What on earth is Washington thinking about the quarterback situation?
March 10, 2021
by Steve Thomas
This column is not an “OMGtheycutAlexSmith!!!!!!!!” defense. That having been said, I’m at a bit of a loss to see exactly what Ron Rivera and company are planning for this position group in in the future. Now that Smith is gone, Washington is currently down to (1) Taylor Heinicke. Kyle Allen is unsigned, but he’s an exclusive rights free agent and seems to be a favorite of head coach Ron Rivera, so he will most likely be back. That’s nice, but what’s his health status? And even if he’s ready to play, is he actually starting quality? Finally, Steven Montez may or may not be on the roster, as many in the media seem to think he is, but reports are unclear as to whether he signed for one or two years when he was last elevated to the roster prior to Washington’s playoff game against Tampa Bay. If you want to count Montez, then, fine, because he doesn’t change the debate at all. Who’s going to start for this team next season? Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a worse current quarterback situation anywhere in the NFL. The team is trying to defend its NFC East title while playing a first place schedule, so this is a major problem. Also, Washington has more than $35M in salary cap space this season and has a ton of roster holes to fill. Are they going to be able to attract top-end talent at the ball-handling positions if the quarterback room is filled with a backup, an undrafted free agent who’s played 5 quarters for this team, and an undrafted free agent practice squad player? I doubt it, at least not without overpaying.
What’s the plan here, Ron? Help me understand, please.
Washington holds pick number 19 in rounds 1 and 2. The top quarterback in the draft is Trevor Lawrence, who will very likely go #1 overall to Jacksonville, followed by Zac Wilson of BYU and Justin Fields of Ohio St., both of whom almost certainly being top 5 talent. That leaves Trey Lance of North Dakota St, who is also projected to be drafted in the top 15, plus . . . please God no. We’ll have our quarterback draft preview out in a few weeks, but I see Lance as a talented athlete who otherwise isn’t close to a first round talent and will need lots of development to succeed. Mac Jones from Alabama is next up, and he has legitimate questions about his abilities as well, but he’s also projected to be a top 15 pick. ESPN’s Todd McShay, for whatever his opinion is worth, has all five of those players going in the top 10. That would leave Washington as being stuck with either overdrafting Kyle Trask in round 1 or hoping and praying that he’s still available at pick 19 in round 2, to say nothing of whether he’s actually day one-starter worthy. Ron Rivera doesn’t have a history of trading up at the top of the draft. That’s a tenuous draft situation when your team has a crisis-level need at quarterback.
But Steve, you say, calm down – the Redskins Washington has a truckload of cap space to bring someone in. Oh yeah? Who is that going to be, exactly? Uncle Jurrah was never going to let Dak Prescott take a Greyhound bus from Dallas directly into Ashburn, so he’s now the proud holder of a $160M contract. Or does anyone believe that the Seahawks are going to be stupid enough to trade Russell Wilson? The Texans don’t look like they are going to budge on Deshaun Watson (good for them), but even if they do, Watson has a no-trade clause and a very short list of teams for whom he’s willing to play. That list does not include Washington. Those are the “franchise” level quarterbacks who might be available. Our own Jamual Forrest wrote about free agent quarterback possibilities a couple weeks ago (click here to read) and listed Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick as the best options, and mentioned a few others such as Tyrod Taylor, Mitchell Trubisky, Cam Newton, Nick Mullens, and Jacoby Brissett as possibilities. The latest rumor is that Fitzpatrick may retire, so he might be off the list entirely. I’ll throw in Marcus Mariota as a possibility, as the Raiders are rumored to want to either trade or release him. Regardless, none of those players are realistic options to be anything other than temporary stopgaps.
What am I missing here? It’s possible that Ron Rivera views Kyle Allen as being the long-term starter, and he knows better than me, so if that’s the plan, then I hope it works out. But I hope that’s not the plan. At least Alex Smith was a legitimate starting-level quarterback who could play and be competent even despite his physical limitations. He knows the offense and is highly respected. The most likely scenario is that Washington intends to sign somebody – one of the average starters I mentioned above – just to get through the year until a franchise quarterback can be drafted. I suspect that the team released Smith when they did for two reasons: first, Rivera knows that Smith just isn’t his guy and never has been, and two, the team was trying to do Smith a favor out of respect for him by putting him back on the market as early as possible in order to give him the best chance to land somewhere else. If the former is true, then so be it. However, if the sole reason was the latter, that’s admirable, but not exactly what was best for the team. Washington could have held on to Smith for now and then released him later if a valid starter comes along either through the draft or free agency. There was no real need to release him now.
All of this seems to be a bit short-sighted on the team’s part. I don’t see a particularly great 2021 option. So let me ask again: what’s the plan here, Ron?