Washington Football safety Troy Apke reportedly refining his game

In what’s been the surprise of the 2020 offseason, Washington Football Team safety Troy Apke has safely taken hold of the starting free safety job, and reports suggest he’s only trending up.

Many penciled in free agent signing Sean Davis as the Washington Football Team‘s starter at free safety for the 2020 season. Davis, who was signed to a one-year deal after being let go by the Pittsburgh Steelers, has started 41 games over a four-year career, and has the athleticism to thrive.

But it hasn’t been Davis starting beside Landon Collins in padded practices at training camp. It’s been Troy Apke. Every day, it’s been Troy Apke.

At some positions, Ron Rivera has clearly been rotating players, to gauge which players have starting potential. But at free safety, an assumed battle ground ahead of training camp, Apke has taken just about every first-team rep. Yesterday, he had a pass deflection and a hard hit, among other plays, and Ron Rivera thinks he’s starting to turn a corner.

In his post-practice press conference on Friday, Rivera said that an issue for Apke in the past has been angles, as well as positioning, and he remarked that Apke has been improving his angles to the ball in practice, and spending a lot of time working on correcting his mistakes. Rivera said it’s been an overall positive for his positioning on the field, and expressed excitement for how far Apke can progress beyond this point.

Apke, 25, was originally drafted as a project, and for a long time, it didn’t look certain that he’d develop into the player he could be. Apke tested with the necessary athletic tools to dominate at the safety position, but inconsistency with issues such as positioning prevented him from ever taking on an increased role.

Now, with more detail-oriented defensive coaches in the fold, it seems as though Apke is starting to develop. Rivera says that Apke certainly has the smarts to learn and correct his mistakes. It’s just a matter of repetition and ironing out bad habits that have been established over time.

That process of polishing may carry over well into the 2020 season, and Apke might have teaching moments on the job, but the important thing is that he’s progressing and supplementing his historic athletic talent with the mental acuity necessary to thrive in a starting role.

Will it ultimately translate on game day? That remains to be seen. But by all accounts, he’s moving forward, not backward.