Washington Football Team to hold practice scrimmage on Monday

The Washington Football Team has attempted to emulate game situations with some 11-on-11 drills throughout training camp, but on Monday, they’ll take it up a notch.

With preseason games having been cancelled ahead of the 2020 regular season, it’ll be up to each NFL franchise, including the Washington Football Team, to individually produce game-like situations, in which they can evaluate their players to the best of their ability. Some of this can be accomplished in regular practice sessions, but other parts, more attuned with authentic game situations, have to be manufactured.

Washington head coach Ron Rivera even conceded in his press conference that for some players, the coaches won’t truly know whether or not they have what it takes until the first Sunday of the season. But coaches can take steps to make their process more informative, and the scrimmage on Monday will help with that.

The scrimmage will come less than a week before cut day for the Washington Football Team, which is set to occur next Saturday, or the fifth of September. While the scrimmage won’t be the last practice session before cut day, it will be the last one with full media availability, and it’ll be a crucial juncture for many players seeking to solidify their chances at making the roster.

There will be storylines to watch, both in the starting rotations and on the roster fringes. On offense, it’ll be interesting to see how well all the new pieces have meshed since coming together and working under Rivera’s oversight. It’ll also be interesting to see how far Dwayne Haskins has progressed, and whether he can finally earn an official designation as the team’s starter for 2020.

For the defense, meanwhile, the hot topic will be the surprise starters. That group includes players such as Kevin Pierre-Louis, Troy Apke, and Jimmy Moreland, although it’s worth noting that Rivera has been intensely rotating linebackers this offseason, so it’s tough to tell who’ll actually be starting on Day 1. The first group out on Monday, consequently, will be of note.

Shifting to the secondary, Apke has been a regular with the first-team defense as the free safety, and Ron Rivera is on the record stating that Apke has been refining his game over the course of the offseason. Apke is a transcendent athlete, and if he has truly been developing, his impact should be noticeable in the team’s first significant scrimmage.

Even beyond these storylines, there will be plenty to watch for in the Washington Football Team’s scrimmage tomorrow. We’ll recap the action with some of the highlights, and hopefully get an idea of how the final roster might stack up after the game.