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Bryce Love is the biggest question mark in Washington’s running back room

By Jacob Camenker

BERKELEY, CA - DECEMBER 1: Bryce Love #20 of the Stanford Cardinal warms up before the 121st Big Game between Stanford and the University of California Golden Bears played on December 1, 2018 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
BERKELEY, CA - DECEMBER 1: Bryce Love #20 of the Stanford Cardinal warms up before the 121st Big Game between Stanford and the University of California Golden Bears played on December 1, 2018 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images) /
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Bryce Love has a lot of talent but also a lot of questions about whether or not he’ll be healthy enough to make an impact in Washington.

Before the 2020 offseason began in earnest, many expected that the Washington football team would be relying on Bryce Love in a bigger role during the 2020 season. After all, the 2019 fourth-round draft pick had once been considered a potential first-round pick before an ACL tear late in his final year at Stanford cratered his draft stock.

Still, the 2017 Heisman runner up is considered talented. And if he’s fully healthy, he could be a major asset at the NFL level. That said, he is facing some obstacles to make an impact in the Washington running back room during his second season.

The first question is obviously about his health. Love will be over a year and a half removed from the ACL tear that sidelined him in his final collegiate season, but Washington won’t have seen him on a field for quite some time due to the ongoing pandemic. as such, it will be important for Love to perform well in training camp to win a spot on the team.

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Additionally, Washington has a pretty solid running back room overall. Adrian Peterson was brought back for another season while Antonio Gibson and Derrius Guice seem like locks to make the roster… if healthy. Beyond them, J.D. McKissic and Peyton Barber have been solid role players during their NFL careers and it seems like offensive coordinator Scott Turner likes McKissic a bit. As such, it may be hard for Love to beat out his competition for a roster spot.

Also not helping Love’s cause is that Washington overhauled their front office and coaching staff this offseason. Ron Rivera now holds more power over personnel decisions and doesn’t seem married to the idea of Love being a contributor. If he was, he probably wouldn’t have taken Gibson with the team’s third-round pick. That will make Love’s grip on a roster spot tenuous.

It still seems possible that Love will make the team. And if he emerges in camp, he could quickly overtake McKissic and Barber on the depth chart. For now, he is firmly on the roster bubble but if he shows a bit of the explosiveness college football fans were accustomed to seeing at Stanford, he should pretty comfortably find himself inside the cut line.

Love is the biggest question mark in Washington’s running back room. He has a lot of talent, but questions about his health and what the new coaching staff thinks of him could push him to the roster bubble. Conversely, if he shows well in camp, he could earn a spot on the roster and be seen as the perfect complement to Guice.

There are probably more outcomes with Love than there are potential outcomes for any other member of the team. He could emerge as a great starter in 2020. And it’s also possible that he could be waived before the season starts. There’s just no way of knowing what will happen at this point.

Next. Washington football camp profiles - RBs. dark

But one thing is certain. If Love does pan out, Washington is going to have a strong running back corps and one that could be set up well long-term thanks to Guice, Gibson, and Love.

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