PAUL WOODY: Skins placing too much emphasis on potential

Of all the things said in the Washington Redskins' locker room, none is more annoying than: We have the talent to excel.

Wide receiver Santana Moss said it Monday. Running back Clinton Portis says it frequently.

Head coach Jim Zorn, after a season-opening loss to the New York Giants, said the Redskins are going to be a good team.

After scoring nine points on three field goals in Game 2, Zorn said he thought the Redskins had improved.

The Redskins averaged 16.5 points per game last season, and they're at 13 points per game this season.

That's not improvement.

The Redskins are not as good as they think.

The offense is moribund. Jason Campbell is a system quarterback, and Zorn's West Coast offense is not the system for Campbell.

Campbell is a Joe Gibbs quarterback. And that means Campbell is a big, strong, tough, poised quarterback with a strong arm.

Gibbs won two Super Bowls with such quarterbacks, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien.

Gibbs is gone. He's trying to win NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, and his interest in points scored by the Redskins is marginal.

The Redskins have more than just marginal problems.

Right guard Randy Thomas is out for the season with a torn triceps muscle.

The Redskins hoped to get through the season without losing any offensive linemen. That's akin to a company saying it hopes to get through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression without losing any workers.

It might happen. The odds are 99.9 percent it will not.

The Redskins must replace Thomas with a player who never has started an NFL game.

Just where Moss and Portis see all this talent is perplexing.

It is not at wide receiver. Moss no longer can beat double-teams.

Chris Cooley is a fine tight end, but defenses are willing to let tight ends catch 10to 12-yard passes between the 20-yard lines.

Defensive coordinators do not have to worry extensively about Redskins receivers beating them deep.

The Redskins tried to get younger and better at wide receiver, drafting Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly in the second round of 2008.

Thomas appears headed for a career as a special teams player. Kelly, the big receiver the Redskins had been seeking for years, has yet to make have an impact.

The New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts had to quickly reconfigure their receiving corps this season. They have scored 56, 65 and 39 points in two games.

The Redskins have scored 26.

The biggest surprise has been Zorn's coaching. His career as a player and assistant coach indicated he was nothing if not his own man.

Several of his decisions Sunday against the St. Louis Rams -- a halfback option on third and goal from the 5 in the third quarter and two fourth-down gambles late in the fourth quarter -- had the earmarks of trying to satisfy the owner and win rather than simply winning.

The Redskins play in Detroit Sunday. No one will be surprised if the Lions, one of the worst teams in NFL history, end their 19-game losing streak.

The Redskins can talk all they want about their "talent." They're only fooling themselves when they do.

Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or . Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/World_of_Woody