Determining what Washington should do at wide receiver

Here’s a brain teaser to start your day. How many receptions did Washington Football Team wide receivers who are under contract for 2022, and who are not named Terry McLaurin, account for in 2021?

Hint: the answer is one of Washington’s unofficially retired jersey numbers…

Worn by the greatest safety in the history of the NFL…

Named Ken Huston.

That’s enough hints. The answer is 27.

Put another way, the Washington Football Team had seven wide receivers make catches in 2021 and three of them, accounting for almost 45% of wideout receptions and half the receiver touchdowns, are free agents this Summer.

Should Washington re-sign any or all of these wideouts? Should they look to free agency? Or the draft? This has been among the most disappointing positions on the roster for a long time now. How can the Washington Football Team move forward?

Washington brought in five new receivers last off-season – three via free agency and two in the draft. Of them all, only free agent DeAndre Carter performed at or above his expected level. That is partially because Carter was thought to be primarily a return man, who might occasionally run a gadget play on offense. He proved to be a quality kick returner who also showed some skills as a deep threat at receiver.

Adam Humphries was brought in to be a veteran presence in the slot, who could form a productive third-down conversion team with Ryan Fitzpatrick. Though Humphries did not play poorly, he rarely made his presence known.

Curtis Samuel – well, you know that story. He rarely played. He was a complete bust as a free agent signee.

The two drafted receivers – Dyami Brown and Dax Milne – didn’t show much more. Brown was a third-round draft pick who got a chance to step up with Samuel’s injuries. Unfortunately, Brown showed very little and was injured himself for part of the season. Milne had a successful season by simply making the roster. But he performed about as you’d expect a seventh-rounder to perform (i.e. nothing special).

The two best receivers on the team were the two holdovers – McClaurin and Cam Sims. And Sims once again was relegated to mop up duty late in the year after the front-runners had all faded.

McClaurin, Samuel, and the two ’21 rookies will all be back next year. There has been some call to simply cut ties with Samuel after the disastrous ’21 season, but that seems short-sighted. Coaches and fans alike simply have to hope that he can stay healthy.

As for the free agents, there seems little rationale for retaining Humphries. Slot receiver is the easiest position to fill. There are free agents and potential draft picks galore who could come in and upgrade the position. Most would be younger and cheaper.

Carter and Sims should be retained. Carter is still very valuable as a returner. Sims lacks speed and separation, but has proven in limited opportunities that he can use his size to win contested balls, and has shown to be a surprisingly good open field runner.

The Washington Football Team has three other receivers signed to futures contracts. Two are young vets – Kelvin Harmon and Antonio Gandy-Golden. I always liked Harmon but it is clear the current regime is not all that invested in him. They seemed to go out of their way to elevate other receivers above him in 2021. That includes Gandy-Golden, who quite frankly, has yet to prove he belongs on an NFL roster.

The final futures player is Marken Michel – Sony’s brother – an intriguing prospect about whom I wrote back in September.

The Washington Football Team will certainly make attempts to upgrade this unit, but there is a limit to what they can realistically do. Last season’s major overhaul largely failed to produce results in 2021, and they really need to remain patient and hope that they were not totally wrong about Samuel and Brown. Rose-colored glasses suggest that both could improve markedly in 2022.

If they want to dip into free agency again, they will almost certainly do it in a limited, targeted manner. The big names – Davante Adams, Chris Godwin – are not coming to DC. Neither is the revived OBJ. It would be insane for the Washington Football Team to invest major resources in another free agent receiver right now. Most of the other big names are either old – Allen Robinson, A.J. Green – or overvalued – JuJu Smith-Shuster, Will Fuller.

There are some potential bargains out there, but an inordinate number of them seem to fill the returner/slot role that DeAndre Carter should be playing in 2022. Players like Kalif Raymond or Isaiah McKenzie might be of interest if Carter opts to go elsewhere. Maybe the most exciting player from this group – Baltimore’s own Deonte Harris – is a restricted free agent this year and I presume New Orleans would like to hold onto him for a while longer.

If Washington wants a solid outside receiver to complement McClaurin, they might consider someone like Christian Kirk, who has been a somewhat uneven downfield threat in Arizona. Or perhaps the athletically gifted Keelan Cole, who has suffered playing for anemic offenses in Jacksonville and New York (Jets) throughout his career. The most exciting option might have been Dallas’ Michael Gallup, but his ACL injury late in the 2021 season has clouded his future.

If I were to take a flyer on any free agent receiver this off-season, it would be on Jacksonville’s DJ Chark. Chark is big (6’4”), fast (4.34 40), and young (25), and showed real promise in 2019. Chark had a down year in 2020 and missed most of ’21 with a broken ankle. I attribute his 2020 season to poor overall play from the Jacksonville offense, so if he shows no ill effects from his ankle, he would be a potential steal on a short-term contract.

As for the draft – well, we all know that story too. For whatever reason, the Washington Football Team has drafted just two quality receivers in the past 20 years. McClaurin was a homerun and Jameson Crowder (who is also a free agent this summer) was a very productive slot receiver. The others – from Gardner to Russell to Jacobs, from Thomas to Kelly to Hankerson, from Doctson to … well, you get the idea. The Washington Football Team has a dreadful track record.

With college football’s increased emphasis on passing, there are more good wideouts coming into the league every year. Washington just has to hit on another one or two. I wouldn’t expect to see a first-round pick on a receiver in the upcoming draft, but a Day 2 pick is not out of the question. High upside receivers like Purdue’s David Bell or Nevada’s Romeo Doubs would be solid additions to the perimeter passing game.

So the Washington Football Team should continue trying to upgrade their receiving corps this off-season. In addition to personnel, there are two other ways they might look to develop more productive receivers. The first is rather obvious and is already a major topic of conversation. Improved quarterback play will almost certainly increase receiver productivity. It is difficult to gauge how much Dyami Brown would have benefitted from having a quarterback who could consistently push the ball downfield.

The other possible move is more difficult for an outsider to predict. 2021 was Drew Terrell’s first season as a position coach for an NFL team. His position group was a disappointment. This may have little to do with Terrell’s effectiveness and he may be highly valued within the organization. As is true of many of Washington’s current employees, Terrell followed Ron Rivera from Carolina, so it would seem obvious that Rivera likes him.

But when you have minimal track record and your position group falters, pressure follows. Brad Kragthorpe, the assistant receivers coach with Cincinnati, helped coach Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd to record-setting numbers this past season. Kragthorpe was an offensive coach at LSU with Chase and Joe Burrow, and has begun his assent up the NFL coaching ladder. I have no inside info on whether Washington is eying him, but he will be moving up soon, and identifying creative, productive up-and-coming coaches is crucial to NFL success.

Almost as crucial as finding a couple of guys who can stay on the field with Terry McLaurin and get the ball into the end zone.