Week 12 Reality Checks: Washington vs Seattle

1. The Reality Is, the ceiling is the floor.

Taylor Heinicke has shown glimpses of the high-ceiling potential he has in his last two games. He’s managed, simultaneously, to avoid giving glimpses of the low floor that has kept him from getting more opportunities previously in his career. With Heinicke, it seems to be clear now that his ceiling will be determined more by his ability to raise the floor. His ceiling is plenty high to be a successful, “top half of the league” starter.

The questions remaining about him are all surrounding his floor. If he can continue to string together games that don’t show flashes of that low floor that plagued him early in this season and previously in his career, he very well could earn himself the opportunity to start another season in Washington and either mentor a rookie or even render said rookie obsolete.  The key to this scenario will not be about Heinicke proving he can make high-level plays…it will be him proving he can consistently avoid major mistakes. If he can’t, he might end up with a career much closer to Ryan Fitzpatrick’s.

As much as I love the Heinicke story as he’s progressed after taking over for Ryan Fitzpatrick, I’m not confident that he will be able to maintain this momentum. The jury is still out in the long run, but Washington needs too many things to go right to continue winning and giving him the opportunities to succeed at this level this season.

Logan Thomas and Curtis Samuel coming back sure wouldn’t hurt, but I have a bad feeling about how Heinicke will fare on Monday under the bright lights of a nationally televised game with the expectation levels suddenly raised. Look for a step back this week. Seattle wins this one 24-20.