Washington Football Team has flexibility in the secondary in 2021

The rebuilt Washington Football Team secondary

The exciting thing about this year’s group is its flexibility. There will be several position battles fought out throughout training camp, but let’s, for the sake of argument, project a starting group that includes William Jackson III and Kendall Fuller as boundary corners, Jimmy Moreland as the slot corner, Landon Collins at strong safety, and Bobby McCain at free safety.

That, on paper, is a pretty solid group. Apart from Jackson, there may not be an elite talent. But there aren’t any obvious weak links either. Playing behind a potentially dominant defensive line, these players could all have career years.

Let me address the elephant in the blog very briefly right now and then move on. You all hate Landon Collins. You think he’s a bum. You think it’s silly for me to have him slotted in front of Kamren Curl. I hear you, and I’ll allow that Curl could certainly win the position in the preseason. But Landon Collins, if healthy, is not a bum.

Collins had a bad half-season last year. He was playing with a free safety in Troy Apke who didn’t do what free safeties are required to do, which is clean up any mistakes that happen in front of them. Therefore, Collins’ poor play was exacerbated. He may not regain his previous form, but he has been a very good strong safety in the league across multiple seasons, and there is a decent chance he can play at that level in 2021. End of elephant soliloquy.

The flexibility and depth in the backfield is obvious. For instance, I have Fuller at corner and McCain at safety, but they could very easily flip. Both have played other positions during their NFL careers. Others, like Jimmy Moreland, Benjamin St-Juste, Jeremy Reaves, and Cole Luke are also likely to move around the backfield as needed.

This flexibility allows the Washington Football Team to prepare for the biggest single threat to a secondary – injury. Defensive backs get injured more than any other position group. They are often the smallest players on the field, yet they throw themselves into the fray, often confronting men who may outweigh them by several pounds. Many of them are built like sprinters, with long, lean muscles that are susceptible to pulls and tears. I have never met a defensive back who did not have to play with balky hamstrings at some point in his career.

With the amount of passing that goes on today’s NFL, you need a lot of capable, flexible defensive backs. The Washington Football Team appears to have that. Consider various injury scenarios.