Going off my gut, I was of the impression that Washington’s offense slipped last year – that it wasn’t as good as in 2015. Certainly, Kirk Cousins had all kinds of problems in the red zone, and Matt Jones got benched halfway through the year. But when you get out the numbers, they tell a slightly different story.

Washington finished with 5,661 total yards in 2015. It finished with 6,454 in 2016. That’s not only 793 more yards (an average of almost 50 per week) it made Washington the league’s MOST IMPROVED offense.

Really.

TOTAL OFFENSIVE YARDS (2015-2016)
Team20152016Diff
Washington5,6616,454793
Tennessee4,9885,728740
Indianapolis5,1425,830688
Atlanta5,9856,653668
Dallas5,3616,027666
Oakland5,3365,973637
Green Bay5,3535,900547
New Orleans6,4616,816355
Chicago5,5145,704190
Kansas City5,2995,488189
New England5,9916,180189
San Francisco4,8604,93070
Miami5,3075,32417
Cincinnati5,7285,711-17
Minnesota5,1395,041-98
Buffalo5,7755,666-109
Detroit5,5475,421-126
Baltimore5,7495,563-186
Jacksonville5,5815,359-222
San Diego5,9495,708-241
Cleveland5,3114,976-335
Seattle6,0585,715-343
Pittsburgh6,3275,962-365
Carolina5,8715,499-372
Philadelphia5,8305,398-432
Tampa Bay6,0145,542-472
Denver5,6885,169-519
Houston5,5645,035-529
Rams4,7614,203-558
NY Jets5,9255,268-657
NY Giants5,9525,291-661
Arizona6,5335,868-665

That isn’t everything, of course. Cousins still had his problems, turning some wins into losses and keeping the team out of the playoffs. Jones still got benched.

But the offense wasn’t a disaster. And it wasn’t just moving the ball between the 20s. Washington also scored 8 more points in 2016 than it had in 2015 (slight increase).

—Ian Allan