What good things happened to Washington in 2021?
January 24, 2022
by Steve Thomas
When you’re a Washington Redskins Washington Football Team WFT whatever the heck this team is supposed to called Washington fan, it’s easy to become pretty negative considering the off the field and front office disasters that seem to occur every year, as well as the neverending cycle of bad play and “rebuilding” rosters. In that light, I thought it might be a good idea to spend a little time talking about the good things that we can take from the 2021 season. Certainly, a 7 – 10 record isn’t positive, but we were able to watch a few good things happen. So, for one day, at least, let’s not dwell on the “bad” and hit the high points from Washington’s 2021 season.
Despite his limitations, Taylor Heinicke has outplayed expectations
No doubt, Taylor has a weak arm by NFL quarterback standards. He also exhibits inconsistent mechanics and a has tendency to hang on to the ball too long while trying to make a play. Furthermore, he’s a bit undersized when compared to the prototype. All of that having been said, remember what Heinicke is: he came here toward the end of the 2020 season as an undrafted free agent emergency quarterback who at first wasn’t even allowed to practice with the team. Heinicke went from being a guy with exactly 8 games and 1 start on his resume to a consistent starter who graded out solidly somewhere in the lower middle of league starters by the end of this season. His 65% completion percentage, 20 / 15 touchdown to interception ratio, and 85.9 quarterback rating are all much better than we had the right to expect from him last December. So, while Heinicke probably isn’t the team’s long-term future franchise quarterback, he’s a rousing success story.
Terry McLaurin continued on his elite trajectory
As Washington fans, we’ve been firsthand witnesses for the past three years to McLaurin’s enormous talent level and high ceiling. He has truly elite route running skills, an uncanny knack for getting open, great hands, a tremendous athletic profile, and, in a league in which many wide receivers are unlikeable divas (hi, Antonio Brown; how are you enjoying your couch?), comes across as a quiet, hard worker who leads by example. His league-wide recognition and numbers have been severely hampered by playing for a lousy franchise and a string of mediocre starting quarterbacks, but there’s no doubt that he’s one of the very best receivers in the NFL. This past season, he had 77 receptions in 130 targets, 1053 yards, and 5 touchdowns, despite being the team’s only serious offensive threat and not having an elite quarterback. McLaurin has a career 62.2% completion percentage, which is middle of the road for starting receivers; however, if he had been on a quality team for the last three years, all of his numbers would’ve been drastically different. Washington should move heaven and earth to try to re-sign him to an extension this offseason.
Jonathan Allen is for real
I had a big problem with Allen fighting with his teammate and college friend Daron Payne on the sidelines while on national television. I thought he should’ve been suspended by the team for the following game and had his captaincy removed; obviously, none of that happened, which showed weakness and a lack of character by the coaching staff. That having been said, though, in terms of his on the field production, Allen was at the top of the NFL heap for defensive tackles: his 9.0 sacks was third in the NFL behind the Rams’ Aaron Donald (12.5) and the Steelers’ Cameron Heyward (10.0). He was tied for 10th in total tackles at his position, with 62, and tied for 15th in solo tackles, with 31. In other words, he was truly one of the most productive defensive tackles in the NFL and very worthy of his First Team Pro Bowler selection. Miraculously, Washington actually did the right thing for once and got Allen signed to a long-term deal through 2025. Chalk Allen up as another positive.
Bobby McCain overcame early struggles to be a solid player
Early in the season, it appeared as though McCain was involved in multiple coverage busts, which resulted in some big plays by opposing offenses. However, as the season went along, he became more and more of a critical component to the team’s secondary. At the end of the season, McCain had played in all 17 games, with 16 starts, and had made 63 total tackles, including 47 solo, and 4 interceptions. He came to Washington this past offseason via a one year contract, so he’s a free agent once again and is no doubt hoping to parlay his strong 2021 season into a multi-year deal. Washington would be wise to make an effort to bring him back.
DeAndre Carter was much better than expected
It’s no secret that Washington has been somewhere between average to horrific at punt and kick returns for awhile now, with a couple of rate moments of “very good” mixed in. Last year, Steven Sims and Danny Johnson were at least not embarrassing, but head coach Ron Rivera clearly wanted to upgrade. Enter Carter, who had bounced around between 7 different teams since he entered the league as an undrafted free agent before arriving in DC on a low-cost, low guarantee, one year contract to be the starting kick returner. Carter ended up being a much more valuable player than anyone expected – he was ranked third in the NFL in kick returns, with an average of 25.1 yards per return and a 101 yard return for a touchdown in week 4, earning honors as the fourth alternate to the Pro Bowl. He also averaged 8.4 yards per punt return, which is a quality number, albeit in just 16 returns. Carter certainly stabilized Washington’s return game, but the biggest surprise was his value on offense – he contributed in both the rushing and receiving game as a fill-in of sorts for the injured Curtis Samuel, who missed essentially the entire season. Carter had 24 receptions in 44 attempts for 296 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 10 carries for 89 yards, almost entirely via jet sweeps. That’s what’s called a free agent success story. Washington’s front office would be wise to offer this man a multi-year deal and a healthy raise to come back to DC.
Most of the rookie draft picks showed promise
No, Jamin Davis didn’t produce at anywhere near the level expected of a first round pick. On the other hand, coaching staff tried to force him into the middle linebacker role despite being more suited to the weakside position. Rivera admitted defeat late on the middle linebacker experiment late in the year, so Davis’ future may be brighter than it seems. That having been said, Davis didn’t play much in college, so he’s inexperienced and may improve with time. Regardless of Davis, most of the rest of the draft class made a pretty strong and immediate impact. Second round pick Samuel Cosmi stepped in as the starting right tackle and had a decent go of it until injuries and a sentence in Coronavirus jail took him out for a number of games. University of Minnesota corner Benjamin St-Juste had a similar experience. He didn’t produce significant numbers in terms of tackles, and frankly wasn’t great at times, but he at least looked like he belonged in an NFL secondary until injuries ended his season as well. Tight end John Bates, one of the team’s two fifth round picks, was forced to step up when injuries demolished the rest of his position group, and he ended up playing in all 17 games, starting 8, and had 20 receptions in 25 targets for 249 yards and 1 touchdown. The sixth round pick, long snapper Cameron Cheeseman, was brought in to replace Washington’s long-time snapper, Nick Sundberg. The kicking game was a bit unsettled at the beginning of the year, with what looked to be some unsure snaps and communication problems. By the end of the season, though, things had smoothed out and we didn’t hear Cheeseman’s name mentioned, which is always good for a long snapper. Cheeseman even received some Pro Bowl love, garnering some fan attention and votes. Washington picked two more contributors in the seventh round, edge rusher Shaka Toney and receiver Dax Milne. Neither one contributed a ton, but both at least showed some promise, particularly Toney. By seventh round pick standards, that’s success. Of all of the 2021 draft picks, only Davis and Dyami Brown, the receiver selected in the 4th round from North Carolina, disappointed. As for Brown, one intelligent analyst told you right after the draft that Brown’s route running skills needed work and that he would need some time to develop (click here), so 2022 may be a better season for him. All in all, that’s the makings of a pretty darn good draft class.
The team briefly showed signs of life before injuries and Coronavirus protocols derailed the season
Yes, we’ve admittedly seen this before in other years, but the fact of the matter is that Washington was able to get on a bit of a roll in the third quarter of the season, winning four games in a row during a run that included a couple of good teams. Things fell apart after that, with injuries, a lack of preparation and leadership coming to the forefront, plus a truckload of players being sentenced to Coronavirus jail, but for a brief period, the fans had something to feel upbeat about. That’s a good thing . . . right?
Did I miss any other signs of positivity in Washington’s 2021-22 season? Let me know in the comment section what you think.