Biggest observations from the Commanders’ Week 1 depth chart

The Washington Commanders will host the Jacksonville Jaguars to open the regular season this Sunday. It’ll be the team’s inaugural game under the new monicker, and it’s been a long-time coming after a frantic offseason.

Washington is in a great spot to start the year 1-0, but they shouldn’t overlook the new-look Jaguars, who made a big (and needed) change at head coach and have a second-year quarterback in Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 overall pick last year, who seems poised to take a massive leap.

Of course, the Commanders should just worry about what they can control: their own performance.

A few weeks ago, the team released their unofficial depth chart, which was admittedly all over the place positionally. At that point, Alex Erickson was the lead return specialist. The veteran has since been cut and re-signed back to the practice squad.

On Tuesday, the Commanders released their Week 1 depth chart. While most of the chart was expected, there were a few small-scale surprises.

Let’s touch on some of them, shall we?

Key observations from Commanders’ Week 1 depth chart

Dax Milne is the primary return specialist

This isn’t a huge surprise after Ron Rivera declared Milne the lead candidate for punt returns. At the time, Rivera left the door open for someone to win the kick return job, which, as it turns out, has also gone to Milne, per the chart.

It’s a noteworthy development given Milne didn’t return any kicks as a rookie last season. For what it’s worth, he returned 12 punts for 60 yards (5.0 average) and two kicks for 32 yards (16.0) average over his three years at BYU.

Not the biggest sample size, but Milne clearly earned the job in camp. We have reservations about how he’ll fare returning kicks. Of the lead candidates, including Erickson, Kyric McGowan and Antonio Gibson, Milne didn’t return a single kick this preseason. Conversely, he returned three punts for a respectable 24 yards.

Antonio Gibson is No. 2 kick returner

After the first preseason game, it became abundantly clear that Gibson would have a special teams role this season. The third-year running back was seen at practice blocking for the punt team, and returning both punts and kicks.

Then, Gibson returned the opening kick in Week 2 while Brian Robinson started with the first-team offense. With Robinson now on the NFI list and out for the first four games after his unfortunate accident, Gibson is still listed as the second kick returner even though his rushing volume is expected to grow.

Remember, folks, Rivera likened Robinson’s rushing style to Jonathan Williams, who made the 53-man roster and could see more work than expected, especially in short-yardage and goal-line situations as a runner who plays to contact.

Whatever the case, just because Robinson’s shelved for the time being doesn’t mean Gibson will waltz back into his familiar RB1 role. Gibson may start the games, but the fact he’s listed as the No. 2 kick returner suggests the coaching staff has their doubts about how he operates between the tackles as a running back.

Sidenote: Trai Turner is the starting RG over Wes Schweitzer, who has worked with the starters alongside Turner in practice. Turner had missed most of camp with a quad injury, so it’ll be interesting to see who gets the nod Sunday.