Redskins Injury Report: Will Blackmon, Spencer Long Out For Sunday’s Contest
The Washington Redskins are going to be without at least two starters for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Spencer Long and Will Blackmon were declared out on Friday afternoon.
Coming into their Week 14 matchup with the Eagles, the Washington Redskins were pretty banged up. They had a lot of big name players dealing with injury, and their statuses became clearer as the week went along. On Friday, the team got some tough news, as it was declared that starting center Spencer Long and starting safety Will Blackmon would miss Sunday’s game due to concussions that they had each suffered.
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The absence of Long on the offensive side could create some issues for the Redskins. Though backup John Sullivan is a solid, experienced player, he has only logged 43 offensive snaps with the Redskins. All of those came after Long was knocked out of last week’s game. Long had locked down the center position since taking over for Kory Lichtensteiger in Week 3, so it remains to be seen if Sullivan will be able to fill in for him.
That said, I have faith that Sullivan will step up. Before being injured last season, he was playing strong football with the Vikings. He should be able to get the job done. However, the team does not have a clear backup to him. The only other lineman with experience at center is Shawn Lauvao, who has played poorly this season.
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This problem could be solved if the team decides to activate Lichtensteiger from the injured reserve prior to the game. Lichtensteiger did not perform well as a starter this year, but he has enough experience as a center that he can be a decent backup. If the team officially activates Lichtensteiger, they would have to release one player. Prime candidates for that designation would be Vinston Painter, A.J. Francis, or the team could opt to put Anthony Lanier on injured reserve. Lanier is dealing with a leg injury that has kept him out for a couple of weeks. He will be out for this week’s contest as well.
For replacing Blackmon, the Skins do not have a lot of options outside of Duke Ihenacho. The veteran safety should get a chance to play in his place and should log a lot of snaps aside Donte Whitner. The only backup the team will carry is going to be Deshazor Everett, a special teams ace who should play well in a limited role. This could be a problem area, but the safeties were already having issues for the Redskins so this is nothing new.
Elsewhere on the injury report, Jordan Reed is questionable but he thinks he will be able to play. Offensive linemen Ty Nsekhe and Shawn Lauvao have had trouble with nagging injuries and Lauvao was unable to practice this week. Every other player on the report seems to have a chance at playing.
We will keep you updated on any Redskins news ahead of Sunday’s game. Keep it right here at Riggo’s Rag for all of your breaking Redskins updates!