GOING GRAY
Redskins replace Cousins with Smith, hoping his postseason experience pays off
Mr. Smith goes to Washington … But without all last year’s talent around him, can he replicate what he did in Kansas City?
That will be the challenge for quarterback Alex Smith, as he takes the helm of a Redskins franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2005 season — back when the San Francisco 49ers made Smith the No. 1 overall pick while a sliding Aaron Rodgers had a seemingly endless wait in the draft greenroom.
Smith departed a Chiefs team loaded with standouts on offense, among them NFL rushing leader Kareem Hunt, blistering-fast receiver Tyreek Hill and All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce.
Washington parted ways with Kirk Cousins and signed Smith, who has seven postseason starts with a respectable passer rating of 97.4 in those games. Cousins made one playoff start, a losing effort.
“I still feel like I am a young 34year-old and I do have a lot of ball ahead of me,” Smith told reporters recently. “I am excited to keep pushing that ceiling. I still feel like I haven’t reached it.”
Three years older than Smith is the quarterback taken No. 1 in the draft the year before him, Eli Manning of the division-rival New York Giants. Manning was benched last season for the first time in his career, as the team slogged its way to a 3-13 finish.
But with a new regime in place, the Giants passed on the chance to draft a quarterback and instead rested their hopes on the shoulders of Manning, who now has a revitalized running game starring rookie Saquon Barkley.
“I’m excited about this team and the opportunities we have ahead of us, excited about the guys who are on this offense and the receivers, the offensive line, the playmakers that we have, the running backs,” Manning said. “So I look forward to getting to work ... there are some good names on paper, that looks good, but we’ve got to make sure we’re doing what we need to be doing on the field.”
Whereas Manning and Smith are in the back halves of their careers, the division’s other two teams, Philadelphia and Dallas, are led by a pair of 25-year-old stars, Carson Wentz for the Eagles and Dak Prescott for the Cowboys.
Wentz was on track to be the NFL’s most valuable player before suffering a season-ending knee injury against the Rams last December. Nick Foles took over for Philadelphia and wound up leading the Eagles to their first Super Bowl victory.
While there’s no question this is Wentz’s team, having Foles on the roster affords the Eagles the chance to let Wentz recover on his own timetable. So it had a major chilling effect this summer when Foles suffered what at first looked to be a significant shoulder injury, when his throwing arm was violently stopped mid-motion during an exhibition game against New England. It turned out to be a minor injury, though, and according to reports, he’s not expected to miss any time in the regular season.
“We’ve got a good plan,” Wentz said of his recovery schedule. “It’s not just me making a decision. It’s not just Coach. It’s not just the docs. It’s a [combination] of everybody. … I like where I’m at right now.”
As for Prescott, also in his third season, he’s trying to recapture some of that rookie magic he had. In his second year, he had a lower passer rating, fewer touchdown passes and fewer yards. Not surprisingly, that showed up in the win-loss column, with the Cowboys going from 13 victories in 2016 to nine last season.