Report: Redskins looking to trade Josh Doctson before season

The Washington Redskins are apparently in the process of giving up on their 2016 first-round pick, Josh Doctson. They reportedly want to trade him before the season starts.

Josh Doctson hasn’t quite lived up to expectations since being a first-round pick by the Redskins in the 2016 NFL Draft. After missing most of his rookie season with an Achilles issue, Doctson has been a starter for parts of the past two seasons. He has never found much success and at the very best, he has looked like a potential-based possession receiver who would be best suited for a No. 2 receiving job at the NFL level.

That’s a far cry from what the Redskins were expecting to get when Doctson joined them. And now, it appears that they may be ready to move on from him ahead of his fourth season in Washington.

According to Ben Standig of The Athletic, the Redskins have “lost faith” in Doctson and are looking to trade him before the season starts.

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"One source close to the situation believes the team has lost faith in Doctson wants to trade their 2016 first-round pick before the regular-season opener.Trading Doctson is the primary option rather than releasing him since his 2019 contract is guaranteed, though the return probably is no more than a fifth or sixth-round pick."

This would seemingly jibe with some other reports that had come out about Doctson in the past as ESPN’s John Keim pointed out on Twitter. But the fact that they are still evidently shopping him in the lead-up to final cuts would seemingly indicate that there may be no space on the roster for him.

The Redskins have quite a lot of young receiving depth with upside, and several players have flashed during camp. At the moment, it seems that Paul Richardson, Terry McLaurin, and Trey Quinn have the inside track to be the starters if Doctson is gone. Meanwhile, Robert Davis has played himself into a roster spot with an excellent preseason performance.

The ‘Skins could opt to keep as many as seven receivers, but they will be choosing from an intriguing candidate pool. Aside from the four safe players, the team has sixth-round pick Kelvin Harmon, training camp standout Cam Sims, the versatile Darvin Kidsy who has performed well this preseason, and special teams ace Jehu Chesson. Those players could be battling for just two or three spots. And that’s excluding Doctson, so it looks like his days in Washington may be numbered.

Because of this, it makes sense for the Redskins to try to offload Doctson. As Standig pointed out, they wouldn’t likely get much for him, but he could still fetch a late Day 3 pick from a team that needs receiving depth. That would certainly be enough to get rid of Doctson, and it would be preferable to cutting him and having to pay his guaranteed 2019 salary.

Next. Five trades the Redskins could explore making. dark

We’ll soon see if the Redskins try to trade Doctson or if they’re forced to part ways with him. They also could surprise and keep him, but that seems to be unlikely at the moment. This situation will bear monitoring in the lead-up to roster cuts this weekend, so we’ll keep a close eye on it.

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