The Washington Redskins are going to extraordinary lengths to avoid playing Josh Norman, their veteran cornerback who was benched earlier in the year with the intention of getting more developmental playing time for younger players.
On Sunday against the New York Giants, it was announced before the contest that cornerbacks Quinton Dunbar and Fabian Moreau would be sidelined due to injury, and rookie cornerback Jimmy Moreland was placed on the injured reserve earlier in the week. That left a combination of Danny Johnson, Aaron Colvin and Coty Sensabaugh on the field, who had barely played all season. Johnson later suffered a hand injury and was forced out of the game. In his place came Kayvon Webster — who was signed earlier this week — instead of Norman, who is the second-highest-paid cornerback in the NFL.
The result was ugly, as the Redskins gave up 352 yards and five touchdowns to Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones.
Landon Collins, an ex-Giant who struggle with an Achilles injury this past week, said that the porous defense had as much to do with the pass rush as it did an inexperienced secondary.
“Guys are just trying to figure out different parts of the scheme and what we do on defense,” Collins said, via The Washington Post. “Great communication on the back end, everyone was listening just trying to make it work. … We didn’t get no pressure on [Jones]. He was sitting back there kind of picking us apart. … We just didn’t blitz the quarterback enough and trying to get him off his spot. … If we do that, we get better turnovers, better outcomes and he has to get rid of the ball quicker.”
In the three games leading up to Sunday, Norman played a total of 10 snaps, and this week showed how truly willing the team is to find other options at the position. If you weren’t convinced before that Norman will be out of here before the 2020 season rolls around, I’m not sure how this doesn’t do the trick.
[vertical-gallery id=27415]