Category: Latest Washington News

Morgan Moses is 13 pounds lighter and ready to prove himself in 2020

Morgan Moses showed up to camp 13 pounds lighter in 2020, and he knows that he will have to work to earn respect from the new coaching staff.

Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera remarked earlier this week that the right side of the offensive line is virtually set, with Morgan Moses, Brandon Scherff, and Chase Roullier holding it down at their respective positions.

While that may give confidence to those players, knowing that they just need to focus on keeping their spots, there are a number of fans who have routinely questioned the production from Moses, the homegrown RT who signed a heft 5-year deal back in 2017. Moses has been incredibly reliable as far as availability goes — he hasn’t missed a start since his rookie season — but he is oft-penalized, with his false start and holding numbers risingSteve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports over the past few seasons.

Going into 2020, Moses knows that he has a new coaching staff coming in that he will have to earn his respect with, and he’s doing everything he can this offseason to make sure that happens.

The weight loss will definitely help Moses’ longevity as he enters this later stage of his career, and I’m sure the new OL coach John Matsko will stress discipline among his front five. If those two things can join hands, Moses is definitely a top candidate to act as a reliable veteran for Washington over these next few seasons, hopefully being rewarded by some success down the road.

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Post opt-out salary cap: Washington ranks 3rd in NFL with over $30 million

Washington was jumped in salary cap rankings after the Patriots had 8 players opt-out, but it’s still a bright financial future in D.C.

The deadline for NFL players to opt-out for the 2020 season due to the coronavirus passed on Thursday, so the guys in the building are officially in the building for the future. The only two players to opt-out in Washington were DL Caleb Brantley and LB Josh Harvey-Clemons.

So how do things stand as far as the salary cap goes following the deadline? Washington is still near the top of the league in terms of space, but they’ve been jumped one spot by the New England Patriots, who had an unprecedented 8 players declining to play.

It’s unlikely that Washington will choose to use much of that salary cap space ahead of the 2020 season, though there are several holes on the roster that could be filled quickly and make a big difference, like at the WR position. Rather, they will undoubtedly carry most of the $30 million forward to 2021, where they can work hard to re-sign players and bring in some free agent talent.

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Josh Norman has no desires to discuss ‘what went wrong’ in Washington

It would be easy for Norman to complain about his time in Washington, but the veteran cornerback is looking past that now in Buffalo.

Though Josh Norman was a well-respected player during his time with the Washington Football Team, it’s safe to say that many fans were fine with him leaving in free agency this past offseason, as they’d gotten a bit fed up with his play on the field.

While he was one of the best cornerbacks in the league early on in his tenure in Washington, he eventually was benched during the end of the 2019 season after his play significantly dropped. Now he is a member of the Buffalo Bills, and the veteran is looking forward to a fresh start to his career on a new team.

As far as his time in Washington, though? That’s not something that’s worth talking much about, Norman says.

“I don’t stick on what went wrong,” Norman said on his media Zoom call Thursday. “I look at the positives. When everybody is trying to look at the negatives, they’re just harking on that and they think they know who you are just because of that. At the end of the day, I take a lot of bullets and I don’t come out and shoot them back. What for? It’s not needed.”

It would be easy for Norman to shoot those bullets back at the former coaching staff in Washington, and he would be fairly justified in doing so. Fans sure haven’t shied away from letting him know of his blame in all of the disappointments that took place in Washington during Norman’s time.

Norman took the high road though, and that’s a great thing to do. What good does it do to revisit things that can’t be changed at this point anyway?

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Can Terry McLaurin handle spotlight and increased expectations in Washington?

McLaurin had a stellar rookie season when nobody knew who he was, but the spotlight will be on him to continue that production in 2020.

If you’re looking for silver linings and bright spots as a Washington football fan, there was no player more important to you than Terry McLaurin in 2019. As a rookie, the third-round draft pick came into the NFL and set the league on fire in the first few weeks of the season, and he continued a solid rookie campaign throughout the year, rising to become one of the best young receivers in the game.

While it was a great platform of work to build on, what comes next will determine just how great of a career McLaurin will have. Washington’s WR coach Jim Hostler spoke to the media on Thursday morning, and he agreed with that sentiment, saying that with greater expectations for the second-year receiver, he will need to be that much better.

It doesn’t help that there are few other players to worry about in the passing game for Washington. Hostler also admitted on Thursday that outside of McLaurin, he has no idea who the starters will be this year, while players like Steven Sims, Antonio Gandy-Golden, and Dontrelle Inman look to step up into a larger role. With that lack of production to start, defenses will be able to key on McLaurin and potentially send an extra man his way, making it that much harder for him to have an impact. It may be unfortunate, but that is the reality in the NFL, especially when you’re as talented as McLaurin. A solid rookie campaign has expectations through the roof, and how he manages those will tell us a lot about him going forward.

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Jim Hostler says ‘no idea’ who starting WRs are outside of Terry McLaurin

Washington’s new WR coach used complete honesty when saying that he has no idea who the starting WRs will be alongside Terry McLaurin.

One of the biggest concerns in Washington comes on the offensive side of the ball, where there is a major lack of talent and depth at the wide receiver position.

Terry McLaurin led the way in 2019 as the only player who was worth talking about at WR, and going into the 2020 season, it seems that he will have to do the same, at least to start.

That question of who will join McLaurin at the top has been common among fans all offseason, but the team has done little to improve the situation, as far as major moves go. They drafted Antonio Gandy-Golden and signed both Cody Latimer and Dontrelle Inman in free agency, but those were the only additions. On Thursday,  Washington’s new wide receiver coach had complete honesty when talking to the media when he admitted that even he has no idea which player will fill the WR2 role next to McLaurin.

There are several candidates, with the aforementioned Gandy-Golden having high hopes from fans, and Inman seemingly the most suited to fill that veteran role, however, it seems that Steven Sims Jr. will have the best chance. He was easily the second most impressive WR in Washington last season, and many believe that he will thrive in Scott Turner’s offense.

There will be a lot of competition in camp though, and all eyes will be on the WR position.

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LOOK: Washington shows off new helmets featuring numbers instead of logo

Washington posted the first real images of new helmets without the former team logo on it, with players numbers featured instead.

Are you still questioning whether or not the new helmets in Washington will look cool without the former team logo on the side? Well, whether you like it or not, it’s going to be something you’ll have to get used to, at least for the next year or so, and there’s a good chance that it’ll grow on you.

The Washington Football Team official Twitter account released pictures and a video of Landon Collins’ helmet being prepared with the No. 20 on the side, which we already got a glimpse of earlier this offseason when the Pro-Bowl safety posted a jersey mock-up on his Instagram page and teased what the new fits might look like.

It may be too ‘college-like’ for some, but you can guarantee that any player from the University of Alabama will feel right at home wearing their number on the dome, and the rest of the players will come to like it eventually as well.

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Kendall Fuller says Washington’s goal is to have ‘best defense in the league’

Fuller knows that there’s a chance to do something special in his return to Washington, and pieces are there to become a dominant defense.

Going into the 2020 NFL season, there is an understanding around the NFL that the Washington Football Team may not win a ton of games or be a playoff team, but they have a defensive front that will make life tough on a lot of opposing quarterbacks. With a dominant defensive line that consists of five former first-round picks, Washington will likely have no problem disrupting the passing game and forcing QBs into bad decisions.

From there, it will be on the secondary to clean up the mess.

Kendall Fuller, the cornerback who was drafted by Washington and re-signed with them in free agency this offseason, knows that he can help bring the level of play up in the back-end. He said as much on Wednesday when talking to media members, noting that there are aspirations to be great in Washington amongst all players.

The secondary was anything but great in 2019, but a new wave of players have been brought in, with Fuller and Ronald Darby acting as new blood in coverage. Washington also has high hopes for both Fabian Moreau and Jimmy Moreland as well, hoping that they can round out the cornerback position and hold solid.

If the defensive line can be as good as expected, it won’t be hard for the secondary to have a huge impact on the game. If they can do so, rising to one of the best defenses in the league is very achievable for Washington.

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Brandon Scherff getting tips about health and longevity from Ryan Kerrigan

Brandon Scherff is an incredible talent, but he’s recently sought out tips from Ryan Kerrigan on how to stay healthy longer.

We all know that Washington’s star right guard Brandon Scherff has the talent to be one of the best linemen in all of the NFL, but one thing that has plagued him over the years is his health.

During his first two years in the season, Scherff played 32 of 32 games, making it to the Pro Bowl in his second season, but since then he’s been forced to sit out 16 games because of injuries. When talking to media members on Wednesday, Scherff said that he isn’t doing much differently this year around to protect against that, but he has bee picking the brain of one player in Washington who is well known for his ability to stay on the field for an incredible amount of time — Ryan Kerrigan.

Kerrigan, the Ironman of the NFL, had his perfect streak of consecutive games broken at 139 straight in 2019 after suffering a minor injury near the end of the season. If we could figure out a way for Scherff to stay on the field with that level of consistency, there’s no doubt he would rise to be one of the greatest offensive linemen of all time.

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Brandon Scherff has no intentions of leaving Washington over contract

Scherff will play the 2020 season on the franchise tag, but he isn’t concerned about a long-term deal, as he has no intentions of leaving.

Washington veteran right guard Brandon Scherff met with media members on Wednesday morning to talk about all things Washington Football coming up in the 2020 season, and he started the conversation with something that fans will love to hear early on.

It was about his contract situation, and what his thoughts were on being franchise tagged and unable to come to terms on a new long-term deal with Ron Rivera and the new coaching staff. According to Scherff, this is not a big deal to him, as his end goal remains the same: staying in Washington for the rest of his career.

Scherff was drafted by Washington back in 2015, and he has risen to become one of the top guards in the NFL. With his contract up this past offseason, a franchise tag was placed on him that will pay him handsomely for the 2020 season while a new contract is figured out.

If you had any doubts that Scherff would stick around into the future, this should calm all of those fears. Scherff still plans to be a member of the Washington Football Team for life.

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Steve Russ calls Cole Holcomb a ‘raw talent’ and a ‘football junkie’

Holcomb had an impressive rookie season in Washington, and the new coaching staff sees the raw talent that he has to work with.

There were a number of players in Washington who were able to make a strong impression during the 2019 season despite the underwhelming team performance, and the main goal going forward is finding a way to hold onto that young talent and figure out a way to maximize their impact going forward.

One of the most impressive players was rookie linebacker Cole Holcomb, who was drafted in the fifth round, but went on to earn his spot as a starting linebacker and work his way into a pivotal role on the defense. Going into year two, Holcomb is expected to keep that role, now alongside veteran Thomas Davis and Jon Bostic, and the feeling around the team is that he will be an important part of the defense.

When linebackers coach Steve Russ spoke to the media on Tuesday, he definitely had some encouraging words to say about Holcomb.

The linebacker position as a whole was a bit of a crapshoot as far as expected production goes in 2019, but for the most part, they delivered when called upon. Now, with three successful NFL linebackers coaching the defense — Russ, Ron Rivera, and Jack Del Rio — expectations are much higher, as a talented group will become a disciplined group as well. If all goes right, Holcomb can quickly turn into one of the staples of the team, and a well-known draft success.

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