Washington Football Team: 3 positives and negatives from the preseason so far

Negative: Short-Yardage Offense

This has been the most troubling problem with the offense in the 2021 preseason. Ryan Fitzpatrick has not looked great, but that is to be expected. There are a lot of new pieces in the passing attack, and it will take a while for it to function smoothly. But the short-yardage offense shouldn’t be all that complicated.

Several things have become clear after just a few games. Antonio Gibson could be a great running back, he does not have the mindset of a short-yardage guy. Since you don’t want to wear out JD McKissic in this role, it has fallen onto Peyton Barber. And Barber has handled the job fairly well. But he is not a powerhouse bowling ball like Mike Tolbert, and he can be stopped.

Combine that with the move toward quicker more athletic linemen – with Charles Leno, Jr and Samuel Cosmi replacing behemoths Cornelius Lucas and Morgan Moses at tackle – and you begin to see that Washington will have to convert short-yardage plays with a mixture of speed and creativity as opposed to brute force.

There are solutions to this problem – solutions which may well be considered in an upcoming article – but whether they follow my advice or come up with their own answers, this is a problem that needs to be solved in time for the regular season. After all, failing to convert on 3rd or 4th &1 are the kinds of things that cost you ballgames in the NFL.