Redskins: The 2019 season is an opportunity for Jon Bostic to step up

Jon Bostic is in a position to make a major impact on the Redskins defense this coming season. Will he be able to step up and be the leader in the middle of the field the team needs him to be?

Playing middle linebacker in the NFL means you are the quarterback of the defense. One must be cerebral enough to make the play calls and defensive audibles, have the toughness to lay a bone-crushing hit, and have the ability to be a leader.

Guys like Dick Butkus, Jack Lambert, Mike Singeltary, and Ray Lewis all had legendary Hall of Fame careers making plays from the middle of the field. One key characteristic that every good defense has is that they have a stud middle linebacker routinely making plays.

Anyone who watched a Washington Redskins game from 2007 to 2013 would have noticed a middle linebacker roaming around making what seemed to be every play. That linebacker was the great London Fletcher, who was the heart and soul of the defense. Fletcher had an outstanding career. When he retired, it left a big hole to fill in the middle of the Redskins’ defense.

They tried filling his shoes with the likes of Keenan Robinson, Will Compton, and recently Mason Foster, with no long-term success. Some people are incredibly hard to replace.

The Redskins brought in former first-round pick Reuben Foster with the hopes he could be the long-term answer. However, he went down for the season on the first day of OTAs, and left Washington back where they were before they signed him.

Washington signed Jon Bostic to replace Foster. Bostic had bounced around on a few teams already, so not much was expected of him early on. However, as the offseason progressed, Bostic seized the opportunity to start, and is now in a position to make an impact on what should be a top ten defense in 2019.