The Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins are getting ready for one of the most anticipated Week 1 games on the schedule Monday night, as the NFL East rivals will be clashing in the nation's capital and the focus will obviously be on Robert Griffin III as he makes his return from serious knee surgery in the offseason.
Griffin stormed onto the scene last year and won rookie of the year and led the team to the playoffs and now the Redskins are expecting more from him as they take on the Eagles on Monday night football to open the season. The Redskins had their best season in the NFC East in quite some time and now he will be back under center after dealing with his serious knee surgery and rehab. Griffin did not play in the preseason and there have been some issues with the quarterback and Mike Shanahan, but now that the season is ready to start, Griffin is excited to get on the field.
Griffin has shown that he is one of the young quarterbacks in the league after throwing for over 3,000 yards last season and rushing for over 800 and seven touchdowns and he was also very accurate with the ball, throwing just five interceptions to his 20 touchdowns. Griffin also ended up vibing in the top five with passer rating, pitting up a record 102.4 for a rookie and he is looking to continue that style of play this season. The first snap Griffin takes will likely be the most anticipated one of the season, as it will be his first since undergoing surgery.
Griffin should have plenty of weapons to work with on Monday night, including second-year running back Alfred Morris, who is coming off of a great season after rushing for over 1,600 yards as a sixth round pick. Griffin also had Pierre Garcon as well as Santana Moss and the offensive line should be improved over last season as well. The last time the two teams played in Washington, Griffin had a huge game and missed on only nine of 39 passes in two games and ended up scoring six touchdowns over that span.
The Redskins finished the season on a streak of winning seven games and they will look to continue that play, while the Eagles are coming in after a terrible season and now have Chip Kelly as head coach and Michael Vick back as the starting quarterback. The team had plenty of turnover in the offseason and also dealt with the Riley Cooper situation and now they also have to recover after losing Jeremy Maclin for the season to an injury.
The Eagles went just 4-12 last season and had a terrible second half of the year and now Kelly and his new offense is coming into the NFL and everyone is wondering how it will look. The team has a new secondary and a new-look front and Kelly will try and exploit the pass defense for the Redskins, which ranked low in the league last season. The Redskins feel they can win the division and so do the Eagles and the will start up in earnest on Monday night football.
Prediction: Redskins win