Predicting the inactives for the Redskins Week 1 game against the Eagles

The Washington Redskins will have to designate seven players as inactive for Sunday’s game against the Eagles. Here’s our best guess as to who those seven will be.

On NFL game days, teams have to designate a certain number of players on their roster as inactive. While NFL teams have 53-man rosters, they may only dress 46 on game days.

The general idea behind this is that because injuries are prevalent in the game, there have to be a certain number of inactive spots available for injured players. This levels the playing field to an extent and tries to make sure that injury-ravaged teams aren’t at too significant of a disadvantage on game day.

Of course, it can be a bit hard to predict the inactives ahead of the first game of the season. Generally, teams don’t have too many injuries to kick off the season, so there are a handful of healthy scratches. And that could be the case for the Redskins this year.

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The Redskins have a few injuries ahead of their season opener against the Redskins, but there are still four inactive spots that have to be determined. It will be interesting to see what direction the team goes in with those inactives. Adrian Peterson‘s name has been mentioned as a guy who has the potential to sit, but would the team actually do that to the future Hall of Famer? We’ll find out and hour and a half before game-time on Sunday.

But before then, we can still make our guesses as to who will be inactive for the Redskins. So, here’s our guess as to who will sit out against the Eagles.

QB Colt McCoy. This one has already been confirmed, as McCoy is still recovering from complications from a leg injury that he suffered in his second start with the Redskins in 2018. With McCoy out, Dwayne Haskins will serve as the top backup to starting quarterback Case Keenum.

CB Fabian Moreau. Moreau’s absence has already been confirmed as well. He has been dealing with a foot injury in recent weeks and he’s not yet healthy enough to see the field. With Moreau out, rookie seventh-round draft pick Jimmy Moreland will likely get a chance to operate as the top slot corner for the team. And that will be a big opportunity for the playmaker from James Madison University.

TE Jordan Reed. There was some hope that Reed would be able to play against the Eagles, but he was officially downgraded to out with a concussion on Saturday. The Redskins called up J.P. Holtz to serve as the team’s third tight end, but Vernon Davis and Jeremy Sprinkle figure to see the most action at the tight end position against the Eagles.

DL Caleb Brantley. Brantley would normally be active on game day, but he’s been dealing with a Lisfranc injury since early on in the preseason. He is listed as questionable, but the fact that the team released receiver Robert Davis instead of defensive lineman Treyvon Hester to add Holtz to the active roster would seemingly indicate that the team isn’t confident that Brantley will be healthy. The team may want to play it safe with the young Florida product, so having Hester active over Brantley as the fifth defensive lineman makes sense.

C Ross Pierschbacher. The fifth-round pick out of Alabama didn’t get a lot of action with the top offensive line units in the preseason, and it seems that he is still behind Tony Bergstrom in the backup center rotation. Developing him could take some time, so he may be inactive quite a bit early on in the season.

G Wes Martin. Teams tend to only keep seven offensive linemen active on game day. The Redskins figure to roll with Geron Christian as the backup tackle and Bergstrom as the backup on the interior. Martin should be listed among the active players sooner rather than later, but for the opener, he may not see the field. If anyone was to be active over Peterson, Martin would likely be the top choice.

LB Tanner Vallejo. The Redskins very recently claimed Vallejo to provide depth at the linebacker position. But to kick off the season, they will roll with four linebackers on the active roster and can consider activating Vallejo if injuries pop up.

We’ll see if these predictions end up being accurate. But it will certainly be interesting to see what the Redskins decide to do, especially on the offensive line.