Washington Football Team: Five questions before 2021 training camp

The Washington Football Team embarks on training camp and the preseason with a list of unanswered questions. Will they get satisfactory answers leading into the regular season?

NFL Training Camp and preseason games are about answering questions. Questions about roster spots, questions about coaching staffs, questions about injury status. Questions about rookie classes. Some are more important than others. Others won’t be answered until the real games start. But for the Washington Football Team fans, there are 5 pressing questions that should be answered before the season begins. So let’s take a look.

Where does Jamin Davis end up sticking?

He’s the first-round draft pick. He’s Ron Rivera’s first linebacker selected in Washington. He’s a freakish athlete with unlimited upside. But is he a middle linebacker? Or a weak side linebacker? Or a strong side linebacker? Does he take over for Jon Bostic and line up between Cole Holcomb and Khaleke Hudson, or does he take over for Kevin Pierre-Louis and line up as the other book-end with Holcomb, while Bostic holds down the MLB position and calls the defensive signals?

The coaching staff used Davis as the MLB during mini-camp. If he sticks there and lives up to Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio’s standards, he could easily push for DROY consideration. If he ends up outside, it’s not the end of the world, but it will be an indication that he wasn’t quite up to the demands they have for their MLB.

Who emerges as the 2nd and 3rd WR?

Terry McLaurin is the clear-cut WR1. And many will say that Curtis Samuel is the obvious WR2, but not so fast. First of all, he’s been battling injuries this offseason. Secondly, if they choose to use him primarily as a gadget player/slot receiver, then he may not fill the typical Z WR role.

Terry McLaurin is the X. It’s totally feasible that McLaurin and Samuel line up outside with Humphries in the slot, but it’s also possible that the starting configuration is McLaurin and Dyami Brown outside, with Samuel in the slot. It will be fascinating to hear what configurations and combinations get the most run in training camp, and then to see who emerges in the preseason.

Who wins the job at FS and 3rd CB?

I would assume Bobby McCain and Benjamin St-Juste are penciled in for these roles, with Kamren Curl at SS, Fuller and Jackson III at the corners, and Landon Collins starting the season on PUP. But will St-Juste come in the slot, or outside, pushing Fuller to the slot? Or will McCain start at FS and then drop down to the slot with Fuller going to FS and Jimmy Moreland or St-Juste outside?

The battle for playing time in these various roles will be fascinating throughout training camp and the preseason. Look for Darrick Forrest to push for some opportunities in the mix, too.

Which guys emerge as the backup defensive ends?

Letting Ryan Kerrigan walk for what he got paid by Philly seems like a mistake. Maybe he wouldn’t have taken that little from the Washington Football Team. Maybe his performance will fall off a cliff. But looking at the roster, it sure seems like he could have been a valuable cog.

Nevertheless, with Kerrigan gone, there’s a log-jam of late-round picks and UDFAs competing for the backup defensive end positions. James Smith-Williams got some run late in the year last season. Shaka Toney has some impressive tools. William Bradley-King has some crazy highlights from Baylor.

At the end of the day, two or three will make the team. None should get a lot of playing time barring injury, and yet when they do play, they’ll need to produce. It’s an underrated concern for the Washington Football Team for the coming season, and something to track closely over the next month and a half.

Does Taylor Heinicke push Fitzpatrick enough to create a controversy?

Can the “Heinicke Hive” please take a deep breath? There is no scenario outside of Ryan Fitzpatrick suffering a major injury or losing the ability to speak in coherent sentences in which he isn’t the Week 1 starter.

However, Taylor Heinicke certainly has the ability to perform well enough in training camp and preseason action to percolate a quarterback controversy in the media and fanbase. And if he does, his age and potential upside certainly will make it hard for the coaching staff to leave him on the bench if Fitztragic shows up early in the season.

Will Heinicke come back to earth from his meteoric rise at the end of last season, or will he keep flying high and make things uncomfortable for Fitzpatrick? He could probably calculate the probability, but I’d rather just watch things unfold.

In the end, all I really know is, I’m ready for some football.