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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): And that would mean the same record as last year, and one game worse than the year before, and 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 due 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 appeal of NFL-imposed cap reductions to the Washington Redskins ($36 million) and Dallas Cowboys ($10 million) has ended. Arbitrator Stephen Burbank dismissed their claims today -- for reasons described below -- and the teams have raised the white flag, issuing a joint statement accepting the decision. Interestingly, the two NFL owners who enjoy a good fight the most -- Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder -- have decided to go quietly here, choosing to use this as a chip for political capital down the road.

The NFL claimed the teams gained competitive advantage by maneuvering cap money into the uncapped 2010 year, clearing the deck for future spending without encumbrances from bloated contracts of Albert Haynesworth, DeAngelo Hall, Miles Austin and others. Were the teams given a chance to argue, they would have emphasized that there were no written warnings against their conduct, and that the contracts were approved upon submission to the NFL management council (NFLMC). However, they will have no such chance, as the case was dismissed.

Commissioner power

Burbank rejected the teams’ arguments that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was not authorized to act on behalf of the NFLMC, the unit of the NFL that gave strident verbal warnings about their cap maneuvers and suggested discipline. Burbank intimated -- but did not expressly hold -- that the articles and bylaws of the NFLMC contemplate the commissioner acting as an agent for them. Thus, the commissioner’s powers may extend past the playing field into the contract and cap decisions made by teams and their ownership.

NFLPA on board

The March 11 letter announcing the reduction (reallocation letter) was executed by both Goodell and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith. Smith was agreeable as long as league-wide cap room remained the same, with the $46 million reallocated to the other 28 teams (the Saints and Raiders were denied reallocation because of similar, but lesser violations). The union’s buy-in -- forged with assurances from the NFL that the team cap number in 2012 would not dip below that of 2011 -- was a factor in Burbank’s dismissal.

Teams on board

With the NFLPA signing off, the March 27 resolution by 29 NFL teams (the Bucs abstained) to ratify the reallocation letter became, in Burbank’s eyes, a valid amendment to the collective bargaining agreement. Therefore, the Cowboys’ and Redskins’ claims of unilateral changes in the cap and collusion by other teams were denied. The key line from the decision reads in part: “the March 27th Resolution effectively ratified the Reallocation Letter, which therefore is binding on the Redskins and Cowboys as an amendment to the CBA.”

Thus, Burbank essentially gave his blessing to two agreements that served to bind and penalize the Redskins and Cowboys without them being a party to either. Commissioner power is strengthened again, 28 teams have additional cap room, and the NFLPA protects its players’ cap room league-wide. Everyone is satisfied except, of course, those two owners.

Something tells me that -- although they are accepting the decision -- they won’t soon forget this episode.

Thanks for the feedback on the last post. I have been reading through the comments there, and I appreciate the suggestions. Most of them, anyway.

Meantime, Football Outsides has been doing a division-by-division look at the remaining needs for each team, and today they take on the NFC East. It's Insider content (which always makes me chuckle, that the Outsiders are Insider), so you need to pay to read it, but here's a little taste.

Dallas Cowboys: "Interior offensive line." Basically, the FO guys aren't excited about the Cowboys' talent level at guard and center, and seem unimpressed by Jason Garrett's plan to let Nate Livings, Mackenzy Bernadeau, Bill Nagy and Phil Costa compete for the three starting spots in the interior of the line. No mention of David Arkin, oddly, who would seem to be in the mix. And I do have a nitpick with their claim that Nagy was "banished to the bench" for ineffectiveness last season, when it was actually a broken ankle that ended his season. But in general, the idea that the Cowboys need more strength and power at the interior line positions than they probably have on the roster is probably accurate.

New York Giants: "Osi Umenyiora's replacement." This seems to posit that the Giants would trade Umenyiora or that he'd hold out and they wouldn't have any pass-rushers at defensive end behind their two excellent starters. I don't think they're going to trade him, and I don't think he's going to hold out of any regular-season games once push comes to shove. But this does point up the idea that the Giants need to be thinking about who replaces Umenyiora next season, assuming he leaves via free agency.

Philadelphia Eagles: "Secondary depth." The metrics all rate Asante Samuel very highly as a cornerback, so it's little surprise that FO treats his departure as one that creates a hole. I think they're right on this score, but the metrics don't take into account Samuel's salary, or the fact that his playing style doesn't fit what they want to do with the cornerbacks this year, so it's hard to get on them for that dump-trade they made with him. Assuming full health and a big steps forward for Nate Allen and Jaiquawn Jarrett, the Eagles should have a good starting secondary. But I would agree that there is little behind the starters if someone gets hurt. Interested to see whether Brandon Boykin can make an impression early and challenge for that nickel corner spot, and I can't rule out the possibility that they add a veteran to the safety mix. There are still quite a few out there.

Washington Redskins: "Cornerbacks." Yeah, DeAngelo Hall and Josh Wilson project as the starters, but they're not exactly Deion Sanders and Night Train Lane back there, and as FO points out, the Redskins' efforts to upgrade their secondary don't rank among their greatest successes of this offseason. Washington's defense is emerging as a good one, but the weak spot is still in the back, and they would do well to keep on the lookout for ways to make it better. That's part of why they're bringing so many safeties to camp, but they'll need better performance from Hall and Wilson in 2012 if the defense is to take the next step.

So John Clayton has this piece on the 10 best position battles brewing this summer between rookies and veterans in the NFL. I scrolled through it, thinking it would provide me with some material for a late-Friday afternoon post, and to my shock and dismay there wasn't one NFC East mention in the whole thing. Come on, John! Help a guy out, will ya?

Anyway, it got me thinking: There must be some interesting position battles to keep an eye on throughout the offseason and training camps in our division, right? I mean, some situations where things aren't yet set in stone? There are, and here's one for each team.

Dallas Cowboys' inside linebackers: Sean Lee is set at one of these spots, but the other will be interesting to watch. The team drafted Bruce Carter in the second round in 2011, and they believe he's part of their future on defense. But he was coming off an injury when they drafted him and played in just 10 games as a rookie, and they can't be sure he'll be ready to hold down a starter's spot full-time in 2012. So they went out on the free-agent market and signed Dan Connor, formerly of the Carolina Panthers, to start next to Lee while Carter continues to acclimate himself to the pro game. The interesting aspect of this will be how good Carter looks in training camp and whether he can play well enough to demand to take reps and snaps away from Connor. The veteran, Connor, will start with the job, but Carter is the future there, and it's just a question of when he's ready.

New York Giants running backs: Ahmad Bradshaw is the unquestioned veteran starter, but he doesn't come without questions. Foot injuries have limited him over the past several seasons, and his good friend and veteran safety net, Brandon Jacobs, is off to San Francisco to play for the 49ers. Assuming Bradshaw won't be able to make it through the season fully healthy on a starter's workload, there are going to be plenty of snaps to go around. The question is how many of those snaps first-round pick David Wilson can steal from holdover youngsters like D.J. Ware, Da'Rel Scott and Andre Brown (who's suspended for the first four games for drugs).

Philadelphia Eagles safeties: The team wants Nate Allen and Jaiquawn Jarrett, its second-round picks from the 2010 and 2011 drafts, respectively, to be the starters. Of the two, they're more confident about Allen, who's had some injury issues but played well when healthy last season. They have him penciled in as a starter. Whether Jarrett can fight off Kurt Coleman for the other starting spot is one of the training-camp questions the Eagles will face. It's also possible they'll add a free-agent veteran to the mix, but they'd rather get the production they need from their young guys if they can.

Washington Redskins secondary: There are currently 15 defensive backs listed on the Redskins' roster, and it's safe to assume they can't all make the team. The question is which of them will play. Josh Wilson and DeAngelo Hall would appear to be set as the starting cornerbacks, but the team did sign free agent Cedric Griffin, and intriguing undrafted free-agent cornerback Chase Minnifield will be a name to watch in the summer. The more interesting questions are at safety, where the Redskins lost starters LaRon Landry and O.J. Atowge and things are wide open. The guy they like the best for the future is 2011 draft pick DeJon Gomes, but while they view him as a starter at some point, they don't know yet whether that point is this year. Their free-agent safety signing list is a fascinating one, including Brandon Meriweather, Madieu Williams and Tanard Jackson, any of whom c0uld emerge as a starter. Griffin also might have been brought in with an eye toward playing him at safety, and Reed Doughty was a valuable injury fill-in last season and could get a shot at more playing time in this crowded field. The Redskins appear to be installing an all-out competition for safety roles, and from here it's impossible to know who will play well enough to nail them down.

Good and interesting insight in this story from Albert Breer on NFL.com about what, exactly, upset the other teams in the NFL about the way the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins spent their money in the uncapped 2010 season. The NFL stripped the Redskins of $36 million and the Cowboys of $10 million in salary cap space over the next two years, and those two teams have filed a grievance against the league and the NFLPA to dispute the punishment. But to this point, it has remained unclear what, exactly, the other teams felt they did wrong.

Albert writes that, by structuring the contracts of Miles Austin, Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall in such a way as to inflate 2010 base salaries and save money in future years, the Cowboys and Redskins inflated the franchise-player numbers for wide receivers, defensive tackles and cornerbacks. As a result, the Chargers had a hard time keeping Vincent Jackson, the Ravens were handcuffed by the contract they wanted to give Haloti Ngata and the Bengals were unable to keep Johnathan Joseph. For example:

Austin's contract was instrumental in pushing the receiver number from $9.5 million in 2010 to $11.3 million in 2011. San Diego franchised Vincent Jackson at the latter number in 2011. The leverage Jackson gained from having an $11.4 million tender made him difficult to sign to a long-term deal, and the resulting 2012 franchise figure -- by rule, 120 percent of the previous number, which came out to $13.7 million -- made it even harder to tag him again for the club.

So San Diego, which likely would've tagged Jackson again if the number had been more affordable, let Jackson walk. He signed a five-year, $55.6 million contract with the Buccaneers this offseason.

Many thanks to Albert for shining some light on what, exactly, the other owners found wrong with the way the Cowboys and the Redskins behaved in a year that was supposed to have no spending restrictions. The Cowboys and Redskins are arguing that there was no rule against what they did, and while that may be true, Giants owner and NFL management committee chairman John Mara said last month that all teams were warned that they could be punished if they did what these two teams did.

But for a couple of reasons, I continue to believe the teams that are complaining about this are full of it. First of all, commissioner Roger Goodell said at the owners' meetings last month that the reason for the penalties was that the teams in question had attempted to gain a competitive advantage in future years through their 2010 actions. But what Albert writes (on the league's own web site) is something quite different. Albert's reporting indicates that the reason the other teams got upset at the Cowboys and the Redskins was because their actions required them to spend more money than they wanted to spend to pay their own players. And if that's the case, then the artificial, unwritten guidelines the owners tried to put in place to control spending during the uncapped year were not an effort to maintain future competitive balance (as they have claimed publicly), but rather clearly an attempt to control player salaries.

Furthermore, it's important to remember that there never would have been an uncapped 2010 season -- or any reason to cut backroom deals to regulate spending therein -- if the owners hadn't decided to lock out the players in 2011 in an effort to restructure the CBA in a manner more favorable to themselves. Had they negotiated in good faith prior to 2010, they could have put a new CBA in place that would have imposed a salary cap and clear spending rules for that season. But because they had decided long before to impose a lockout strategy and not negotiate until they had the players backed up against the wall, the 2010 season arrived without a salary cap, as the prior CBA said it must if it were to be the final league year.

The entire concept of the uncapped 2010 season was an avoidable mess of the owners' own making. The lockout was an unnecessary act of pure greed, as evidenced by a new CBA that solved almost none of the competitive-balance issues raised by small-market owners. And the idea that the teams could whisper together behind closed doors about acting as though there was a cap when there wasn't and expect every owner to go along with the plan is (and always was) utterly foolish. The salary cap penalties against the Cowboys and Redskins are part of the fallout from the clumsy way in which the NFL's owners executed their negotiating strategy, and I continue to see no common-sense reason why those teams shouldn't expect to get some sort of restitution from the arbitrator.

Cornerback Aaron Ross became the second member of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants to leave via free agency, signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars for three years and $15.3 million. As with the departure of wide receiver Mario Manningham, who signed with the 49ers over the weekend, Ross' defection was expected. Earlier this offseason there had been some talk of finding a way to keep Ross. But after the Giants re-signed cornerback Terrell Thomas last week, they looked at Ross as a reserve cornerback behind Thomas, Corey Webster and possibly even 2011 first-round draft pick Prince Amukamara. With that kind of depth at the position, they were only going to bring Ross back at their price, which was surely less than what he got from Jacksonville.

The Washington Redskins, looking to deepen their own secondary, had Ross in for a visit late last week and had interest in signing him as well. But as with the Giants, the Redskins weren't necessarily looking for a starter. They have DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson and the newly signed Cedric Griffin at cornerback. And while they would have liked to add Ross to that mix, they weren't willing to go as high as Jacksonville was to do so.

So the Giants feel they have the depth on their roster already to allow them to handle the loss of Ross, who won two Super Bowls with them and performed, overall, fairly well once he was thrust into a starter's role this past season due to Thomas' preseason knee injury. A former first-round pick, Ross had some 2011 games in which he flashed that first-round talent, and surely that's what caught the eye of Jacksonville, Washington and other interested teams.

Expect the Redskins to continue to hunt for free agents who can help add depth to their secondary, and don't rule out cornerback for them as a possibility in the middle rounds of the draft next month. They're picking a quarterback in the first round and don't have a second-round pick, but they still have a third-rounder and two fourths, and they still could use reinforcements in the secondary.

John Keim of the Washington Examiner first reported, and ESPN 980 radio in Washington has since confirmed, that New York Giants cornerback Aaron Ross will visit with the Washington Redskins on Friday. ESPN 980 also reports Ross will visit with the Bengals on Thursday, so there is some competition for his services. But this information, plus Adam Schefter's report that the Redskins are bringing in safety Brandon Meriweather for a visit, makes it clear that the Redskins are intent on upgrading their secondary.

The Redskins feel good about their defensive line, and if they re-sign London Fletcher (which they'd like to, but by the way still haven't), they feel great about their linebackers. But the secondary remains an issue. Safety might be the bigger problem, with O.J. Atogwe released and LaRon Landry almost certain not to return. But they checked in on cornerback Eric Wright before he signed with Tampa Bay, and now they're apparently looking at Ross.

Some will speculate that the addition of a veteran corner like Ross could mean the Redskins are planning to deal or cut DeAngelo Hall, and that could well be the case. But it's also possible — likely, even — that the Redskins believe it's important to have more than two good, starter-quality cornerbacks. And if they added Ross to the mix with Hall and Josh Wilson, they'd feel better about their cornerback rotation in 2012 than they did in 2011. Mike Shanahan has repeatedly stressed depth as the Redskins' biggest issue, and cornerback is one of the most vital positions in today's NFL. Depth there isn't a bad idea.

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Arrow indicates direction team is trending.

Final Power Ranking: 26
Preseason Power Ranking: 28

Biggest surprise: Rookie running backs Roy Helu and Evan Royster, who combined for five 100-yard rushing games in the final stretch of the season. Helu had three of them, and once Helu got hurt, Royster had two. The Redskins were able to run the ball effectively early in the season, too, with original starter Tim Hightower. And if Hightower can come back from his ACL injury, running back should be a position of remarkable depth and quality for the Redskins as they head into 2012.

Biggest disappointment: The drug suspensions that cost left tackle Trent Williams and tight end Fred Davis the final four games of the season. The two young stars were having fantastic seasons, and the manner in which they were suspended called into question not only their intelligence but their commitment to the team. The Redskins want to consider both of those positions developing strengths as they move into a brighter future, and right now they are left to hope this turns out to be a lesson learned rather than a sign of more trouble to come.

Biggest need: Quarterback. Not that much was expected, but Rex Grossman threw 20 interceptions in 13 starts, and John Beck was an utter disaster in the three games he started in Grossman's place. The disappointment fans feel about quarterback comes from the fact that the team didn't do more to address it last offseason, and upgrading over what they have at that position now must be an offseason priority if the Redskins are going to continue to make the progress they insist they made in 2011.

Team MVP: London Fletcher. The veteran inside linebacker was running offseason player workouts during the lockout, keeping a sheet of paper with some of the team's 3-4 defense plays from 2010 in his pocket and calling them out as they ran through drills on their own. Once the season began, the 37-year-old wonder brought it every game, leading the NFL in tackles for the season, helping with the development of young players like Perry Riley and Ryan Kerrigan and setting an everyday, every-week example as the best, most intense, most focused and most prepared player on the team. Having Fletcher is like having a coach on the field in addition to a great player, and there's no wonder why Shanahan has called bringing back the potential free agent a top priority.

The other side of the ball: The Redskins did a lot of fine work rebuilding their defense in the 2011 offseason, bringing in players such as Barry Cofield, Stephen Bowen and Josh Wilson while drafting Kerrigan. But while they may still need to add a piece or two in the secondary, depending on what happens with DeAngelo Hall and LaRon Landry, the Redskins' focus this offseason is likely to be on offense. They need a quarterback, a No. 1 receiver and some more beef on the offensive line.

You know, all week I do these radio spots, and I did one in Dallas on Friday where they just kept trying to get me to say there was no chance the Washington Redskins could upset the Dallas Cowboys. But I cover the NFL, you see, and while certain segments of the league's fan base refuse to learn such week-to-week lessons as "Any team can win any game at any time," I tend to try and keep things in perspective. So I was giving the guys at "The Ben & Skin Show" a bunch of, "Well, of course there's a chance," and they were coming back at me with "Come on, you don't really think that," until I finally caved in and said the Cowboys would have to play a bad game and turn the ball over a bunch of times for the Redskins to have a chance.

Well, that's not exactly the way it worked out, but the Redskins sure did have a chance to upset the Cowboys on Sunday and derail Dallas' playoff hopes. They beat them up and down the field on special teams, hung tough on defense and made plays on offense for the first time in a month. Had Graham Gano's 52-yard overtime field goal attempt stayed just a bit truer, they'd have won it. The fact that it didn't leaves Redskins fans dealing with the pain of a sixth straight loss in a season gone off the rails as they lost 27-24.

The players feel the same way. They're disappointed. They feel like they let one get away. DeAngelo Hall blamed himself for letting Dez Bryant get open on that last drive and was so upset about it that he said he'd cut himself if he worked in the front office. A loss like this, where you miss by so little, hurts deeply, and I'm not expecting the Redskins or their fans to want to hear anything about moral victories.

But I think this game said a lot about the Redskins. First of all, it said a lot about their defense, which has been asked to do pretty much everything over the past month as the offense has effectively shut down. Hall's quotes in that link right there indicate a high level of disappointment rooted in the fact that the offense finally put enough points on the board to win and the defense couldn't make it happen. But that late breakdown aside, this was a gusty performance by the Redskins' defense. They bottled up running back DeMarco Murray, especially between the tackles, which is something no one else has been able to do yet. And while they still can't get anything going in the run game no matter which running back they rotate in and out of there, Rex Grossman showed why he should be the starting quarterback ahead of John Beck. He's a legitimate professional quarterback with the ability to hang in the pocket and make throws down the field, whereas Beck is not.

There's been a lot of talk in recent weeks among Redskins fans about next year's draft, and being okay with the idea of losing enough games to improve the position from which they can pick their quarterback of the future. I never understand the idea of fans wanting the team into which they pour so much emotion and energy to lose the games they play once a week, but oh well. You need to get your frustrations out some way, and if your hunt for silver lining forces you to look ahead and imagine Matt Barkley or Landry Jones in burgundy and gold, be my guest.

But if I were a Redskins fan, I'd be proud of my team for not playing that way. I'd be happy that they gave me a game today I thought they could win -- a gritty effort against a bitter rival that went right down to the end. Too many Redskins weeks recently have been devoid of hope. This one had it. This was a week in which Redskins fans could believe something great would happen. And even better, if you went into this game thinking they had no chance to win another game this season, there's no way you came out of it with the same feeling.

Professional athletes don't quit on seasons, and they don't concern themselves with their team's draft position in November. If I were a Redskins fan, I believe the most important thing to me would be to know that my team was still doing its best to win every game it played. I think you saw that Sunday. The Redskins are outmanned right now. They're missing too many key starters to be a contending team. They won't be making the playoffs. They're rebuilding, and you see the progress on defense. The offense needs to be the focal point of the next offseason, starting with quarterback, and I believe it will. In the meantime, what they did today was throw a serious scare into the Cowboys, who have more talent than they do at almost every position. And I think Redskins fans would do well to remember how much fun it was right up until the disappointing end.

Over the past few weeks, as the Washington Redskins have lost a significant number of offensive players to injury, I've mentioned a few times that I think the Washington defense is being asked to do too much. Well, you know who else is noticing that? The players on the Washington defense.

Per Dan Steinberg, Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall addressed this issue in a radio interview Sunday night. And while Hall didn't say anything nasty or controversial, his comments about the offense indicate that everyone in the locker room is well aware of what the Redskins' problems are:

"It's almost like your little brother. Obviously you can't go beat up an 8-year old. If you're 15 years old, all you can do is keep training your little brother — hey, this is what we need to do, dude will come at you, throw your hands up, duck and weave, bob and weave, throw this punch, keep attacking em — but it ain't much more we can do. We can't, defensively, go out there and play offense.

"They're three-and-out, is it frustrating? Yeah. Do we want them to pick up first downs and score? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, if that's not happening, all I can do is try to be positive and try to say hey guys, let’s go, let's go make a play. They can't make a play, let's go make a play for them. That's just trying to be a leader and trying to stay positive. Everybody could bash dang near everything going on. It's easy to do that. It's harder to try to stay positive and keep guys upbeat."

I think Hall may have set a record for the least inflammatory, most matter-of-fact way in which a defensive player has ever ripped his entire offense. I mean, the facts of the case are that he equated the whole offense to an 8-year-old kid brother and said the words, "They can't make a play." But he did so in a way that acknowledges the issue simply as something the team is going through and dealing with together. He was asked, first of all, which is always important to remember when quoting somebody from an interview like this, and he didn't insult his interrogators by dodging the question or pretending something was true that was not. Anybody who watches a Redskins game these days can see that they have nothing on offense, and what good would it do to claim otherwise?

One of the things I have felt the Redskins had going for them since before the season began was the veteran element in their locker room. Led by London Fletcher, this is a team loaded with guys who will tell it like it is, in public and behind closed doors. There might be other teams on which a defensive player in this same situation would feed you a line -- tell you all about how hard John Beck is trying and how he just needs to have some breaks go his way. But that's not true. Right now, with Santana Moss and Tim Hightower and Chris Cooley and Kory Lichtensteiger all out the Redskins are outmanned on offense. They weren't a great offensive team to begin with, and the injuries have reduced them to one of the worst offenses in the league. That's frustrating for players on both sides of the ball, including those who play on a defense that's still just allowing a very respectable 19.8 points per game, and it doesn't do any good to sugarcoat it.

There are two ways the rest of this year could go for Beck and the current Redskins offense. The first is that they could get better. That the work they do in practice every week starts to pay off, rookies like Roy Helu and Leonard Hankerson start blossoming, the offensive line begins to jell and they start scoring some points again. The second, more likely way it can go is that they play out this season with what they have and spend the next offseason finding their quarterback of the future and the pieces they need to put around him to make him successful. But either way, they have eight games left. They surely plan to play them all and try to win each one, and so their goal is to get better in the short term. The first thing you have to do in order to improve is understand what you're doing wrong. So no matter what else is going on around the Redskins right now, Hall's comments indicate that at least they're not kidding themselves.

The question is whether there's anything they can do about it.

A few thoughts from the Washington Redskins' fourth straight loss, this one at home to the 49ers on Sunday afternoon:

What it means: Well, at least the Redskins scored this week. Heck, they even came up with a late touchdown to keep things respectable. But for much of the game it was more of the same -- an inept, outmanned, overmatched offense that just couldn't get yards when it had to and asked the defense to stay on the field too long and do too much. The worst part is that they're not even doing what they say they want to do. John Beck threw 47 passes in this game and they only had 15 rush attempts. They weren't far enough behind to justify a split like that.

Hello, Helu: In a surprise move, just before the game Mike Shanahan named rookie Roy Helu the starter at running back over Ryan Torain. He also started rookie Leonard Hankerson at wide receiver, and Hankerson played fine. But it was the Helu move that was the eye-opener. The reason Tim Hightower was starting over Torain earlier in the year was that the Redskins liked Hightower better in the passing game -- as a receiver and a blocker. They feel the same way about Helu, and you could see why. Not only did he come up with 41 rushing yards on 10 carries, Helu also caught 14 passes for 105 yards. A Redskins offense that doesn't have many downfield options needs to be able to throw to its backs as well as its tight ends, and while tight end Fred Davis wasn't a factor, Helu showed them that they may have a new dimension on which they can rely going forward.

Beck is a wreck: I'm sure a lot of guys would look jittery playing quarterback behind this offensive line the way it's built right now, but Beck sure isn't the picture of cool confidence back there. It's one thing to know you can make a play with your legs when things break down. It's quite another to be jumping around as soon as you take the snap, ignoring open receivers and making poor choices when the play hasn't yet broken down. Beck could have made more plays than he did in this one. More of this was on him than was the last game, in which he got sacked 10 times. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Redskins will make at least one more starting quarterback change before the end of this year. You've not seen the last of Rex Grossman.

The defense doesn't rest: Once again, I thought the defense fought pretty hard, considering it's being asked to win games by itself. Ryan Kerrigan was a disruptive presence in the backfield early, London Fletcher was once again everywhere all at once, LaRon Landry and DeAngelo Hall made some plays ... The Redskins could be in these games if the offense had better players, but all of the key injuries on that side of the ball have crippled them.

What's next: The Redskins travel to Miami on Sunday to take on the red-hot Miami Dolphins, who picked up their first win in a row Sunday to improve to 1-7.

One of the best individual matchups to watch this week will be Carolina receiver Steve Smith and Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall.

Back in 2007, this matchup prompted perhaps the biggest meltdown in NFC South history. At the time, Hall was playing for the Atlanta Falcons. It was early in the disastrous tenure of Bobby Petrino and Hall’s behavior that day in the Georgia Dome might have been the first real outward sign of trouble.

Smith and Hall had once been friends, but Hall had made some previous comments that irritated the Carolina receivers. Both players talk a lot on the field and things really escalated late in the game.

With a little coaxing from Smith, Hall was called for three penalties that totaled 37 yards and helped the Panthers rally for a 27-20 win. Verbal shots flew back and forth in both locker rooms and Hall was benched the next week.

Hall and Smith kept their comments about one another toned down this week.

“I don’t think it was ever a level of dislike between us,” Hall said. “We’re two fierce competitors and we’re a lot alike that way. We want to get the best out of each other and try to beat the other one down. That’s probably not going to change. It’s going to be the same kind of scenario come Sunday. He’s going to come out and try to impose his will on me and I’m going to do likewise.”

Smith didn’t have much to say when asked about Hall this week.

“He’s a good opponent and he can play,” Smith said. “So you have to be ready to play.”

But don’t be surprised if things heat up again Sunday. Hall and Smith downplayed their rivalry leading into the game. But, once they’re on the field together, old emotions could surface.

It occurs to me that (a) there are about a billion things going on with the Dallas Cowboys today and (b) I haven't posted on them yet. So here you go, with a whole links post dedicated to Cowboys news of the day:

Todd Archer is reporting that Tony Romo had a CT scan to check on how well his punctured lung is healing. Romo did not practice Thursday, but remember, the Cowboys don't play until Monday night, so he gets an extra day to heal and figure all of this stuff out. But the indicators aren't as positive for Romo's Sunday status as they are for, say, the Eagles' Michael Vick. And if there are still questions about the speed with which the puncture in Romo's lung is healing tomorrow and Saturday, it might start to make sense to sit him out a week and roll with Jon Kitna.

For his part, Kitna doesn't expect that to happen.

Whoever plays quarterback will have a hard time finding experienced wideouts to whom to throw the ball. Miles Austin and Dez Bryant also sat out Thursday's practice with injuries. It sounds as if Austin's hamstring will keep him out of the next two games, and while Bryant's thigh injury hasn't worsened since it happened in the Week 1 game against the Jets, it's not getting better either, and Bryant hasn't practiced since that game. It's possible that Kevin Ogletree and Jesse Holley could be the starting wide receivers for the Cowboys on Monday night.

The Cowboys are getting healthier on defense, as starting cornerback Terence Newman looks set for his first game action of the year. That should only help a Rob Ryan defense that has looked a lot better so far than I and many others expected it to look in the early part of the season.

Oh, and the Cowboys don't seem to have too much of an issue with what Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall said about going after Romo's ribs, though Virginia alum Ogletree used it as an opportunity to get in a dig at Hall's school, Virginia Tech.

So there you go. Your Cowboys update for this evening. I hope that gets you up to date

Observations from the Redskins' 34-31 preseason loss to the Ravens on "Monday Night Football":

Everyone loves a horse race, so it's no surprise that so many people who are watching the Washington Redskins' apparent quarterback competition would be treating it as one. Rex Grossman bounces a couple of throws, he's in trouble. John Beck hits a deep ball, he's in the lead. Grossman looks sharp in the two-minute drill, he's not dead yet. Beck throws an interception, he's lost the job! Oh wait! Beck comes back and leads a 95-yard touchdown drive! The job is again his to lose!!!

It's just not as cut-and-dried as that. The key thing to remember about the preseason games is that we never really know what we're looking at. Some teams game plan, some teams don't and you have no idea, really, who's trying hard and who isn't. So the evaluations have to be about more than performance and results. And for Mike Shanahan and the rest of the Redskins' coaching staff, they are.

Shanahan and the Redskins know exactly what Grossman is. He doesn't have to show them anything. They believe, if they install Grossman as the starter, they know exactly what they'll get. And so far this preseason, nothing he's shown has done anything to sway them from that opinion.

They believe, however, that Beck has the ability to give them more. That he can make plays and move the chains with his feet. That he has a quicker release, and that he anticipates throws better. They think the upside is higher with Beck, and what they wanted to see from him when this preseason began is how he would handle the pressure of being the starter -- or at least of the opportunity to finally be a starter in the NFL.

So while, yes, it matters that Beck made a bad throw that was intercepted on his first play of the second half, it almost certainly matters more that he rebounded to lead that long touchdown drive. You're not going to judge a guy on one throw, good or bad. But to watch Beck engineer that drive, make smart decisions quickly, let go of the ball with that kind of speed... that's the kind of thing that, if the question is whether or not Beck can handle the pressure of the situation, the answer is affirmative. Shanahan's not likely to announce his decision for another week or so at least, but I believe Beck's been the favorite all along and has done nothing to lose that status.

Some other thoughts from what turned out to be an exhibition loss when Tyrod Taylor and the fired-up Ravens went in for a touchdown with 22 seconds left:

1. Ryan Kerrigan is an impact player. Sure, he's a rookie still learning to play standing up as a linebacker instead of in the three-point lineman stance he used in college, and he still needs to gets used to the coverage schemes. But when they send Kerrigan after a quarterback, he can flat-out get there. He picked up his second sack in two preseason games, and it appears as though he and fellow outsider 'backer Brian Orakpo can be a fearsome combination. Overall, the Redskins' first-team defense looked very good, though it could suffer if the knee injury suffered in the first quarter by rookie defensive end Jarvis Jenkins is a long-term issue. Jenkins has been a star during training camp.

2. Terrence Austin is playing himself into a roster spot. For the second game in a row, Austin was a standout at the receiver position. He caught Beck's touchdown pass and had 71 yards on five catches. He's also served as the punt returner the past couple of weeks with Brandon Banks out (though he only got one chance in this one), and that could help him make the team. If he's got a connection with Beck, and if Beck's the starter, it's going to be difficult to cut Austin.

3. Interesting night for DeAngelo Hall. He had the interception return for a touchdown, nicely anticipating the route and sitting on it while Joe Flacco fired it right to him, but he also gave up Lee Evans' touchdown for Baltimore. He had tight coverage on Evans and just didn't see the ball in time to make a play on Flacco's pinpoint throw. In general, the Redskins' secondary has been the weak spot of the defense in this preseason. In fairness, they have been playing without starting safety LaRon Landry and cornerback Josh Wilson -- as well as without inside linebacker London Fletcher, who's not a member of the secondary but is an on-field leader of the defense whose presence and knowledge are missed. It was encouraging to see O.J. Atogwe on the field for the first time this preseason, and Reed Doughty has played well at safety during the injuries to the starters. But once Landry is back there, things will feel much more whole.

4. Santana Moss will be a huge help to whichever guy is the quarterback. Moss is simply a great, professional route-runner. They could use a bigger red-zone threat than they have, but Moss is going to be a safety net for Beck and/or Grossman all year long as they work on moving the ball down the field. As for that red-zone threat... maybe Leonard Hankerson can develop into it. We got on his case last week for drops, so it should be noted that he made a very nice shoestring catch on the only ball that came his way on this night. And Anthony Armstrong looks like a potential deep threat, as Beck found him for 33 yards on his first throw of the game.

5. Tim Hightower. Not much else to say. He ripped off another big run, didn't fumble the ball and looks like he's moving up fantasy draft boards as the season approaches. Nine carries for 56 yards, no sign of injured Ryan Torain to challenge him and Roy Helu looks like a fun, speedy backup at this point. Hightower is a factor in the passing game as well, as a blocker and a receiver, and if he holds onto the ball he's going to be an asset.

Once again, no way to know if the good stuff we've seen from the Redskins will carry into the regular season, and no real reason to think it will. The preseason just doesn't have that kind of predictive value. But even though they lost the game, there were a lot of things about Thursday night to help make the Redskins fell good about themselves, and there is value in that as the season gets ready to start.

Time once again for our nightly check-in, where we look back over the 24 hours that have just transpired and ask the open-ended question: How was your day...

Dallas Cowboys?

"You know, fine." Got to be getting old watching the Eagles sign half the world, but the Cowboys did finally lock in one of the two starting safeties they need, bringing back Gerald Sensabaugh on what appears to be his third one-year contract. Wonder what that says about a guy. They keep wanting him back, but ... not that much. I'd be surprised if Abram Elam weren't the Cowboys' next move, and after that maybe a No. 3 receiver. But everybody who's been harping on the Cowboys to sign free agents seems to forget how many good players they already have. Rob Ryan's coaching could be enough to fix what went wrong on defense last year, even with similar personnel. And the offense is loaded with talent. They don't need star-caliber pieces. They just need to fill holes. They'll do it. By the way, they also signed another kicker -- Kai Forbath, who was really good at UCLA, but is hurt now and may or may not be a factor in the David Buehler/Dan Bailey kicking competition that has the Metroplex riveted.

New York Giants?

"Restful." The Giants' players had the day off, to their coach's chagrin, but the front office made itself busy with minor moves, like signing defensive tackle Gabe Watson, who'll be a solid backup or rotational guy in the middle of their line, and bringing back Michael Clayton to help their receiver depth. Nothing new on Osi Umenyiora, who still wants a new deal or out and isn't any more likely today than he was yesterday to get either. Nothing new on Steve Smith or Kevin Boss, though the signing of Zach Miller by the Seahawks could get the Raiders interested pretty quickly. The Giants signed Ben Patrick on Monday to give them insurance in case Boss left, but they're not similar players. Patrick doesn't block the way Boss does, and they surely want Boss back.

Philadelphia Eagles?

"Oh, you know. Typical, three-signing day." The Eagles were off too, but they were at it again, agreeing to new deals with Ronnie Brown as a backup running back, Ryan Harris as a right tackle and Jarrad Page to add to their safety mix along with all of the young guys they have back there. All three came on one-year deals because apparently the whole league wants to play for the Eagles now and will take anything to do it. Jeremy Maclin also arrived in camp after missing the first five practices due to an illness that the team won't discuss, so hopefully he's okay. And nothing new on DeSean Jackson, who has to be wondering how much money is left for him.

Washington Redskins?

"Humbling." Yes, they're paying attention in Ashburn to what's happening at Lehigh with the Eagles. The whole league is. And if you're the Redskins, it can't escape your attention that your current starters at quarterback and running back are John Beck and Ryan Torain while the Eagles' backups at those spots are Vince Young and Ronnie Brown. But hey. Rex Grossman showed up Tuesday, which means it might not have to be Beck. Phillip Buchanon showed up, too, though we also learned that he's suspended for the first four games of the season. Once he's back, I think the Redskins' defense has a chance to be good. The offense, with question marks at quarterback, running back, receiver and offensive line ... that's another story.

My day was good. Spent some more time at Redskins camp. Had some nice conversations with Barry Cofield, Trent Williams, DeAngelo Hall, Lorenzo Alexander and others, and in the coming days I will be filling you in on the insight I gleaned from those conversations. I like getting out and talking to the players and coaches. I learn more from those conversations than I do from watching practice, though I know you guys want to know what I saw in practice. But yeah, my day was real nice. Looking forward to one more morning in Ashburn before I head home and then out to see the Eagles.

How was your day?