Washington Football Team: Insane Terry McLaurin stat underscores need to find stability at QB

The Washington Football Team won an absolute thriller of an NFC East showdown against the New York Giants, as Dustin Hopkins drilled a game-winning 43-yard field goal as time expired, but not before he missed his previous attempt from 48 yards and the Giants gave him an extra life by committing an offsides penalty.

Terry McLaurin was a huge reason why Washington was in a position to win, as he tallied a new career-high with 11 receptions for 107 yards and his first touchdown of the young season. Taylor Heinicke zeroed in on McLaurin in the fourth quarter and the star receiver came through time and time again.

While watching the game, however, we stumbled across a hugely concerning statistic about McLaurin that really captured the Football Team’s revolving door at the quarterback position over the last few years.

Including Thursday night, McLaurin has played 32 games in his career thus far. During that span, the Football Team has changed starting quarterbacks 10 (!) times. For all you math savants out there, that means McLaurin is catching passes from a different signal caller every three games of his career.

Credit to Washington Realm on Twitter for digging this up.

This Terry McLaurin stat proves the Football Team needs to find a long-term answer at quarterback.

Anyone else almost regurgitate their dinners reading that? McLaurin is undoubtedly one of the most talented young receivers in the game. However, he’s never going to reach his full ceiling — which could be a top 7-9 player at the position, if not higher — if Washington doesn’t find stability at the quarterback position.

Now, can McLaurin be productive with anyone under center? Absolutely, but imagine the heights he could reach if he was catching passes from the same quarterback (hopefully an elite one) week in and week out.

Taylor Heinicke might — emphasis on might — be that guy, we need a more sizable sample size to know for sure. All we’ve seen thus far is flashes of a franchise QB. We’re still talking about a player with an extensive injury history, has appeared in only nine games and attempted just 92 passes in the NFL entering Week 2.

Even Amani Toomer, the Giants all-time leader in receiving yards, understands that McLaurin needs consistency at quarterback. Everyone recognizes McLaurin’s talents and we’d hate to see Washington’s organizational ineptitude rear its ugly head and waste the prime years of his career searching for a QB.

McLaurin just turned 26 this week, so there’s plenty of time for Washington to maximize the next five or six years of his career.

Whether it’s Heinicke, a potential trade target, or a highly-touted prospect, the top priority on Ron Rivera and GM Martin Mayhew’s agenda next offseason is to identify long-term answer at QB. That’s easier said than done, but that’s why they get paid the big bucks, right?

We normally wouldn’t advocate building around a receiver, but McLaurin has shown enough to be viewed as a franchise cornerstone.

Washington Football Team: 4 incredible stats that defined WFT’s win over the Giants

The Washington Football Team defeated the New York Giants on a last-second field goal from Dustin Hopkins. Here are three stats that define the win.