Washington Football Team: Latest update on kicking situation is laughable

The Washington Football Team was never going to right all of their wrongs from the season with a win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

However, notching a victory on the road in a hostile atmosphere heading into the bye would’ve done wonders for this team’s confidence. Instead, Washington lost a heartbreaker and will have nearly two weeks to chew on it.

That’s the last thing this locker room needs right now. They haven’t tasted victory since way back on Oct. 3. Regardless of the culture and leaders in your locker room, that would take a toll on any club.

It remains to be seen how Ron Rivera plans to attack the bye week. We personally would announce Kyle Allen as the starter and release Chris Blewitt to at least send a message to the players that mediocrity won’t be tolerated.

Rivera obviously can’t bench every player on the roster, but Taylor Heinicke and Blewitt have been particularly frustrating of late.

While we don’t expect a decision on the quarterback position until after the bye, nothing was stopping Rivera from kicking Blewitt to the curb, or at least bringing in another kicker for a workout.

Unfortunately, Rivera has decided … to stick with Blewitt.

The Washington Football Team has NOT made a kicking change.

We can rationalize not cutting bait with Blewitt. Doing so just so weeks after you released Dustin Hopkins and promoted the 26-year-old as his replacement would be a terrible look for the franchise, as it would be admitting to your mistake. For one reason or another, that plays a role in these decisions.

In doing so, though, Rivera is maintaining his integrity — what’s left of it, anyway — in exchange for team success.

“Everybody has to understand kickers are hard to find and consistent kickers are even harder to find. Guys who have had success in this league are on teams…” Rivera told reporters after Sunday’s loss.

That’s funny, because Washington HAD a relatively consistent kicker in Hopkins and NOW he’s doing the business for the Chargers, with whom he’s made his lone field goal attempt and all three of his extra-points.

Blewitt, on the other hand, has had three of his first five FG attempts blocked. Well, two were blocked. The other had such little air under hit that it deflected off a teammate’s helmet at the line of scrimmage.

How historically bad has Blewitt’s brief tenure in Washington been? He now has the most blocked field goals of any kicker since 2018. Zane Gonzalez has also had three FGs blocked … in 86 (!)  attempts. No other player has had more than two field goals blocked during that span.

We desperately want to buy into Rivera as the guy capable of leading Washington through this extended period of irrelevancy, but it’s quotes (and decisions) like this that make you wonder if he’s in over his head.

Rivera deserves time to find his version of a franchise quarterback before fans should even think about calling for his job. Having said that, the fact Blewitt even got on the flight back to Ashburn is yet another head-scratching move.