Washington Football Team: Studs and duds in Week 4 loss to Ravens

Washington Football Team Dud: S Troy Apke

The safety play — and Troy Apke, in particular — hasn’t been good for Washington so far this season. And once again, it was a problem on Sunday.

Apke had a ton of trouble helping to covered Mark Andrews during the game. The top tight end caught all three of his targets for 57 yards and scored twice on the day.

Andrews’ first score was more of a function of Lamar Jackson doing well to scramble outside the pocket and see Andrew open on the play. That said, Apke probably should’ve noticed Jackson scrambling to the side of the field and should’ve maybe come over to help Kevin Pierre-Louis in coverage.

The first score was a little more forgivable than the second one. On the second score for Andrews, Ronald Darby and a linebacker let Andrew pass thinking they had help over the top from Apke. However, Apke was late to rotate over and Andrews was left wide open and galloped in for an untouched score once the ball came over to him.

Apke has been woeful in coverage and has consistently made the wrong read at safety. He’s still relatively new to the position, but it’s fair to wonder if he’s ever going to grow into anything more than a special teams player.

For all the buzz that came out about Apke during camp, he doesn’t seem to be there yet. And unless he improves rapidly, he figures to be a dud consistently throughout the season if he keeps getting starting reps.