If it helps... and it probably doesn't... this feels like a new beginning for the 'skins. I realize we've endurred a lot of new beginnings, but this one is a little different.
We're actually saying good-bye to the old guard and not just jury rigging new pieces in as the old ones fall off. We've got a young corp or hard working fighters who've earned their place on a football team.
In many respects, the possibility of shedding Moss, Portis, Rogers, McIntosh, Haynesworth, and McNabb is really exciting to me even though some of those players I rooted for and really liked. They all carried the disease of the recent Redskins teams of thinking they were world beaters when they couldn't even start the engine.
If Moss goes, I'll miss him, but I won't miss the routes he jogged or the hot/cold nature of his attention and play. I certainly won't miss the diva attitude towards practice that Portis displayed. Haynesworth goes without explanation. Rogers never displayed the will to improve and always talked about himself as if he were an super pro bowler. McNabb... well, we hardly knew ye. I wouldn't mind you getting a second chance, but clearly that ship has sailed. Neither you nor the coaching staff mesh and frankly, you were out played by a "never was"
So, the idea of truly starting over and building something instead of trying to reanimate the dead once again is interesting to me. We have players who aren't superstars, but a core of scrappers that are really easy to like. Banks, Armstrong, Alexander, Orakpo, and Fletcher. Even Cooley is much more of a scrapper than a superstar. He's too slow and not big enough.
So, we're underdogs. That's a lot better than being paper lions.