The Washington Football Team is one of the most fascinating teams in the entire National Football League. They somehow snuck into the playoffs last season using a quarterback trio of Alex Smith, Dwayne Haskins, and Kyle Allen. Granted they were in a terrible division with the injury-stricken Cowboys, the Daniel Jones Giants, and the underperforming Eagles, but Washington still finished ahead of all of them. That's worth something even if it was only seven wins.

The Washington Football Team is led by an elite defense. Guys like Chase Young and William Jackson III will hold down that side of the ball and do it well. On offense, the weapons include scary Terry McLaurin, rookie breakout Antonio Gibson, the new addition Curtis Samuel, and a solid tight end in Logan Thomas. The main thing missing last season was a consistent quarterback. Washington decided against drafting the quarterback of the future and instead is rolling with a big-time fan favorite.

Washington Football Team X-Factor: Ryan Fitzpatrick

Fitzpatrick will be turning 39 this season but his role has somehow upgraded from what he was doing last season. He spent 2020 with the Miami Dolphins, always set as a placeholder for Tua Tagovailoa despite how well he was playing. Fitzpatrick ended up going 4-3 in his start in Miami and he played surprisingly well. His 68.5 completion percentage was the best of his career as he looks to be taking the Tom Brady approach to getting older. He's only getting better with age.

The fit with the Washington Football Team is pretty much perfect. A defensive team with offensive weapons that kind of skipped ahead in their rebuild and is now about a year away from really getting going. In the meantime, Washington can once again push for the playoffs and do it with real quarterback stability this season. Don't get me wrong, Alex Smith was a fine placeholder but there was never any consistency or stability at the position last season so this should be a nice addition.

Despite the seemingly nice fit for Fitzpatrick and the team, he is still being asked to do a lot in comparison to how his career has gone so far. Fitzpatrick hasn't played an entire 16 game season since 2015 and he went 10-6 with the Jets that season. In the five seasons since then, Fitzpatrick has started 41 games, averaging just over eight starts per season. He's being asked to take on quite a lot in his age 39 season.

This situation is such a strange one overall. Usually, a team in the situation the Washington Football Team was in this offseason would lead to taking a quarterback in the draft but because they made the playoffs, they didn't have a pick early enough to take one. Ryan Fitzpatrick is being handed the starting job with Taylor Heinicke behind him. There's no rookie backup just waiting for his turn as Fitzpatrick plays the first few games. This is his offense to run for better or for worse. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see what Fitzpatrick is able to do this season with the Washington Football Team.