Is Chris Samuels the Most Valuable Redskin?

Dan Steinberg from the DC Sports Bog makes the point that of all the 53 players on the roster, Chris Samuels is perhaps the one player that ’Skins could least afford to lose. From the Bog:

I don’t think I’m going out on much of a limb here, but I’d argue Samuels is the player the Redskins can least afford to be without, which makes him their most indispensable player.

Which got me thinking, what would a list of the Redskins’ 53 most valuable players, in order, look like? I gave up somewhere around 12, so I’ll just present my Top 5 here, and let you vote on the most valuable. Feel free to tell me what your 1-5 would look like, or even your 6-10, if it’s a slow day at work.

1) Chris Samuels. Mister Irrelevant noted before the season that Samuels missed four games last season, which included all three of Washington’s worst offensive performances of the season. With him out against the Panthers, the Skins managed just 198 yards, easily their lowest total of this season, and the lowest of Jim Zorn’s tenure. He’s an All-Pro player at one of the most important spots on the field. And the backups behind him are either unproven or unreliable. To me, this is pretty easy.

Indeed, losing Chris Samuels means the Redskins immediately go into code red mode with their blocking schemes—that means keeping in extra backs, eliminating deep drop-backs for Jason Campbell, and most importantly, keeping TE Chris Cooley in to block. As Cooley’s arguably their best offensive weapon, this is fairly crippling to the Redskins’ hopes of putting together big plays, as the receivers have so far proven ineffective.

We learned under Joe Gibbs, keeping 9 men in to block is no fun for anyone, and it’s even less so when the receivers running routes are either 5'9ish and old (Moss, Randle-El), or 6'3ish and terrible(Thomas, Kelly)—with that in mind, here’s to hoping that Samuels gets that second opinion and realizes he’ll be ready to go in Week 7. It’s not exactly realistic, but hey, what do Redskins fans have if not hope?