What’s still missing after the draft and free agency?

May 8, 2023

by Steve Thomas

Now that we’ve successfully gotten through both free agency and the draft, a major open question for Washington – other than that pesky minor issue of who’s going to replace the tiny, authoritarian narcissist in the owner’s suite – is about the roster.  Another round of players will be available after teams start making cuts, but at this point, the roster is more or less set.  Therefore, how close is the roster to being seriously competitive, right now?  How many holes are left to fill?  Let’s discuss, group by group.

Quarterbacks

This status of this group is open for debate.  Samuel Howell has become a fan favorite, but the truth is that he hasn’t proven anything.  Jacoby Brissett should, but may not be, in contention for the starting role, but we’ll see.  However, Brissett would at best most likely be a fill-in starter at best.  Jake Fromm and the newly-signed Tim DeMorat are developmental prospects who will only play in the event of emergencies.  Objective analysts would most likely rate this group as very weak compared to the rest of the NFL, but Ron Rivera has made his bed and is going to lie in it at this point, so this group is what it is.  No changes are needed until both Brissett and Howell have gotten their chances.

Running backs

Antonio Gibson and Jaret Patterson are “just guys”.  Brian Robinson had an amazing story last year, but the truth is that he only averaged over 4 yards per carry in 3 of 12 games, and was under 3.5 yards per carry in 5 of them.  The skillset of Chris Rodriguez, drafted in round 6 this year, appears to be primarily limited to downhill power running.  Washington will most likely need to keep looking for an elite running back, so chalk this one up to a minor need.

Wide receiver

Obviously Terry McLaurin is a Pro Bowl talent, and Jahan Dotson may be able to get to that level as well.  Curtis Samuel is productive as the do everything / gadget guy, and Dyami Brown may be a decent slot receiver, particularly if his college quarterback, Howell, does end up starting.  The rest of this group are longshots, but this is one of the roster groups for which Washington needs no help.  This is probably a top 10 – top 15 group in the league, at worst, perhaps higher.

Tight end

The starter, Logan Thomas, has suffered from serious injury and a general lack of performance, and it isn’t clear that any of the recent new candidates brought in, to include recent draft picks John Bates and Cole Turner, will ever be the elite target that most modern, contending teams have.  If Thomas can get things back together, the team may be fine for now, but Washington needs to keep looking for their version of Travis Kelce.

Offensive line

Ron Rivera needs to put out a huge “help wanted – inquire within” sign for the offensive line.  Left tackle Charles Leno is at least league average, which is good, but he isn’t close to the level of Washington’s long history of elite tackles, and he’s also entering his 10th season.  He isn’t the future and isn’t what the team ultimately needs.  Chalk that up as a need.  The right tackle, Andrew Wylie, isn’t necessarily the talent level the team needs either, but he has a $24M contract that Washington would have trouble ending in a fiscally-sound way before 2024.  Therefore, consider 2023 as a tryout for him.  The starting guard situation pretty dire, although they do have some good backup talent.  Presumably, Samuel Cosmi will get a shot at right tackle, with Andrew Norwell at left guard.  That is . . . suboptimal.  Chalk this up as a big need.  Center now actually has too many starters, with Nick Gates on a large contract, and the arrival of third round pick Ricky Stromberg.  It doesn’t seem realistic to think that Stromberg gets on the field much, which is a shame considering he was a day 2 pick.  Either way, both left and right tackle and most likely least one guard remains a need for this team.  Strangely, Rivera doesn’t put much emphasis on his offensive line, despite apparently intending to start a very inexperienced quarterback.

Defensive line

Defensive line is certainly not a need for Washington.  The long-term interior starters are Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne.  Neither of the starting ends, Montez Sweat and Chase Young, are signed beyond this season.  Neither one has blown anyone away, although Sweat has consistently produced more than Young.  The team lost a primary backup, Shaka Toney, for the year to a gambling suspension, but still has a number of other quality players, including William Bradley-King and James Smith-Williams.  The team also seems to be high on this year’s fifth round draft  K.J. Henry.   As a result, this group is perhaps something to watch for due to the respective statuses of Sweat and Young, but there’s no remaining needs here.

Linebackers

Disaster, meet Washington’s linebackers.  Introduce yourselves and get comfortable.  The Athletic published a column on February 22, 2023, credited to The Athletic NFL Staff, titled  Which NFL teams must upgrade their linebacker units?, in which they ranked all 32 teams in this area.   Importantly, this column was published prior to free agency, but nevertheless, Washington was ranked 31st, meaning second to last in front of only the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Washington’s NFC brethren, the Cowboys, Giants, and Eagles, were obviously all ranked higher, at 23, 30, and 11, respectively.  The top-ranked teams were the Colts at 1, followed by the Chiefs, 49ers, Panthers, and Rams.

Jamin Davis was originally drafted to be a traditional play calling middle linebacker.  Despite some glaring, obvious signs that being in the middle probably wasn’t his destiny, the team tried it anyway.  Predictably, that failed, but things got better for Davis when the team moved him to outside linebacker, although he’s still a liability in coverage.  Right now, he isn’t exactly a superstar, and probably not worth a first round pick, but he’s at least improved and has some potential.

Cody Barton was only signed to a one year, $3.5M contract, so the team isn’t stuck with him, but he’s nevertheless making significantly more than anyone else, and thus is likely in line to be Washington’s other starter opposite Davis.  Last season was the only year he started with any consistency in his four year career.

None of the rest of Washington’s linebackers are at the level at which they could be expected to be level average or better starters, at least this year.

The simple truth is that Washington can’t play a 4 – 3 defense with any sort of regularity even if they wanted to, as they’ve made no effort to find anyone who is a worthy starter, particularly in the middle.   The Athletic is right – this linebacker group is one of the worst in the NFL, yet for some reason Ron Rivera continues to downplay it.  This is the #1 need on the team.

Defensive backfield

The only real open questions with this position group is the long-term status of safety Kamren Curl.  Washington has obviously put a tremendous amount of resources into the defensive backfield, starting with the questionable-at-best drafts of Emmanuel Forbes and Jartavius Martin.  The team will need to re-sign Benjamin St-Juste before the end of next season, but the group is otherwise set for years to come.

Specialists

Who’s the punt and kicker returner on this team?  Yeah, I don’t know either.  Washington has an elite punter in Tress Way, a new, young long snapper in Cameron Cheeseman, and a roughly league average kicker in Joey Slye.  The job of returner is pretty critical, but they have multiple candidates on the roster now.

Conclusion

The obvious roster needs that remain after free agency and the draft are, in some ways, what existed prior to both.  In order, Washington needs (1) linebackers, (2) a tackle, (3) a guard, (4) punt and kick returner, and to a lesser extent, running back.  The good news is that the overdrafting at defensive back hopefully solved that problem.  How much will these roster deficiencies affect the team’s performance on the field?  We won’t find out until September.