This all starts though with who is picking the players.
Belichick wins Super Bowls with a 7th round WR in Julian Edelman, a 2nd round TE in Rob Gronkowski, and over the years backs like Antowain Smith and James White.
How many top 10 picks has New England had over the years to come up with the players to excel?
The answer to getting better is increasing the value add in the War Room on draft day and setting that up by expanding a pathetic scouting department in terms of numbers that is among the smallest in the NFL.
The Redskins and Bruce indicated in the past that they had the assistant coaches evaluating players as well so the number of scouts was adequate for the job.
What a joke. You think Bill Belichick and Andy Reid don't have their assistants participating in evaluations? That doesn't limit their attempts to get the best information in house in observations from scouts when the NFL season is underway and assistants don't have a chance to look at college players until January or February.
New England doesn't participate in the shared scouting services, instead counting on their own people to make evaluations and target players others might miss or undervalue.
Meanwhile, the Redskins are 20 years behind in setting up their scouting and evaluation system and that's one reason they are 1-8.
The other is that that the team habitually refuses to remain patient and build through the draft.
Every few years this team has to throw the Hail Mary in an attempt to short circuit the process and come up with the quick fix to overcome past miscues and failures.
This shows itself in the move for Donovan McNabb, the move to trade a generation of picks for Griffin, and the trade to acquire a 35 year old quarterback, Alex Smith, after Kirk Cousins walks out the door.
Winning teams over time like the Steelers and Packers draft replacements for veterans that leave in free agency, get hurt, or retire.
Occasionally, they dip into the free agent market but never to give up the kind of future considerations in risky deals the Redskins do and to tie up salary cap in aging vets.
Another team like that is the Ravens. They use free agency more than the Steelers or Packers, but at the core the Ravens almost never trade away their
#1 pick or trading a pot full of future considerations for players nearing 30.
Free agency is another place this team has gotten taken to the cleaners.
New England spends megabucks to sign Stephon Gilmore at CB but he is one of the best cover corners in the NFL.
The Redskins go out and sign Josh Norman, a zone corner whose success is based at least partly on the dominance of the Carolina front seven from 2013-2015, to a top 5 contract after 2015 and then put him in a scheme where he is expected to play on an island on the outside with 4.6 speed.
It's a joke. And a bad one.
Friends who root for other teams and business associates used to razz me about some of the Redskins moves years ago for Haynesworth, etc. but they don't anymore.
The Redskins have become so non-competitive that a lot of people actually feel sorry for the plight of rooting for a team owned by Dan Snyder and managed by Bruce Allen.