Five offensive players Washington Football Team should watch during the Senior Bowl

Many were expecting a breakout from Steven Sims during his second year with the Washington Football Team. That never came. Instead, he was overtaken in the receiver rotation by the likes of Cam Sims and Isaiah Wright and languished on punt return duty. And there, he struggled badly with ball security and cost Washington points on more than one occasion.

Sims simply can’t be trusted as a top slot man or a punt returner, so his future in Washington is murky, at best. As such, Washington should be in the market for a slot-type receiver — or really any receiver, for that matter — and D’Wayne Eskridge has been one of the best pass-catchers at the Senior Bowl.

Eskridge isn’t the most physically-intimidating receiver at 5-foot-9, 188 pounds, but he won’t be asked to be that at the next level. He’ll be used as a shifty, fast slot receiver who has the ability to get open and break some big plays.

Throughout the week, Eskridge has reportedly been one of the best receivers at practice. Eskridge has shown off good route-running skills and appears to have quick feet and a good release at the line of scrimmage. You can see it for yourself via these clips from PFF’s Austin Gayle.

That’s some pretty impressive stuff, especially his change-of-direction ability. If he looked like that all week in practice, it’s fun to imagine what he might do during the actual Senior Bowl game (if he plays after sitting out Thursday’s practice) and at the NFL level.

There are some concerns with Eskridge. He’ll be a 24-year-old rookie, so that may limit his upside a bit in comparison to some other options at the position. He also lacks size as mentioned earlier, but since he’s a prototypical slot player, that won’t matter too much. It just may impact his versatility.

That said, Washington should take a long, hard look at Eskridge on Saturday. He did have 33 catches, 768 yards, and a career-high eight touchdowns in just six games last season at Western Michigan, and he produced well as a junior, too. He could end up being a nice Day 2 pick, and he’s a player that Washington could surely use moving forward.