Josh Doctson has been biggest disappointment of the first month of Redskins season

Jacob Camenker

LANDOVER, MD - SEPTEMBER 24: Wide receiver Josh Doctson

The Washington Redskins thought Josh Doctson would be ready to take a big role in the team’s receiving corps. Instead, he has been a disappointment.

During the 2017 offseason, the Washington Redskins lost their two top receivers from the 2016 season. DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon both left the team via free agency. The Skins were confident in their ability to replace them externally and internally. From outside, they brought in Terrelle Pryor. From inside the organization, the team decided to put their faith in Josh Doctson.

Doctson was a first round pick during the 2016 NFL Draft, but he missed most of his rookie season due to an Achilles injury. The injury had surfaced in training camp, but the team decided to bring him back too soon. As a result, he had to hit the Injured Reserve and that was the first thing that stunted his growth.

Since returning, Doctson has done nothing but put up underwhelming performances. He just hasn’t been consistent and has gone between looking good and completely disappearing. The team needs to figure out what to do with him and how to get him to improve.

Though the Redskins haven’t gotten much out of their other receivers, Pryor hasn’t clicked with Kirk Cousins yet and Jamison Crowder has started slow, but Doctson has been the biggest disappointment. Here’s why.

Doctson’s key drop

Doctson legitimately cost the Redskins a win on Monday night. You could argue that the Chiefs would have had a chance to score a go-ahead touchdown had they been down, but the fact remains that Doctson let a chance to put the Redskins up literally slip out of his hands.

On the final meaningful offensive drive of the game for the Redskins, the team was facing a critical third down. Cousins elected to throw the ball downfield, something that he had been successful doing for most of the contest. Cousins had been single handedly carrying the Redskins on the drive thanks to his scrambling ability and smart situational football. He made a great choice in throwing to Doctson, theoretically.

Doctson was streaking down the field on the third and 2, and he had Phillip Gaines beat. Doctson had a size and speed advantage on Gaines, and he had space towards the left sideline to go up and make a catch over him. Cousins lofted a perfect pass that hit Doctson’s hands as he elevated to catch the pass. Gaines was turned around about a yard away, helpless to impact the path of the ball.

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But as Doctson came to the ground, he inexplicably couldn’t secure the catch. It looks like he had it in his hands, pressed up against his chest. But as he made contact with the ground, the ball just squirted out. It was a terrible play and one that an NFL quality receiver cannot be guilt of making.

Following Doctson’s drop, the Redskins kicked a game tying field goal and then proceeded to allow a drive in which the Chiefs scored the game winning field goal. The score isn’t demonstrative of how close the Redskins truly were to winning, thanks to a garbage touchdown by the Chiefs at the end of regulation.

Had Doctson secured the catch, the Redskins likely would have been up 24-20, and that would have put pressure on Andy Reid to get the touchdown quickly. Given Reid’s past troubles with clock management, this was far from a guaranteed proposition. Overall, this play was just an absolute disaster for Doctson, and it really is a microcosm of his season so far.

LANDOVER, MD – SEPTEMBER 24: Wide receiver Josh Doctson #18 of the Washington Redskins makes a catch and scores a touchdown against the the Oakland Raiders in the third quarter at FedExField on September 24, 2017 in Landover, Maryland (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Doctson hasn’t been able to stay on the field

As mediocre as Doctson’s on field performance has been so far, the team really hasn’t seen a lot of him. As a rookie, he barely played due to a nagging injury that he had suffered during training camp. It seemed at the time that the team had rushed him back, as he didn’t look fully healthy when on the field in 2016. After he was put on Injured Reserve, many hoped that he would recover to make an impact in 2017.

However, that has not been that case. Early in training camp, Doctson suffered a minor hamstring injury that kept him out a sizeable chunk of the preseason. The injury is one that has somewhat lingered and just demonstrated the brittle nature of Doctson.

The injuries have also kept him from getting reps with Cousins and as a result, there hasn’t been any chemistry between the two. Because of this, Doctson has lost playing time to Ryan Grant, a far less talented but more consistent receiver. This cannot continue if the Redskins want to be a legitimate threat to make the postseason.

During the bye week, Doctson has to make sure that he focuses on both getting fully healthy and getting in the necessary reps to get him up to speed with the rest of the offense. He was one of only four receivers that was active for the contest against the Chiefs, but he made too many mistakes that will continue to limit his snaps.

If he improves his conditioning and can definitively be at 100 percent, then Doctson may be able to make more of an impact. If not, the Redskins are going to have trouble figuring out what to do with him.

LANDOVER, MD – SEPTEMBER 24: Quarterback Kirk Cousins

Doctson doesn’t have confidence in himself or from others

The final piece to the puzzle for Doctson is that he doesn’t have any confidence at the moment. It’s obvious that he has yet to figure out how to play at the NFL level. The adjustment has not gone well for him, and his lack of confidence has rubbed off on others.

Most notably, Jay Gruden has not expressed any willingness to put Doctson on the field. Through the first three games, Gruden has only put Doctson on the field for 42 percent of the team’s snaps. That is a reasonable number for a backup receiver, but Doctson was supposed to be the No. 2 receiver on this squad. Gruden’s refusal to use Doctson is concerning, and it doesn’t appear to be trending in a positive direction.

Against the Chiefs, Doctson played in just 17 total snaps, his lowest of the season. Though he saw a season high in targets (3) and catches (2), he just didn’t see the field. Gruden opted to use Jamison Crowder and Pryor in most two receiver sets, and that just didn’t allow Doctson many snaps. The concerning thing is that Ryan Grant was used ahead of Doctson despite the fact that Grant has almost no upside at this point in his career.