The Garrett Gilbert era is officially over as Washington activates Taylor Heinicke

As soon as it was confirmed that Taylor Heinicke and Kyle Allen wouldn’t be activated in time, fans of the Washington Football Team set pretty low expectations for Tuesday night’s showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Despite his (limited) experience under Ron Rivera and Scott Turner, surely there was no way Garrett Gilbert, a practice squad quarterback for most of his career, could lead a decimated roster to a victory on the road.

While those predictions held firm, Gilbert did all you could ask for a guy who was signed just four days prior. The 30-year-old played turnover-free football, only took one bad sack and would’ve had a touchdown, the second of his career, had Adam Humphries reeled in his end zone fastball.

In a vacuum, Gilbert wasn’t the reason Washington lost the game. That onus fell on the defense, mostly the defensive line.

With that said, fans will be pleased to hear the Gilbert era is over.

On Thursday, Washington activated Taylor Heinicke off the COVID list, putting him in line to start Sunday night against Dallas.

The Washington Football Team has activated Taylor Heinicke.

Christmas has indeed come early for the Washington faithful.

This is a pretty surprising turn of events as Heinicke contracted the virus a few days after Kyle Allen popped positive. On Wednesday, Ron Rivera hinted that one of the QBs was nearing a return. Given the timing of their positive tests, almost everyone assumed it’d be Allen.

It just goes to show the unpredictability of the NFL…and that these tests are the equivalent to sports betting. Even when you think you crunched all the necessary numbers, the outcome is likely to be something you weren’t expecting.

Nevertheless, this is huge news for Washington. Yes, it would’ve been nice if Heinicke was activated in time for Tuesday’s game vs the Eagles, but that was always a long shot, even after it got pushed back two days.

The bottom line is the season is still salvageable, and Heinicke’s return should jumpstart an offense that was out of sync in Week 15.

It’s unclear how Heinicke spent his self-isolation period, but we sure hope he was busy reviewing film. After all, he’ll go up against a Dallas defense that’s responsible for holding him to his worst game of the year two weeks ago.

In that contest, Heinicke was under constant duress from the Cowboys’ defensive front and forced some ugly passes into tight windows. He struggled with accuracy and was lucky to walk away with just one interception.

With an off day on Saturday, Heinicke will get two days of practice to shake off the rust and prepare for Sunday night. Let’s hope he delivers a vintage performance, because Washington will finish on the outside looking in of the NFC playoff picture if they fail to win their remaining three games.