With a record of 5-7, first-year GM Scot McCloughan has the Redskins right where he wants them. The fact that the team finds themselves in a three-way tie for first-place in the NFC East is a matter of circumstance. This is a process.

McCloughan’s plan is not about winning this year — it is about building a team that competes every year. As a fan of one of the most incompetent franchises in the NFL over the past 25 years, you couldn’t ask for more. Sure it would be fun to stumble into the playoffs at 7-9 and convince ourselves that anything can happen, but do you really think this team, or any team in the NFC East, is competent enough to win multiple January football games? Perhaps a healthy Giants team could, but that’s a topic for another day.

At this time last season, the Redskins were 3-9 on their way to 4-12. Our starting quarterback had been benched to be “preserved” and this year’s starter was on his way to Stuart Smalley’s mental fortitude training. Embarrassing reports surfaced every Sunday morning depicting a team of dysfunction. No one’s job was supposed to be safe after the 2014 season. Other than firing the defensive coordinator, the biggest adjustment of the offseason was Bruce Allen handing the GM duties to McCloughan, so that Allen could focus solely on Harvest Festivals and other crucial Redskins PR matters.

The Redskins proceeded to trot out McCloughan like the second coming of Vince Lombardi. A man so gifted at putting together NFL talent that opponents would cower in fear of his prowess. Weekly emails to Redskins’ fans followed, rarely failing to mention the shiny new front office addition. Could one man possibly mask the stench of Dan Snyder’s reign and put together a competitive team with one draft, a few free agents, and the smoldering rubble that was the 2014 roster? Somehow it seems as though he has.

Let’s set one thing straight: The 2015 Redskins aren’t a good football team. The run game is atrocious, they don’t capitalize on turnovers, they still make special teams gaffes and they lack a defensive leader, among other deficiencies. More inexcusably, the team lacks discipline and rarely makes in-game adjustments — aside from the Saints and Buccaneers games, the offense is lifeless in the second half.

That being said, this team’s weaknesses benefit McCloughan over Jay Gruden, because the most egregious of the Redskins’ faults (discipline and lack of adjustments) are more attributable to the coaching staff than personnel. Unlike McCloughan, Gruden is expendable. If this season goes south and the Redskins finish 5-11, it will be Gruden who suffers the consequences. If they do anything short of winning a playoff game, next season will be Gruden’s last chance to prove that he can win here.

Nobody said football was fair. While McCloughan gets hugs from players, Gruden gets titty-twisters.

McCloughan and Gruden may have been on the same page in the RG3 fiasco, but they are far from married. For each great performance by a player that McCloughan brought in, his power grows. Meanwhile, Gruden is left to explain why his team fumbles crucial punts and fails to adjust to a defensive stunt after seeing the Cowboys run it nine times in a row. Perhaps we are a tablet-dependent offense.

McCloughan is in a perfect place right now. The Redskins have been competitive in most games, his personnel additions have exceeded expectations, and the team is not lighting the world on fire, which would create unrealistic expectations going forward. He is doing exactly what he was brought here to do, and getting better contributions from players he found in the scrapheap than guys who were drafted by Allen and given years to develop — a guy named Mason Foster — whose name sounds like a computer-generated Madden player — was second on the team in tackles in his first start Monday night.

Regardless of how the Skins’ season concludes, McCloughan will have his fair share of challenges this offseason: re-signing Cousins, what to do with the ghost of Alfred Morris, figuring out whether MeSean fits with the Skins’ new culture, bolstering the offensive line, revamping a patchwork defense — the list goes on. Judging by the decisions McCloughan has made to this point, the Redskins are in good hands.

In McCloughan’s first 11 months on the job, the Redskins have miraculously become the least dysfunctional team in the NFC East — the Eagles are bipolar, the Giants continue to blow opportunities (no pun, JPP), and the Cowboys are an insane asylum for domestic abusers.

The final month of the season will determine whether the relative stability around Redskins Park translates into on-field success. In 2008, McCloughan’s first year as GM of the 49ers, the team finished 7-9. In 2010, McCloughan’s first year as Personnel Executive of the Seahawks, the team finished 7-9 and made the playoffs. The man is nothing if not consistent.

If the 2015 Redskins finish any worse than 7-9, we may find out if McCloughan’s eye for talent extends to coaching candidates.

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