Redskins should try to claim recently waived RB Andre Ellington

The Washington Redskins are thin at running back with Chris Thompson heading to Injured Reserve. Luckily for them, Andre Ellington just became available.

On Sunday afternoon, the Redskins suffered a brutal blow to their team. Chris Thompson, the team’s emerging duel threat running back who was in the midst of a career season, suffered a bad leg injury against the Saints. Thompson was blocking on a Kirk Cousins scramble and he had a Saints defender rolled up on his leg. He had to be carted off and it was confirmed that he had broken his fibula. He will now miss the rest of the season.

Unfortunately, the Redskins don’t have a lot of replacement options for Thompson on their roster. Rob Kelley is already on IR. Mack Brown was waived in late October and ended up with the Vikings. Right now, they just have two backs on their roster: Samaje Perine and Byron Marshall. Perine looked great as a lead back on Sunday afternoon, but he is an unproven rookie. Meanwhile, Marshall has only been on the roster for one week. He was brought in to replace Kelley and is a good athlete, but he has very little experience at the NFL level.

The Redskins cannot roll with just two backs going forward. They are almost certainly going to be adding another player, and it’s unclear who the team is favoring right now. They do have a running back on the practice squad in LeShun Daniels, but he is just an undrafted free agent from this past year. The team should look to bring in a player with more experience to fill in their backfield.

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Enter Andre Ellington. The former sixth round pick out of Clemson was waived by the Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday afternoon in what ESPN’s Field Yates classified as a surprising move. Ellington had been a pass catching back for the Cardinals at the start of the season and helped to replace David Johnson after his injury. But he fell out of favor when the team acquired Adrian Peterson. Thus, he was let go.

Ellington is exactly the type of player that the Redskins need. He is not a between the tackles runner, but he is a top notch pass catcher. He won’t entirely fill in for Thompson, but he can be an effective third down back, which is what the Redskins desperately need. The Redskins need to put in a claim for Ellington and hope that no teams in front of them in the waiver order try to snag him this week.

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Hoepfully, Ellington will be on the Redskins radar and they will be able to get him. His fit with the team is too perfect for the Skins to ignore in wake of Thompson’s injury. They need to do everything they can to get him to patch the need they now have in the backfield.

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