Washington Football Team WR Jester Weah a dark horse roster candidate

 For much of the 2020 training camp session, the Washington Football Team will be looking to sort out its more cluttered position groups.

These groups include, but are not limited to, running back, linebacker, cornerback, and most notably wide receiver. The receiving core has perhaps the most intrigue surrounding it; behind Terry McLaurin and Steven Sims, there are almost no established options, and changes have already occurred for the Washington Football Team before the start of the season.

Among the changes, Cody Latimer was recently placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt list, placing his 2020 outlook in doubt, and earlier, second-year receiver Emanuel Hall, widely considered a potential roster candidate, tore his Achilles. Kelvin Harmon also tore his ACL. These changes already thinned out an already thin pass-catching group, and may have inadvertently opened up opportunities for others.

Behind McLaurin and Sims, Dontrelle Inman and Trey Quinn have the most experience, and Antonio Gandy-Golden, the team’s fourth-round rookie, seems like a lock due to his youth and upside. But the fifth and sixth receiver spots seem up for grabs, if the team keeps six. And one dark horse who perhaps hasn’t been talked about enough is Jester Weah.

Weah, 25, has been fighting to break onto the NFL stage since 2018, when he was first signed by the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent. Weah spent his first two NFL seasons on respective practice squads, first with the Texans, and then with the Washington Football Team from October, 2019 onward. He was promoted by Washington late in 2019, but didn’t get any playing time.

Random interesting fact: His uncle is the president of Liberia. But that’s not relevant to the topic at hand.

Weah has to capitalize on the clean slate he’s been given by the new coaching staff, but he has the physical tools to compete for a role. He’s a near-elite athlete for his size, standing at 6-foot-3, 210, with a 4.43 40-yard dash time, a 129-inch broad jump, and a 38-inch vertical jump on record from the 2018 NFL Combine.

Weah’s agility scores leave more to be desired, but as an explosive vertical threat on the boundary, he has a lot of potential. His college numbers from the University of Pittsburgh clearly indicate that he was a catalyst for a lot of offensive energy. In 2016, he logged 870 yards and 10 touchdowns on just 36 catches, scoring on almost one third of his receptions. In 2017, Weah’s production was less dramatic, but he managed to see an uptick in volume after improving his route running.

In a pure training camp setting, Weah will need to make every catch count and avoid drops, but he has the physical tools to stand out amongst his counterparts. With his blend of size, speed, and burst, he can be an offensive weapon. He has to put it all together first, but he’s a dark horse to benefit from the Washington Football Team’s unstable receiver situation, and ultimately emerge.