I think Washington has the best starting roster in the NFC and they are my pick to go to the SB along with the Pats.
However, from a statistical standpoint they have some things that would make them a pretty rare football team.
For one, they are on pace to have 7 starters (Cooley, Samuels, Jansen, Dockery, Marshall, Rogers, and Taylor) that were guys they either drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent.
However, in the last 10 Super Bowls the teams involved in the Super Bowl averaged roughly 14.5 starters that they either drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent (not counting kickers and punters).
I'm not saying that you can't go to the Super Bowl by deviating from the norm, but my guess is there's a good reason why the average SB team has about 2/3rd's of their starters being "home grown" players.
Depth.
In today's NFL, the salary cap allows teams to either "home grow" their talent or in the Skins situation, be big players in free agency. However, if you're drafting and developing talent, you're more likely to have more depth since guys playing in their rookie contracts typically take up less cap room than a prized veteran free agent. Furthermore, you're more likely to re-sign a prized "home grown" player to a lesser contract than you would with a prized free agent. Thus, you're most likely getting better value even if the Skins free agent is playing well and thus you have more cap room to add depth to your squad.
With that, the Skins are projected to have the second oldest starting defensive roster. With age, you're more likely to get injured and the Skins lack depth pretty much everywhere on defense. Not to mention that there was a study a few years ago on NFL injuries that found that defensive players are twice as likely to get injured as offensive players.
As far as Dallas goes, they have the 5th youngest defensive starting squad. If either Ferguson or Davis is replaced by either of their younger backups, they will have the youngest starting defense in the league. As far as the Dallas offense goes, they are the 23rd oldest starting offense in the league.
Back in the 80's, the Skins could outspend everybody sans the Niners and stockpile their team with free agents. Now with the salary cap and roster restrictions, they would be the first team to go to a Super Bowl utilizing free agency to construct their team.
Rich............
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