Redskins fans who thought that the 2016 team had an excessive amount of bad fortune on the injury front now have some hard numbers to back up their point of view.

The numbers crunchers at Football Outsiders have a metric called Adjusted Games Lost (AGL). It includes players who missed games due to injuries and weighing the raw number based on whether the player was a starter or a reserve. They also factor in the diminished capacity of a player who is on the injury report but plays anyway.

Per this measurement, the Redskins AGL in 2016 was 101.5. Only four other teams lost more games than Washington. That makes two years in a row where the Redskins were in the bottom five in terms of AGL. In 2015 their AGL was 119.1, 31st in the league.

RELATED: NFL Mock Draft Version 8.0

As one might guess, the offense was much healthier than the defense. The offense had 27.6 AGL, 10th in the league. The defensive AGL was 68.9. Only the Bears had worse injury luck on that side of the ball.

Kedric Golston, the starter at nose tackle, missed the last 14 games after suffering a torn hamstring. An ACL had DeAngelo Hall on injured reserve for the final 13 games. And whether you count Junior Galette as a starter or as a reserve, he went down as missing 16 games after tearing his Achilles just prior to the start of training camp.

I’ve always thought that the connection between how many injuries a team suffers and the program conducted by that team’s strength and conditioning coach is tenuous at best. There was no way, for example, that a strength coach could have prevented Hall from tearing his ACL in MetLife Stadium. An injury like that is just bad luck.

MORE REDSKINS: Redskins seven-round mock draft

But apparently the team thought something was wrong with the way that Mike Clark was doing things. On the same day that they decided to let Joe Barry go, they showed Clark the door as well.

They promoted Chad Englehart as the strength and conditioning coach. That may seem to be an odd move if they were unhappy with Clark since he was Clark’s assistant. But Englehart has been on the staff for seven years and perhaps the belief is that he has seen enough of both the right way and the wrong way of doing things to come up with an effective program.

Stay up to date on the Redskins! Rich Tandler covers the team 365 days a year. Like his Facebook page Facebook.com/TandlerCSN and follow him on Twitter @Rich_TandlerCSN.

2018 NFL Draft

Redskins have drafted RBs, just not well

The 2018 NFL Mock Draft 9.0: One week away

Versatile DB Minkah Fitzpatrick could be too talented to leave on the board

On average, the mock drafts like Vita Vea going to the Redskins

Should Redskins draft for Jamison Crowder's replacement?

Since the 2017 regular ended we’ve known who the Redskins will play this coming season and we have known where the games will be played. Tonight we find out the when. 

The NFL schedule will be released tonight at 8 p.m. The NFL will fill in the blanks beside all of the prime time games, the Thanksgiving Day games and the Sunday doubleheader and night games. 

Last year, the Redskins were coming off of an 8-7-1 season where they just missed making a second straight playoff appearance. Kirk Cousins was becoming one of the more recognizable names in the NFL and the schedule makers thought they would be enough of a draw to warrant five prime time slots. They were scheduled for a Sunday night, two Monday nights, and two Thursday nights, including a first-ever home game on Thanksgiving. 

The Redskins may not be as attractive a prime time candidate this year. They went 7-9 and Cousins is gone, although replacement Alex Smith is fairly well-known. It’s nearly a given that two NFC East games will be on prime time. That has been the case every year but one since 2012. We will see what will happen beyond that. 

The prime-time games that the Redskins do have will start a bit earlier than they have in the past. The league announced yesterday that Monday night games will move up from 8:30 p.m. ET to 8:15 p.m. ET and Thursdays will move from an 8:25 p.m. start to 8:20 p.m. Sunday night games move up from 8:30 p.m. to 8:20 p.m.

There has been speculation that the Redskins will play on Thanksgiving, perhaps at Dallas or against another opponent in the night game. That would make three years in a row on Thanksgiving for them. That is not without precedent although it would be unusual. Besides the Lions and Cowboys, who host Thanksgiving games annually, only two teams played in three straight Thanksgiving games. The Bears played every Thanksgiving from 1979-1981. The Cardinals also played three straight, but there is an asterisk there since they hosted the game instead of the Cowboys in 1975 and 1977. In between they played at Dallas on Thanksgiving. 

The availability of FedEx Field should not cause any schedule alterations. There are some events scheduled for the venue but concerts by Taylor Swift and Beyonce & Jay-Z, an international soccer game, and the Maryland-Texas college game are all going to be done before the start of the NFL season. 

Here are the Redskins regular season opponents. 

Road

• Cowboys 
• Giants
• Eagles
• Cardinals
• Saints
• Jaguars
• Titans
• Bucs

Home

• Cowboys 
• Giants
• Eagles
• Packers
• Panthers
• Colts
• Falcons
• Texans

The preseason opponents were announced earlier this month.

More Redskins

• Is the Redskins' starter at left guard on the roster now?
• Redskins have drafted RBs, just not well
• The Redskins with the most to gain during OTAs

Stay up to date on the Redskins. Rich Tandler covers the team 365 days a year. Like his Facebook page Facebook.com/TandlerNBCSand follow him on Twitter @TandlerNBCS.

2018 NFL Draft

Redskins have drafted RBs, just not well

The 2018 NFL Mock Draft 9.0: One week away

Versatile DB Minkah Fitzpatrick could be too talented to leave on the board

On average, the mock drafts like Vita Vea going to the Redskins

Should Redskins draft for Jamison Crowder's replacement?

Here is what you need to know on this Thursday, April 19, seven days before the 2018 NFL draft.  

Five wild cards for the 2018 Redskins

We know what to expect out of many members of the Redskins. Ryan Kerrigan will register between 10 and 13 sacks. Zach Brown will be among the league leaders in tackles. Jamison Crowder will compile about 800 yards receiving. But we really don’t know what to expect out of a lot of the players expected to play key roles. Here are five of them.

S Montae Nicholson—Although most of the uncertainty surrounding Nicholson is about his health, we really don’t know what he can do over a full season. Sure, he looked good in the six games he played last year but opposing offenses did not have much of a chance to probe his weaknesses. If he stays healthy, his ability to adjust to what the offenses are doing against him will be the next phase of his development. 

CB Fabian Moreau—As a rookie, he was impressive as a punt team gunner, but he got very limited playing time on defense (59 snaps, only seven after Week 5). The Redskins will be counting on him stepping into a bigger role after the departures of Bashaud Breeland and Kendall Fuller. He has the tools but we won’t know how well he can handle the job until he gets extended playing time. 

WR Maurice Harris—Last year he went from spectacular to invisible in a hurry. He made a sensational catch for 36 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings the first time he was targeted. In five games after that, he had just three receptions for 26 yards. Should he have had more playing time (76 snaps)? Or did he just not earn more targets? The real Maurice Harris should come to the forefront in 2018.

NT Phil Taylor—You know the story here. He was looking great in training camp until a quad injury sidelined him for the season. Taylor is healthy enough for the Redskins to give him another chance but this is a player who has not taken the field since November of 2014. We simply don’t know what to expect out of him even if he does make into Week 1 in good health. 

RB Samaje Perine—His play improved as the year went on but he wasn’t good enough to keep both Jay Gruden and Doug Williams from saying that running back is a draft need. Ideally, he shares carries with the probable draft pick with a few going to Chris Thompson and they combine to rush for 1,800 yards. 

Stay up to date on the Redskins. Rich Tandler covers the team 365 days a year. Like his Facebook page, Facebook.com/TandlerNBCS and follow him on Twitter  @TandlerNBCS.

Tandler on Twitter

Only one team besides Cowboys/Lions has played in three straight Thanksgiving games since 1970. It was the Bears in in 1979-81. It was four in five years as they also played it in 1977

— Rich Tandler (@TandlerNBCS) April 18, 2018

Addition to the 3 consecutive Thanksgiving games tweet. The Cardinals also played 3 straight from 1975-1977. In ’75 and ’77 they were the hosts on Thanksgiving, not the Cowboys. Played at DAL in between. h/t @RTaylorTX

— Rich Tandler (@TandlerNBCS) April 18, 2018

Timeline  

Days until:

—OTAs start (5/22) 33
—Training camp starts (7/26) 98
—2018 NFL season starts (9/9) 143

In case you missed it

• Is the Redskins' starter at left guard on the roster now?
• Redskins have drafted RBs, just not well
• The Redskins with the most to gain during OTAs