Washington rookie WR likely out for ‘a few weeks’
Welcome to the Breakdown, where we go in-depth onwhat you need to know about the state of theWashington Football Team. After its narrow loss to the New York Giants, we cover the lack of depth at receiver, the slowed pass rush, Daniel Jones’ athleticism and more.
Washington is dangerously thin at receiver. On Monday, coach Ron Rivera said rookie Antonio Gandy-Golden would miss “a few weeks” with the hamstring injury that ended his day early against the New York Giants. This means Washington has four wide receivers on the active roster, and one of them, Isaiah Wright, left the Giants game early holding his right arm and never returned. Rivera didn’t have an update on Wright onMonday.
Perhaps more concerning, there doesn’t seem to be any help coming in the immediatefuture. If theteamwanted toadd any receivers for Sunday’s game, it would have had to work them out Monday afternoon to abide by the new six-day quarantine rule imposed last week by the league. Washington brought in no new receivers, and if they’re looking, it doesn’t appear to be at established veterans. One of the best available free agents, Mohamed Sanu, hasn’t heardfromthe team, according to a personwith knowledge of the situation.
This is not a surprising predicament for Washington.
The team understood the threat of lacking depth before the season. It’s why they pursued Amari Cooper and signed Cody Latimer, though unforeseeable legal troubles led to the latter’s departure. For now, the team has three options for certain: A young star (Terry McLaurin), a veteran whom they signed late in camp (Dontrelle Inman) and a third-year pro with six career targets (Cam Sims).
For this Sunday’s game, if Wright is healthy, Washington could promote from the practice squad to have five receivers. Their options are Tony Brown, an undrafted rookie, or Jeff Badet, a young journeymanwhomost recently appeared in the XFL.
If Washington doesn’t sign a free agent, or trade for help before theNov. 3 deadline, it will go forward with one of the league’s thinnest units. Their only hopewould be to wait for the returns of Gandy-Golden and Steven Sims (toe), who’s eligible to come off the injured list after the byeweek.
Washington plans to stick with Dustin Hopkins at kicker. Hopkins’ missed field goal from 47 yards on Sunday helped put the offense, which needs all the help it can get, in abadposition late. ThiswasHopkins’ second missed field goal in three games, but when asked if he had considered looking elsewhere, Rivera was emphatic: “I’m not considering making a change.”
Though it’s early, this season has been somewhat of a struggle for Hopkins. In six games, his percentage of made field goals and extra points (80) ranks second-worst of any kicker with more than six field-goal attempts (Stephen Gostkowski of the Tennessee Titans, 77.4). He hasn’t missed any gimmes— 4-for-4 inside 40 yards— but the inconsistency from long range is detrimental to a team with an offense that needs pick-me-ups.
After a dominant Week 1, the pass rush has slowed significantly.
Washington’s sack totalmight look impressive — 16, good for eighth in the league— but the number is inflated by the team’s dominance against the Philadelphia Eagles’ beat-up line. Washington has as many sacks in the last five weeks combined as they had inWeek 1 (eight). This trend somewhat tracks with other pass rush stats, such as pressures and quarterback hits.
This issue is exacerbated by the fact that, when Washington can’t sack the quarterback, it has a hard time getting to him at all. The team is averaging 1.3 quarterback knockdowns per game, which is tied for the second-worst rate in the league, according to Sportradar. Nearly every quarterback the defense has faced has had one of his best days of the season against this unit.
Perhaps this is best summed up by what Rivera said after the Rams game. He attributed the defense’s lone sack to the Rams’ outside-zone running scheme getting the defensive line to play horizontal rather than vertical.
“There were some good things in the pass rush,” he said. “There were some disappointments.”
Daniel Jones’ run for 49 yards on Sunday was not a fluke.
The Giants quarterback hit 20.64 miles per hour, according to Next Gen Stats, which is elite speed for the position.
Washington is familiar with Jones, who is 3-0 against it during his career, but he hadn’t flashed his running ability before. The defense should get prepared for Jones’ running ability in the teams’ rematch in Week 9 — of the top seven quarterback speeds recorded this season by Next Gen, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has four and Jones the other three. After the game, receiver Darius Slayton called his quarterback “Daniel Jackson.”