Week 18 Reality Checks: Washington at Giants

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am that this inaugural Week 18 Reality Checks  is the final Reality Checks of the Washington Football Team era. It’s not that I minded the interim name all that much, but it sure did get tedious writing all of that out the last two seasons, not having a “nickname” to reference players by, and trying to figure out ways to talk about the team without using the name.

In case you were under a rock this week and hadn’t heard, the Washington Football Team will unveil their new name, logo and uniforms next month.

But before we get to all of the drama, excitement, hype, disappointment and expectations that go into an NFL offseason, the Washington Football Team has one final game this year.

A Week 18 trip to New York to play, possibly, the worst team in the NFL. The Giants don’t have the worst record in the league, but given their current state of disarray and the laughable quarterbacking options they currently have on the active roster, I think it’s safe to say the Fighting Joe Judges (pun fully intended) will field the worst collection of players and coaches in the NFL this Sunday.

Many fans would list this as a game Washington would love to lose….to gain draft position, but that’s not Reality…which is why I’m here for you…so let’s take a look at our 1st and Only Week 18 Washington Football Team Reality Checks.

5. The Reality Is, Tanking is for Losers..

Look, if you’re in the middle of a rebuild and playing a bunch of young players in a season finale doesn’t give you the best chance to win, but does allow you to develop and evaluate the talent on your roster, then, by all means, that’s what you should do.

If losing a game puts you in position to draft first in a loaded draft, then losing that game on purpose might be acceptable. But losing your sixth straight division game to end a season, to a team that is objectively terrible and a coach who went out of his way to disparage and poke fun at your team is not a good look.

And doing so on purpose in order to move from 12th to 10th in draft position is the kind of thing only loser organizations do. Washington needs to end the season on a high note. They need the optics of not winning less games than last season. They should be playing and coaching to win this game. Period.

4. The Reality Is, this rookie class is all over the place.

Here’s how I’d rank this rookie class based on their production and trajectory compared to their draft status.

John Bates is, undoubtedly, the best value in this draft for Washington. His contributions and development are extremely encouraging. Look for him to continue to grow and develop into a solid TE in this league for a long time. Great value from a late-round pick.

Sam Cosmi looks to be a solid starter in this league at RT for a long time, and shows the skills and development to potentially take over for Leno on the left side once Leno’s new contract expires. second rounders need to turn into solid starters…so chalk Cosmi up as a solid selection.

Camaron Cheeseman was probably over-drafted, but appears to be a serviceable long-snapper, and didn’t have any major gaffes this season, which is a good sign.

Jaret Patterson, Dyami Brown, and Benjamin St. Juste all showed flashes this season. Brown and Patterson did so very late in the season and both have an opportunity to build on those developments in week 18. St. Juste’s concussion issues are a concern, but hopefully he comes back and continue to develop into a starting corner in this league.

Shaka Toney, Darrick Forrest, and William Bradley-King all contributed in brief opportunities. It will be fascinating to see if any of them make the team next season, or if they get replaced by next years’ “flyers”.

And that leaves us with Jamin Davis, who obviously disappointed this season, based on his draft status. His struggles are exhibit 9,543 why you don’t draft non-premium positions in the first round. I have no doubt that Davis will develop into a serviceable starting LB in the NFL…and he might even be much  better than that.

But when you draft a player 19th in the draft, you have to get more value than “serviceable starting linebacker” out of them. “Serviceable starting QB” or “Serviceable starting LT” or “Serviceable starting Corner” are still much more valuable, so even if they don’t end up becoming elite, they still fill a premium hole. Middle linebacker is not a premium position, so the fact that Davis struggled for much of this season simply compounds the over drafting of him in the first place. All that said, I do expect him to make a leap next year and be a significant contributor.

Look for Davis, Brown, Patterson, Toney, Bates and Cosmi to all have meaningful snaps in New York as the coaching staff looks at roster construction for Year 3 of the Rivera Era.

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?

2. The Reality Is, this offseason has a ton of potential.

Bruce Allen was notorious for claiming the Washington had been winning “off the field” during his tenure, and that they needed to start winning “on the field”. Of course, this is an absurd statement because if you’re winning “off the field”, that will always translate to wins “on the field”.

But the Reality Is that Washington absolutely NEEDS to win off the field this offseason. They need to find their QB of the future. They need to add JD McKissic and Ereck Flowers to the list of players they don’t allow to hit free agency. They need to lock up Wes Schweitzer and additional offensive line depth. They need to restructure Landon Collins’ deal, they need to extend Tress Way and Joey Slye. They need to sign a veteran middle linebacker. They need to leverage Daron Payne or Matt Ioannidis into assets and extend Tim Settle. They need to draft offensive weapons and a free safety. But other than QB, there is nothing they need to do more than they need to extend Terry McLaurin to ensure he’s in Washington for a long time.

Pull that all off, announce your new name and show off your new logo and uniforms, and announce a stadium deal, and maybe, just maybe, this will be one offseason where “winning off the field” won’t be a joke.

1. The Reality Is, Washington needs a win.

Washington has already lost the opportunity to make the most of their season-ending five divisional games.

Being swept by Philly and Dallas is the exact opposite of what Ron Rivera was brought in to do in Washington. And while there were mitigating circumstances in those losses, they could have found a way to win 1 or 2 of those games, and they didn’t do it.

But to close the season having lost five straight to division opponents, to end the season with a loss to a woeful Giants team, to end the season letting a third rival punk you? That can’t happen if this franchise is going to make the kind of progress the DMV is owed by Daniel Snyder and his team.

Washington needs some momentum. Washington needs something to build on. Washington needs to have a little pride and shut Joe Judge up. And for all his faults and losing seasons, Ron Rivera does still seem to have his team thinking the right way, so I think they’ll get it done. Look for Washington to pull of a 28-12 win against the hapless Giants.