just nine games. Tuck turned it on at the end and in the playoffs, and Kiwanuka is a defensive end playing linebacker. The Giants believe a strong pass rush is their heritage and their key to being an annual contender.

Newcomer: DT Marvin Austin. The Giants didn't really bring in anyone this offseason who looks like a 2012 pass-rush contributor, but their 2011 second-round pick missed all of last season due to injury, so we'll call him a newcomer. The Giants would like to get more help from inside. Linval Joseph was their best pass-rushing defensive tackle in 2011, according to PFF's rankings. A healthy Austin could be a difference-maker.

Stock watch: DOWN. Not by much, but a little, because of the loss of reliable, underrated reserve DE Dave Tollefson. If Tuck and Umenyiora have injury problems again, or if Umenyiora holds out, they could get kind of thin at defensive end pretty quickly without Tollefson there to fill in this time. Now, this is the Giants, and they'll probably figure it out. The addition of linebacker Keith Rivers could allow them to move Kiwanuka back to end in case of injury. But it's worth pointing out that they did lose a somewhat important piece of the pass rush and didn't replace him.

Dallas Cowboys

Key contributors: LB DeMarcus Ware, LB Anthony Spencer, DE Jason Hatcher, NT Jay Ratliff. There's no one like Ware, who rang up another 19.5 sacks in 2011. That's nearly half the team total, and the conventional wisdom says he needs more help. But PFF ranked Spencer its 11th-best 3-4 outside linebacker in the pass rush and Hatcher as its eighth-best 3-4 pass-rushing defensive end. Add in Ratliff, who can generate pressure up the middle, and the Cowboys look better in this area than we tend to think.

Newcomer: DE Tyrone Crawford. Dallas' third-round pick is looked at by many as a project, but as one that can eventually help with the pass rush whether he ends up as a 3-4 end or standing up as an outside linebacker. Whether he can help in 2012 remains a question, but the Cowboys didn't see a first-round or second-round pass-rusher they liked better than Spencer, so they focused on the secondary instead and picked up some down-the-road guys for the pass rush.

Stock watch: EVEN. They're bringing back basically the same group, and while there's a theory that the improvements at defensive back will help the pass rush by giving it extra time to get sacks, we have yet to see that in action. Spencer must play with more aggressiveness if this unit is to take a step forward into the upper tier with the Eagles and Giants.

Washington Redskins

Key contributors: LB Brian Orakpo, LB Ryan Kerrigan, DE Stephen Bowen. The Redskins' pass rush is all about those young outside linebackers, and they are fearsome. But with only 16.5 sacks between them in 2011, their numbers have a ways to go to get into the big-time stratosphere we're talking about in the NFC East. PFF did rank Orakpo fifth and Kerrigan ninth among pass-rushing 3-4 OLBs in 2011, so they do a lot of things well in that area. Bowen had six sacks and DE Adam Carriker came up with 5.5.

Newcomer: DE Jarvis Jenkins. Just as we did with the Giants, we'll go with a 2011 second-round pick who missed his rookie season due to injury. Jenkins may not be a pass-rusher, but adding him to the defensive line rotation could help free up more room for the linebackers and maybe help the other linemen get to the passer more often as well.

Stock watch: EVEN. This is really all about how much and how quickly Orakpo and especially Kerrigan continue to develop as elite pass-rushers. They've both shown flashes of incredible raw ability, and they have to continue to hone their craft so they can play at the level of the other pass-rushers in their division. Ware, Cole, Pierre-Paul and the rest of these guys are setting a high bar, and the Redskins know they have to have their own pass-rush monsters if they want to hang with them year in and year out.

Dallas Cowboys

Tyron Smith knows the Cowboys' expectations for him are high as he moves from right tackle to left tackle in his second NFL season. There's nothing to indicate that he's going to have any kind of serious problem with this transition. Kid's a stud.

Calvin Watkins believes the Cowboys have made themselves better this offseason, but he also believes the rest of the teams in the division have done the same, and that it's not going to be any easier for the Cowboys just because of the improvements they made.

New York Giants

Last year was, if you remember, a strange year to be an NFL rookie. There were no rookie minicamps -- no offseason program at all, due to the lockout. This year it's all back to normal, and as the Giants open their rookie minicamp today, they're expecting that normality to help this year's rookies make an immediate contribution.

Speaking of rookies, while "sign" and "rhyme" don't exactly rhyme, "Hosley" and "Mosley" do, and the Giants have signed third-round pick Jayron Hosley and fourth-round pick Brandon Mosley to their rookie contracts in advance of this weekend's camp. And even though their first-round and second-round picks haven't signed, a) they surely will soon and b) they are allowed to participate this weekend anyway.

Philadelphia Eagles

No veterans allowed at rookie minicamps this year, so as the Eagles open theirs today as well, every face will be a new face. The coaching staff is excited about it, and if you click on Les Bowen's preview story you can also find out what uniform numbers the draft picks will be wearing. If you're into that sort of thing.

Sheil Kapadia looked at the very, very early betting lines and saw that the Eagles are actually favored to win 13 of their first 15 games this season. Obviously, you don't need me to tell you that a 13-2 start would set the Eagles up rather nicely for the playoff run they hope to make in 2012-13. You also don't need me to remind you that betting lines are designed based not on which team the oddsmakers think will win but rather on which way they expect people to bet. You don't, right?

Washington Redskins

It's the Redskins' 80th anniversary season, and they're going to have a couple of games this year in which they wear throwback uniforms. They had a big shindig Thursday to unveil the uniforms and their plans for their celebration. Here's a photo of Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo in the throwbacks. The helmets are supposed to look like old leather helmets. They don't, of course, but the league probably won't let them use real leather.

The Redskins and Cowboys had their day in front of the arbitrator Thursday, arguing that the league shouldn't have imposed salary cap-penalties against them for their spending during the 2010 uncapped year. No timetable for a decision or further hearings, but this won't be resolved any time soon.

The Washington Redskins had an extra fourth-round draft pick this year, No. 109 overall, as a result of the Jason Campbell trade with Oakland two years ago. When that pick came around, they traded it to the Steelers for the No. 119 overall pick and what appears to be a sixth-rounder (No. 193 overall). And when the 119th pick came around, the Redskins used it to select Texas linebacker Keenan Robinson.

I still think the Redskins need to be doing more on the offensive line here, but they do look for specific types of linemen for their zone-blocking schemes, and it's possible they have their eyes on some guys they can get in the later rounds. Meantime, they did need some depth in the linebacking corps, and Robinson offers that.

The knock on Robinson is that he's too much of a finesse player and not aggressive or physical enough. But he does have good speed, athleticism and tackling instincts when he gets there, so I guess if they can find a way to make him a little meaner they could have a player on their hands. And as with any linebacker the Redskins bring in, exposure to people like London Fletcher and Brian Orakpo can only help a guy develop his game as a professional.

Me, I thought they'd go quarterback again. Kellen Moore was still on the board, after all, and they've only drafted two so far. ...

Former Indianapolis Colts GM Bill Polian writes for ESPN now, which is especially handy this time of year because he's actually made NFL draft picks and can offer insight that schlubs like me can't offer. Today, Bill ranks the draft performance of each NFL team over the past three years . (Except the Colts, since he made those picks and doesn't feel he can be objective. Fair enough. If I were ranking the best ESPN.com NFL blog entries of the past calendar year, I'd have a hard time figuring out how to handle the NFC East ones.)

Anyway, Bill's got the New York Giants ranked among "The Best" in his rankings, behind only the Ravens, Lions and Packers. He picks a "best value pick" and a "cornerstone pick" for each team, and for the Giants he lists wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (29th pick, 2009) as the best value pick and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (15th pick, 2010) as the cornerstone. Based on the results alone, these are both very good picks for the Giants, and they offer different types of examples of the Giants' broad-thinking approach to the first round.

Nicks was the fifth of a whopping six wide receivers taken in that year's first round. The Giants, who take a best-player-available approach to the draft and almost never pick based on need, identified that this was a year in which those two concepts overlapped. They needed a receiver, and this was a first round that offered great value at that position. After Darrius Heyward-Bey went seventh to Oakland and Michael Crabtree went 10th to the 49ers, the Giants were locked in on Jeremy Maclin and reportedly had a deal in place to trade up to No. 20 to take him if he fell that far. Instead, the Eagles moved up and picked Maclin at 19. The Vikings took Percy Harvin at 22 and the Giants, with well-regarded Rutgers product Kenny Britt still on the board at 29, went with Nicks.

The Giants believed Maclin and Nicks were both top-15 value picks that had slipped into the second half of the round. They had them rated very closely together and believed each offered something special. With Maclin it was his raw speed and special-teams ability. With Nicks, it was his studious nature and everything they'd been told by his college coaches about his attention to detail and the level of responsibility he'd assumed as a leader of the wide receiver corps at North Carolina. They were ecstatic to get him at 29. If not for the saturation of first-round wide receiver talent in that particular year, they might not have been able to sniff either guy. They took advantage of a rare and exciting confluence of value and need to make that year's first-round pick, and it's paid off.

As for Pierre-Paul, we've been over this story a million times. The Giants were picking in the middle of the first round that year, and the value at that spot was going to be pass-rushers, which is their wheelhouse. Five defensive ends went in that year's first round, and the names of Brandon Graham and Derrick Morgan were being kicked around for teams in the middle of the first round. Pierre-Paul was a mystery man -- raw and inexperienced but unquestionably gifted as a pure athlete. Everybody saw the tape of him doing the backflips. No one -- not even the Giants -- knew for sure how that would translate into NFL football.

But the Giants fell in love. Tom Coughlin went to watch Pierre-Paul work out. They decided that his talent was worth taking a chance on, given the strength of their belief in the ability of their coaches and their veteran players to groom great defensive linemen. Their need was at linebacker, but there was no linebacker in that year's first round that offered value at No. 15. And they didn't need a defensive end who could help right away, since they were already loaded at that position. So why not take the guy whose potential cornerstone talent you believed you could mold into a cornerstone player?

The Eagles traded up to get Graham at 13 -- a move that has subjected them to derision in light of Pierre-Paul's rapid ascent and Graham's health struggles (and the fact that safety Earl Thomas went one pick later). And with the seemingly more NFL-ready Morgan still on the board, the Giants picked Pierre-Paul. They didn't know he'd be one of the best defensive players in the league two years later. They thought maybe he could eventually be that, and that his potential combined with their program made him worth the pick. This was a pick that made more sense for the Giants than it might have made for any other team picking in that spot. They identified that, and again, it has paid off.

Anyway, the other teams in the NFC East are much further down the list, all in the bottom-17 portion of Bill's list labeled "The Rest of the Rest." He picks Sean Lee as the Cowboys' value pick and Tyron Smith as the cornerstone. The Eagles' value pick is Jason Kelce (sixth round!) and the cornerstone pick is LeSean McCoy. The Redskins' value pick is Roy Helu (fourth round!) and their cornerstones are Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan, though the Redskins are hoping the real cornerstone is the guy they're picking No. 2 overall next week.

Lorenzo Alexander is the kind of player coaches love to have on their team. He has a ton of positive energy and is willing to do whatever he can to help. He's an eager (and excellent) special-teamer who doesn't mind being moved around the roster to different positions if that's what's best for the team and his chances to stay in the league.

Alexander was a starting outside linebacker for the Washington Redskins two years ago, when they switched to a 3-4 defense. He moved into a backup role last year after they drafted Ryan Kerrigan for that spot. And now, with the team needing depth at inside linebacker, he's planning to learn and focus on that position this offseason. The Redskins have asked Alexander to be the backup inside linebacker behind starters London Fletcher and Perry Riley. Per Mike Jones at the Washington Post:

"I'm sure I'll still be used all over the place, but my primary focus this offseason will be inside linebacker, fully learning the position and responsibilities," Alexander said.

The Redskins have two promising young players as backups at outside linebacker in Rob Jackson, who last season spelled Brian Orakpo, and 2010 seventh-rounder Markus White. But for now, Alexander is the only potential inside linebacker under contract.

One of the strengths on which the Redskins are relying as they continue their rebuilding project is the strong leadership of some high-character people in their locker room. Alexander is one of the players Mike Shanahan inherited who fit that description. The defense has a number of them, including Fletcher, Orakpo, Adam Carriker and others. It helps the team stay positive and focused on the big-picture product at hand, and not get too down after another losing season. It serves them well, and Alexander's eagerness to be flexible is a good example of this trait.

A little more than a month from now, on May 19, London Fletcher will celebrate his 37th birthday. This is a high number for an NFL linebacker. Indeed, according to ESPN's research department, there are only 14 players at any position who are older than Fletcher and currently occupy space on NFL rosters. Eight of those 14 are kickers, one is a punter, one (Charlie Batch) is a backup quarterback who almost never plays and one (Patrick Mannelly) is a long snapper. The only non-special teams players older than Fletcher who still get get regular playing time are Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber, Green Bay's Donald Driver and Baltimore's Ray Lewis.

If you knew nothing else besides Fletcher's age, he would seem an odd fit with a Washington Redskins team that's looking ahead, signing younger free agents on offense, about to entrust its next decade to a rookie quarterback.

But the Redskins know better. They know all of the reasons Fletcher is the worthy exception to their plan to get younger. They know this is a man who has finished in the top seven in the league in tackles for eight straight years, who's in better shape in his late 30s than anyone in the locker room, who has played in 224 games since entering the league without ever missing one.

They know Fletcher is a person and a player who sets the right kinds of examples on the field and off for teammates young and old. Who plays hard on every single play and, without barking or bellowing or calling attention to himself but simply by the mere and apparent fact of his own effort, encourages others to do the same. They know he's a leader to whom other players can go to seek counsel on matters related to football as well as matters related to non-football life.

The Redskins remember this time last year, when the players were locked out and Fletcher was calling teammates, organizing player workouts, scouting high school fields to see if they would hold up well enough or if he'd be putting his men at too great a risk of injury by practicing on them. They remember the stories of how he scribbled down a few of Jim Haslett's 3-4 defense plays on a piece of paper and stuffed it in his back pocket so he could call out specific formations and assignments during those loosely organized workouts.

They know, from having watched it up close, that Fletcher believes in what the coaching staff is trying to do. They have seen him embrace the change from the 4-3 to the 3-4 -- thrive in it personally while he helped teach it and sell it to holdovers and newcomers alike. They believe the development of younger linebackers such as Perry Riley, Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan has something to do with the proximity those players have had to Fletcher in the locker room and on the practice field. Mike Shanahan views Fletcher as an extra coach -- someone who's so in tune with the program and so commands the respect of his teammates that he alleviates some of the responsibilities of the men on the coaching staff. He makes their job easier.

Fletcher matters to the Redskins. He wants to be a Redskin. He has become the captain, the leader and in a lot of ways the face of the franchise. He wants to be in Washington when it pays off -- when all of the lean years end and the Redskins contend again. The Redskins want him around their rookie quarterback -- be it Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck -- and the young receivers they signed. They want him to help corral all of the new members of their secondary and get the best out of them.

Fletcher is going to be 37 years old next month, and if that's all you were looking at then a two-year deal doesn't make sense. But if you've been watching and experiencing his career with the Redskins, you'd know it was a no-brainer. That's how the Redskins felt, and it's a huge relief to them and their fans that he's back in the fold.

An upset in the quarterfinals of the Madden '13 cover voting has eliminated New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, the last remaining hope to represent our once-proud division on the cover of the iconic video game. San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis, the No. 11 seed in his half of the bracket, obtained some small measure of revenge for the Giants' NFC Championship Game victory in January in San Francisco. Willis collected 55 percent of the vote in his third-round matchup against the second-seeded Cruz, whose vote totals in the first two rounds seemed to have put him on track for a semifinals matchup against Carolina's Cam Newton.

Cruz easily defeated Washington Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo in the first round and Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis in the second, but he was no match for Willis, who has so far knocked off Matt Forte, Maurice Jones-Drew and now Cruz in his improbable march to the semis. If he can upset Newton, he'll take on the winner of the Aaron Rodgers-Calvin Johnson semifinal for the honor of gracing the Madden cover.

I assume Kevin Seifert will have a full breakdown of the Rodgers-Johnson matchup on the NFC North blog, but for the NFC East, it is time to bid this competition farewell. Fun while it lasted and all of that. If you'd like to vote on the remaining matchups, feel free to do so here.

It's Saturday, which makes it the day I have to take my kids to swim lessons, which makes it the day I understand why some people drink alcoholic beverages before noon.

It also makes it mailbag day.

Andrew from New York, N.Y., admits he's a Philadelphia Eagles fan and therefore likely biased, but he says this to me: "I simply don't understand how you can report what Redskins sources say as the final word on McNabb's work ethic."

Dan Graziano: I didn't, Andrew. I presented and acknowledged both sides. Which Donovan McNabb pointedly did not, even leaving himself and his own win-loss record off his list of failed post-Elway Mike Shanahan quarterbacks. I would welcome a chance to discuss it with McNabb, and I let the producers of First Take know this, but they were not interested in having me on.

Dale from Novato, Calif., asks whether, if the Dallas Cowboys drafted a first-round cornerback, that would mean they're planning to part ways with Mike Jenkins after this season.

DG: Dale, I don't think it would automatically mean that, but as you point out, Jenkins does come with some injury questions. They love the way he played last year when healthy, but he wasn't healthy nearly enough. So if they were to draft a cornerback in the first round this year, they'd obviously be sending a message to Jenkins as well as covering themselves in case he can't get through the year healthy and they decide the best thing is to move on to other options. Better to address this now by thinking ahead then wait until next year when they have a clear problem/need at the position. And in this day and age, there's really no such thing as too many defensive backs.

Chris from Charleston, S.C., tells me that the reason Victor Cruz crushed Brian Orakpo in the Madden 13 cover vote was that Washington Redskins fans were voting against Orakpo because of the "Madden Curse." Chris is of the belief that I've not heard of this "Curse."

DG: Chris, I have heard of the Madden Curse, and of the idea that fans are voting against, rather than for, their favorite players in an effort to avoid having them land on the cover and end up "cursed." I just think it's foolish, and didn't see the need to acknowledge it in my post on the subject. We've reached an odd place in sports-fan history if this is really something about which people feel that strongly.

Tony G from Hamilton, Ontario, wants to know why the Arizona Cardinals are drafting ahead of the Dallas Cowboys when they had identical records and the Cardinals won the head-to-head matchup.

DG: Tony G, head-to-head result is not the tiebreaker for determining draft position. They use relative strength of schedule, and Arizona's was weaker, so their 8-8 record is deemed, for purposes of the draft, to be worse than Dallas' 8-8 record.

Ian from ODU wants to know if I think the Eagles would take Courtney Upshaw, the Alabama LB/DE, with their first-round pick (No. 15 overall) in next month's draft.

DG: Ian, my sense is that Upshaw will be gone by then, making this a moot issue. But if he is there, I'm still not 100 percent sure they take him. Upshaw is being looked at as a pass-rusher, and unless they were going to use him at defensive end in their 4-3 (where they're pretty well stacked with Trent Cole and Jason Babin), he might not be a fit for them. He's probably better suited to a 3-4 team as an outside linebacker who can get after the quarterback. The linebackers in Philadelphia's system aren't responsible for the pass rush.

Paul from Indiana Harbour Beach, Fla., likes Stanford tight end Coby Fleener for the New York Giants when they pick at No. 32 in the first round.

DG: Could definitely happen, Paul, and I agree with you that someone of Fleener's talents could make magic with Eli Manning. But since they've already signed Martellus Bennett and they surely expect Jake Ballard, Travis Beckum or both back at the end of this season if not before, I'm not certain they're looking at tight end as a long-term need position. The Giants will take the best available player still on their board at that spot, and if it's Fleener, I don't think they'd hesitate to do it. But I wouldn't be surprised if the highest player on their board at that point plays offensive tackle or defensive line. They really need a tackle, and they really love to draft defensive linemen.

Ahsen from MD wants to know why the Redskins didn't receive any compensatory draft picks for losing Carlos Rogers in free agency last year.

DG: Ahsen, you only get compensatory picks if your total net loss in free agency is deemed to have exceeded your net gain. So while the Redskins lost Rogers and others last year in free agency, the players they signed -- Stephen Bowen, Barry Cofield, Josh Wilson, etc -- were deemed by the NFL's formula to have been worth more than the total value of the free agents they lost. Hence, no compensatory picks.

Teon Wilson from Richmond, Va., wants to know if it's realistic for the Cowboys to trade for Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel.

DG: A couple of people I spoke with in Palm Beach this week told me they wouldn't be surprised to see the Eagles trade Samuel within the division. Nevertheless, I would. I don't think their need to trade him is so pressing that they'd send him someplace where he'd play against them twice a year. He's still pretty good. My guess is the price for Dallas would be higher than it would be for, say, an AFC team.

Nick from Rutgers wants to know why the Giants aren't at the top of the Breakfast Links posts anymore.

DG: We went back to alphabetical order once the new league year started. New year, standings reset. But I liked doing the links in standings order, and plan to do so again beginning in Week 2 of the 2012 season.

And to answer some questions that came in numerous times from numerous sources:

• I don't know when the arbitrator will decide about the Redskins/Cowboys cap penalties.
• No, I am not crazy.
• Sorry, but unless you're a Redskins fan, I simply do not know which player your team will pick in the first round of the draft.

Enjoy your weekend.

We have arrived in the second round of the "Madden 13" cover vote bracket. Two of our division's four representatives survived the first round and two did not.

New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz absolutely demolished Washington Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo in the all-NFC East first-round matchup, collecting 82 percent of the vote in the third-most-lopsided matchup of the round. (Brian, your vote totals are hurtful. I'm taking the bus and you will NOT see me at the pancake social in the morning!)

Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy easily beat Dolphins running back Reggie Bush 68 percent to 32 percent. I thought this would be closer, but McCoy should be grateful for the easy win, because as we discussed here last week, his road to the final four is not an easy one.

And Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware lost a tough first-round matchup to Vikings defensive end Jared Allen. Ware got 42 percent of the vote in this matchup of sack artists.

Cruz's second-round matchup is against Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, and I predict an easy win for Cruz in the all-New York showdown. If Cruz wins, he gets a quarterfinal match against the winner of the second-round match between Patrick Willis and Maurice Jones-Drew. My bracket has Cruz making it all the way to the final.

McCoy's second-round matchup is a big one against Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. No guarantee McCoy wins this, and even if he does, he'll likely have to take out Cam Newton in the third round. Tough sledding for Shady, but you never know. And you can go and vote if you really want him to win.

So we have this thing where you can go on and vote for who you think should be on the cover of "Madden NFL 13," and perhaps because it's March it's been set up as a bracket. There are 32 players in the bracket. The idea was that there'd be one for each NFL team, but as you can see the Patriots and Jets each now have two. All the Jets had to do to get their second was spend Wednesday completely embarrassing themselves.

But I digress.

New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz is the 2-seed on the left side of the bracket, matched up in the first round against 15th-seeded Washington Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo. We all like Orakpo, and he's sure to get a bit of a boost from the small measure of fame he's earned giving the caveman a hard time on the Geico commercials. But Cruz is the popular breakout star of the surprise Super Bowl champs, and he's sure to roll through the first round. In fact, as I break down the bracket, Doug Gottlieb-style, I don't see too many potential tough matchups for Cruz until the final. Fourth-seeded Larry Fitzgerald could give him a run, but I think the winner of that stellar second-round matchup between Fitz and the Philadelphia Eagles' LeSean McCoy is going to be spent. And I like Cruz's chances even against top seed Cam Newton in the semis. I'm picking Cruz to salsa right into the final.

McCoy is the fifth seed on the same side of the bracket, and he's got a tough draw. A first-round matchup against an underseeded Reggie Bush, who has a Kardashian history and may pull in some tabloid votes, is brutal. Then he's likely to see Fitzgerald in the second round and Newton in the third. If McCoy makes it to the semis, he'll have earned his way there, no doubt about it.

On the other side of the bracket, Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware is the No. 10 seed and matched up in the first round against No. 7 seed Jared Allen of the Vikings. I like Ware to pull the upset here, and while there's trouble looming in the second round from No. 2 seed Rob Gronkowski, I think Ware's won enough "Madden" games over the years that he can upset Gronk as well. I have Ware in my Elite Eight, but that's where his dream ends. He's going to get either Tim Tebow, Arian Foster or Calvin Johnson there, and those guys are heavyweights.

My bracket has Cruz meeting Aaron Rodgers in the final and Rodgers getting his discount double-check revenge for the Giants' victory over the Packers in the NFC playoffs. But what do I know? I picked the Packers to win that game, and I never do well in the bracket pools.

Anyway, go vote. It'll give you something to do while you wait for London Fletcher to sign or the Giants to do something or whatever it is you're doing these days as a fan of a team in the super-quiet NFC East.

Philadelphia Eagles fans want to know when their team is going to sign a linebacker. Washington Redskins fans want to know what's taking their team so long to re-sign London Fletcher. These questions can be dealt with in the same post, and in the wake of the news that the Detroit Lions have apparently re-signed the best linebacker on the market, Stephen Tulloch, to a five-year contract.

I do not think the Tulloch signing will unleash a flurry of linebacker transactions around the league. I think that, once the numbers get out, it will help teams figure out what the going rate is for linebackers on this year's free-agent market, where the position has not been a priority to this point and teams have been content to wait. I think the signing of linebacker Curtis Lofton will also help set the market, and that the flurry (such as it is) will wait until after Lofton signs as well. I do not think the Eagles are gong to spend what it takes to get Lofton, just as they were not willing to spend whatever it would have taken to get Tulloch. While they surely realize they should have paid more attention to the position than they did last offseason, linebacker is clearly not a position about which the Eagles feel much urgency.

And so they will wait, content to know that they can get a serviceable, productive veteran for much less than teams are paying the top-end guys on the linebacker market. The veteran they get might even be Fletcher, who certainly qualifies as more than serviceable but is not going to get the five-year deal Tulloch got because he's going to turn 37 this year. Fletcher is a shorter-term signing, but he still likely must wait until the higher-end guys get their money, because teams aren't going to want to guess at what the market will bear for a player who offers what Fletcher offers -- they're going to let the market tell them what they should pay.

The Redskins have said, more than once, that Fletcher is a top priority for them. They are obviously going young at most other spots on the roster, but Fletcher is a special case for which they're willing to make an exception. His value as a leader on and off the field is immeasurable. They love having him around young linebackers like Brian Orakpo, Ryan Kerrigan and Perry Riley, and they believe the examples he sets with his professionalism, his conditioning and his game-day enthusiasm would be impossible to replace. It's possible that the Redskins and Fletcher have some sort of understanding or agreement that he'll come back to them once the linebacker market fleshes itself out a bit and that they'll hammer out a deal. But it's also possible that some other team will recognize the value of what Fletcher brings, and that he's not your everyday 37-year-old player, and will make a strong pitch to recruit him as one of the final pieces for what it can convincingly say is a real run at next year's Super Bowl.

That team could and probably should be the Eagles. They still have the salary cap room to give Fletcher what he wants. They wouldn't need to lock into a long-term commitment at a position they clearly don't value very much. They would add a player who's older, yes, but still more productive than a great many who are younger and would bring a jolt of the kind of intangibles last year's Eagles team seemed to lack. He'd command respect from the younger players in the locker room as well as the older ones, and he might be the kind of missing piece the Eagles need to plug into last year's disappointing mix to push them over the top.

That's why the Eagles are the team that would scare me if I were the Redskins and still hadn't signed Fletcher. And why, if I were the Redskins, I'd be making a strong push to get him locked up as soon as the market tells everyone what he should reasonably expect to be making.

Peyton Manning may not be the only superstar mainstay the Indianapolis Colts can no longer afford. Adam Schefter is reporting that the Colts are entertaining trade offers for defensive end Dwight Freeney, one of the dominant NFL pass-rushers of the past half-decade. It's not a slam-dunk that they can deal Freeney, as he's 32 years old and scheduled to make about $14 million this year. But he's a big enough name that it's worth imagining whether he'd fit with the teams about which we care.

Freeney is a 4-3 defensive end, and the only two teams in the NFC East that play 4-3 defenses are set at defensive end. Sure, if the New York Giants traded Osi Umenyiora, they might look to replace him, but they have their own salary-cap issues and it's unlikely they'd look for an expensive 32-year-old replacement when they could just slide Mathias Kiwanuka back up front to supplement Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. The Philadelphia Eagles start Trent Cole and Jason Babin at end and have some depth, including the ability to play defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins there. The Eagles' needs on defense are at linebacker and safety, and maybe in the middle of the line.

The Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys are 3-4 defense teams, and the Redskins like their young outside linebacker pass-rush duo of Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo. That leaves Dallas, which needs pass-rush help but may not be a fit. I doubt it's reasonable to acquire Freeney in the hopes of making him either a 3-4 defensive end or a standup outside linebacker. Guys have done it, but at this point in Freeney's career it's hard to know whether he could make the transition. Plus, the Cowboys just franchised outside linebacker Anthony Spencer, which likely limits their ability to pursue expensive pass-rushers on the free agent or trade market.

So maybe Dallas kicks the tires on Freeney if they have some creative idea about how to use him, but the likelihood is that the Colts don't have an NFC East suitor for him.