Next man up, Casey Toohill.
With Chase Young and Montez Sweat being limited to starting 9 and 10 games respectively in 2021, Casey Toohill and James-Smith Williams were each suddenly called upon to start 6 games.
Toohill came to Washington one day after he was released by NFC rival Philadelphia in 2020.
“I remember my first practice just getting tossed around and being like, I really just need to make my practice better. I need to have better habits. I need to spend more time outside of the building and then things should be better from there.”
Some of the defensive players have chided the offensive players when getting the best of the scrimmaging. But Toohill has noticeably not always been vocal. “That’s just not my style. You know, I do every once and a while. I think if you ask guys, they will say I can definitely be loud every once and a while. But yeah, in practice I just try to focus, feed off the energy.”
2020 was the last season Carson Wentz was with the Eagles. Toohill and Wentz overlapped briefly, with Toohill being released October 13. “I was there four or five games and the summer, so yeah, I overlapped with him. Really enjoyed meeting him there. He was nice to be from day one. I was a seventh-round pick, he had no reason to be but he was always kind to me which I appreciated.”
Chase Young’s sudden and terrible 2021 injury was Toohill’s sudden opportunity to contribute on the defense. “You never ever want to see someone get hurt or hurt severely. So obviously I wasn’t happy that Chase got hurt. It was very unfortunate to see. He’s a great player and a great friend, so I hated to see that, but yeah it was an opportunity.”
Casey Toohill was a half-second from having a sack on his first rush of the game. A nice out and in move to beat the LT.#WashingtonFootball pic.twitter.com/Uz2cCwK69z
— Tae & Todd Commanders Podcast (@TaeNToddPodcast) November 23, 2021
Toohill is learning more of the intricacies of the NFL entering his third season.
“I just think every year that I’ve played it’s become more about the details… I remember after my first season I was like, I have to get a lot bigger. I have to get a lot stronger. Then last year, it was the minute details of my job. Hand placement, footwork, certain little pass rush things, the very small things that I thought could make a big difference in the end.”
When Toohill first came to Washington in 2020, one of his teammates was veteran Ryan Kerrigan, in his last season with Washington. Now this season, Kerrigan is a part-time coach, shadowing the coaches, and helping at times with the players.
“It’s been awesome. You know, it’s funny because I got here when he was still here, and I remember he introduced himself to me and I was like man I know who you are. I watched your film in high school class. That was awesome then. So helpful then. I love working with him. He’s got a great mind set and it’s been a great pleasure.”
Next up for Washington is the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday. In defeating the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, the Ravens extended the NFL’s consecutive record streak of preseason wins to 22. But Toohill knows what is important and what is not.
“I mean, you always want to win. That’s always the goal. But that doesn’t really change our focus. We want to go out there. We want to execute better. We want to play hard. Do our job, so that’s the focus.”
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