Washington football training camp profiles: Wide Receiver

Positional Outlook

There is certainly some reason to be excited or even hopeful about this receiving corps. The group has so much potential and so many of the projected top producers — McLaurin, Sims, and Gandy-Golden — are inexperienced. The ceiling is high for this group as a result.

But with high ceilings often come low floors. While this group could develop well, gel, and surprise some people, it could also crater. Young players could fail to live up to increased expectations. Unheralded players may fail to develop.

And most worrisome of all, one injury to a top player could completely derail the entirety of this unit. They already lost Harmon and if a guy like McLaurin was to miss time, the team simply couldn’t find a replacement for him.

At the end of the day, this is probably the second-weakest position group on offense, trailing only the tight end position. And roster-wide, it may also qualify as the second-worst. Maybe we’ll be singing a different tune following the 2020 season. Heck, we did after the 2019 season when McLaurin, Sims, and Harmon emerged as a skilled rookie trio.

But for all the excitement about some of the unheralded players here, this unit still feels like it’s a year away from fully realizing its potential. We’ll see what happens, but as is the case with many positions on Washington this year, the ceiling of the group will depend on the development of the youth on the team.