The Offense!

[Boone]

You have been minimizing his contributions and talent level since the subject came up. It’s just a weird take. The last time it came up you had Jared Patterson, an UDFA who is yet to even play a pro down, ahead of him on the depth chart, lol. Everyone knows toe injuries can linger (and even shorten careers, especially for a RB) but you seem to think our best RB (and the team clearly thinks he’s their best RB) is a JAG. I don’t get it.

 

[MikefromOH]

Minimizing? I am stating facts and posting articles. It isn't an opinion, it is a fact. Me saying he needs to prove himself is a fact. He is a 1 year back who still has injuries even in the offseason. That is a fact. He needs to prove he can handle a full season and not miss important games.

Me talking Jared was just me digging at you because you are so defensive it was fun to wind you up. Now that Bulldog has said something you decided to jump on an old post and run the same argument again. Its weird..

 

[SilentThreat]

I don't think anyone has their job locked up at this point outside of maybe Chase Young and Terry McLaurin. IF Gibson can't get right before camp, which is 6 weeks away btw, the gap between him and everyone else likely shrinks. I think Gibson is the front runner if all things are equal, but the old saying 'you can't make the club' is something we have drifted away from. Jordan Reed was retained a lot longer than he should have been because of what he can do 60% of the time. Trent Williams is another one. I hope Gibby is not an injured type, and it's very early, but he's 0 for 1 when talking about completing a season. Here is to hoping he's 1 for 2 at the end of the year

 

[Boone]

In 2020, here are the total games played by the NFL’s top 100 RBs:

31 played all 16 games
69 missed at least 1 game
47 missed at least 2 games
38 missed more than 2 games

RBs missing games isn’t the outlier, RBs lasting an entire season is.

 

[SilentThreat]

In 2020, here are the total games played by the NFL’s top 100 RBs:

31 played all 16 games
69 missed at least 1 game
47 missed at least 2 games
38 missed more than 2 games

RBs missing games isn’t the outlier, RBs lasting an entire season is.

Fair, but equally we see how interchangeable RBs are. I hope he's special but how long ago was Lamar Miller an MVP candidate? Selfishly I hope we can find ourselves in the same camp as New Orleans of the past, Cleveland and Kc now... weapons that are interchangeable. Split duties so little reliance on any single guy.

 

[MikefromOH]

He had 2 carries week 12, and then missed 13 and 14. Plus, the TB game it was painful to see him try to plant his foot.

Considering he is still dealing with it, I am not ready to call him a sure thing. I like Gibson A LOT and am glad we have him, I just don't want to see us getting our hopes up and him not being able to deliver.

 

[Boone]

From an NFL.com story a few weeks ago:


The second-year back told reporters Wednesday that while surgery wasn't necessary, he is still rehabbing to get to 100 percent. Gibson said that while he can cut and run, it's a situation that he must keep on top of so he doesn't suffer a setback.

"It was something small that was causing me not to be able to run 100 percent," Gibson said, per Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. "But I'm fine now. I've been cutting in practice ... and getting better each day. ... Definitely something to monitor. I've been fine like I said. I've been cutting and running full speed, making cuts I need to make. ... But I definitely got to watch and make sure I stay up on my treatment, so nothing goes south. But definitely watching throughout the time until I'm 100 percent."

Gibson participating in OTAs is a good sign that the club isn't concerned about the issue cropping up. But it's a situation worthy of monitoring as we progress toward the regular season.

Hard to tell from those comments if he’s ‘still dealing with it’ or if it’s more a matter of him being overly cautious/paranoid about reinjuring it. Seems like if the team medical staff had any concerns it wasn’t healed that he wouldn’t be out there for something as meaningless as OTAs?

 

[MikefromOH]

Rivera has stated "as of now" Fitzpatrick would be the starter

 

[Boone]

I don’t see how Heinicke beats Fitz out. They love his experience so unless he just looked awful throughout the summer and preseason, I think he’ll get the nod going into the opener. But I do think they are impressed by Heinicke and he’s likely to see the field this year either due to injury or a 3-4 INT performance by Fitz. If he balls out in that scenario I could see him becoming a permanent starter.

 

[Bulldog]

Mike the trouble is you seem defensive about keeping Scherff and giving him a super contract at 30 despite myriad injuries, while you give some other players no slack whatsoever in regards to injuries, durability.

Of the current backs Gibson is the most productive and the most talented and at age 23 would seem to warrant some patience.

As we all know Gibson was TRANSITIONING to being a full-time back in 2020 so his early carries were limited by the staff so any discussions of a now diluted 1,000 yard standard as a benchmark of capability at this point is moot.

 

[MikefromOH]

You coming in a week after we finished talking about it to kick the hornets nest is tiresome.

 

[Boone]

Antonio Gibson's growth could fuel Washington Football Team's attack

After a promising rookie season, the versatile running back has shown signs that he is ready to take another step in his development.

www.espn.com

Keim is an Antonio Gibson fan.

 

[Om]

It all adds up. The man is no longer a rookie, no longer a first-time RB, and has by all accounts healed up. Given where he was before the turf toe effectively ended his productive season last year--making the Cowboys chase ghosts--we have every reason to be excited to see what the man has/will become.

 

[Bulldog]

I can see the 'perfectionist' fan out there worrying that we 'only' have one budding top prospect/potential star in Gibson at RB and to be safe we should have 2 or 3 in case of injuries.

Few teams have that type of depth at any given position. And where they do, it usually comes at the cost of depth elsewhere on the roster.

We have that kind of depth on the defensive line but will be challenged to resign Allen and the others as their contracts come up in the next year or two.

 

[JPPT1974]

Yeah as really think there needs to have two as Plan B or three if you get injured. Need to have depth on DL there.

 

[SilentThreat]

3) Washington Football Team
The Washington Football Team will return four of their five starters in 2021. The only change is the addition of Charles Leno Jr., who replaces Morgan Moses. Leno has an opportunity to be an upgrade on Moses, which would make this an impressive line all the way across. Leno could slot in at the LT position he is familiar with and Cornelius Lucas switching to right tackle. Or Leno may make the switch to RT and leave Lucas on the left side.

Plying at left tackle last season, Cornelius Lucas was impressive last season. He had just 8 blown blocks in over 500 snaps and was credited with just 2 sacks. In fact, the entire remainder of the line had a blown block rate below 2%. The quality of Brandon Scherff is well-known, while Chase Roullier has become one of the best centers in the league. Furthermore, Wes Schweitzer impressed in his first season in Washington, with just 16 blown blocks on 931 snaps.

I think this is rather generous but if we get production from our O-line that ranks even close to 3rd in the league, there is no way we don't win the division....

 

[SilentThreat]

 

[Bulldog]

Well, we don't know what is going to happen. The NFL makes fools of us all as last place teams vault to first and end up as Super Bowl teams a couple of years later while teams like Dallas are picked to go places each year and end up 8-8 or 6-10.

But the one thing I will say for Fitzpatrick is that he has usually played with bad teams. He was on the field trying to make something out of nothing with limited offensive weapons.

For the first time I think he has the setup to be successful. I agree with Chris Simms that he is not a top 8-10 quarterback but if he can be in that 12-15 range with the rest of this roster taking shape Washington is going to be very competitive in 2021 for the playoffs and perhaps going a round or two.

In the back of my mind the wildcard is Heinicke. He really did play well against Carolina and we would have won that game if he had been inserted just a bit earlier in that contest. He played well again against the Bucs in the playoffs.

At 28, Taylor is just entering his physical prime as a quarterback and it is possible his upside is high enough that we have a future qb here already.

Of course that is just a projection/guess at this point. But if a player can come into a bad situation as Heinicke did in 2020 not having been in the NFL all season until his call-up and still play well on the field - that's usually the sign of a guy that has the stones to stick.

 

[Chris]

Heinicke only needs to overcome the labels of being too small and too fragile. The size issue is not really all that much of a factor in my mind, many have dealt successfully with that. Being able to be relied on to be available is the bigger one. If he can, he has shown all of the skills necessary to succeed at the position in his limited game time.

 

[Boone]

I believe in Heinicke. His chapter has only begun to be written. I believe it’s likely he sees the field in 2021 and when it happens, he won’t relinquish it for a long time.