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Washington football: Six essential players the team can least afford to lose

By Jonathan Eig

LANDOVER, MD - NOVEMBER 24: Terry McLaurin #17 of the Washington Redskins celebrates after a play during the first half of the game against the Detroit Lions at FedExField on November 24, 2019 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - NOVEMBER 24: Terry McLaurin #17 of the Washington Redskins celebrates after a play during the first half of the game against the Detroit Lions at FedExField on November 24, 2019 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – OCTOBER 21: Detail view of American football on field during the game at Lincoln Financial Field on October 21, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Washington football team defeats Philadelphia 21-17. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
PHILADELPHIA, PA – OCTOBER 21: Detail view of American football on field during the game at Lincoln Financial Field on October 21, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Washington football team defeats Philadelphia 21-17. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

These are not necessarily the best players on the team. These are the players the Washington football team can least afford to lose if they want to show the progress that most fans feel is possible in 2020.

This list relies on some mystical valuation of how good the player is, how important his role is to the Washington football team‘s overall success, and how big a drop-off there is to whoever might replace him.

Dwayne Haskins is not on the list. Figured I’d get that out of the way early in case you were waiting around for the Dwayne Haskins page. On most teams, the starting quarterback would be one of the top six.

Don’t get me wrong — should the team lose Haskins for an extended period of time in 2020, it is serious. But it is serious for 2021 and beyond more than for 2020. In 2020, Kyle Allen can step in and be okay (Sorry, I tried to come up with something more optimistic, but “okay” was as far as I could go). The difference between what Haskins is likely to do in his first full year as a starter, and what Allen, playing under his previous quarterback coach Scott Turner, could provide just doesn’t seem that big to me.

Haskins has a much higher ceiling, and the hope is he will grow this season into a very solid young top-half-of-the-league signal caller. That progress takes a serious hit if he misses time this year. But I don’t know that it affects this year’s record very much.

But losing these six guys would.

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