Week 18 Reality Checks: Washington at Giants

3. The Reality Is, Coaching stubbornness has to be a thing of the past.

You want coaches who believe in themselves and have confidence in their approach. But you also want coaches flexible, humble and nimble enough to course-correct when they make a mistake. Three glaring situations indicate an undue stubbornness among this coaching staff this season, and I’d like to see them be quicker to pivot next season. I’d also like to see them show better awareness of those glaring mistakes in the game this weekend. What are they, you ask?

First, inflexible plans on the defensive scheme and roster doomed this season early. Sticking with Jon Bostic until his injury. Playing Landon Collins in significant coverage roles. Barely playing Kam Curl early on in the season. Remaining stuck on your blitz and DLine rush approach in spite of having no success. Signing William Jackson III to big money and then refusing to let him play the way that made him successful in the first place. The coaching staff ultimately did figure out some of these issues and had their hands forced into creativity in others. But the hesitancy to adjust, and the seeming unwillingness to customize the system and the approach to the players you have on your roster and the opponent you’re facing this week are glaring and damaging misses.

Second, signing Chris Blewitt. I’m convinced that Blewitt was the classic example of a coaching staff believing they could fix a player who nobody else has wanted. Moving on from Hopkins after the amount of kicks he’d missed in key spots the last two years, though a tricky decision, was understandable – if you could sign a clear-cut peer or improvement. Cutting Hopkins for Blewitt easily cost the team one game (Denver), and maybe two.

Third, continuing to allow defenses to dictate that you didn’t get the ball to Terry McLaurin for a 5-week stretch of the most important games of the season was just insanity. McLaurin can win from any spot on the field. He was Washington’s only legitimate weapon for large parts of the season. Allowing whole games to go by without manufacturing easy touches or him was inexcusable. Turner made some adjustments last week. Will he continue that trend this week?