Washington Football Team: What we learned from final preseason game
By Jonathan Eig
BAD – Curtis Samuel
Curtis Samuel has not played this preseason. He has been battling injury. It may not matter. But we would all feel a lot better if we could see him on the field making the kinds of plays we all expected when he was signed this offseason. In his absence, both Gandy-Golden and Dax Milne have made a few plays that give fans hope about the depth at the receiver position. But Samuel has to be a big-time playmaker if this offense is to show much improvement over last season. So far, we simply haven’t seen it.
REALLY BAD – Quarterbacks
Ryan Fitzpatrick didn’t play against Baltimore. I understand Ron Rivera’s thinking. He is injury-averse. It was the same thinking that led him to refuse to call timeouts in two games last year. He was making a risk-reward evaluation and decided it simply wasn’t worth the gamble. Normally, you wouldn’t worry about a veteran like Fitz missing a few reps in preseason, but this is a new QB on a new team, playing with new receivers. The passing game has not looked very good so far and I would have liked to have seen a series or two from the starters.
Taylor Heinicke also will not play for Washington tonight, per sources. It’s going to be the Kyle Allen and Steven Montez show.
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) August 28, 2021
But that wasn’t the decision. The Fitzpatrick issue remains unknown. But what we did see from Kyle Allen and Steven Montez, was downright bad. Allen played well in a brief stint last season, but he’s battled injuries ever since and still does now look very comfortable under center. His stats were marred by multiple drops, but even if those balls were caught, they were all very short, well-covered passes that probably would not have changed the game very much. Behind Allen, Steven Montez has shown very little. Though I still like Allen as a backup option, neither one of these guys inspires much confidence right now. And with questions about both Fitzpatrick and Taylor Heinicke, this position is a major cause for concern heading into the real games.
Of course, it’s only preseason. As Aaron Rodgers might advise, we should all relax. We’ll find out soon enough whether any of these end-of-preseason impressions carry over into the meaningful part of the season.
