The Washington Redskins seemingly feel pretty comfortable with the weapons that they have at the wide receiver position, touting a lineup that includes Terry McLaurin, Steven Sims, Kelvin Harmon, Antonio Gandy-Golden, and Trey Quinn at the very top. Though they are young, many believe that that group can do some big things in the near future.
The same optimism can’t be said for those who are outside of Washington, however.
In a ranking of the 32 teams’ receiving corps in the NFL, the Redskins came in dead last at No. 32, according to Pro Football Focus. They cite youth and inexperience as the main culprit for the poor ranking.
Terry McLaurin was awesome as a rookie last season. Outside of McLaurin, though, there really isn’t a whole lot to get excited about here. Kelvin Harmon and Steven Sims did some nice things with overall grades of 64.7 and 64.6 in 2019, but neither of them can be counted on at this stage. The tight end position is a giant question mark, and the only players the Redskins brought in this offseason to improve the receiving corps were Cody Latimer (has never played more than 400 snaps in a single season in his six-year career and was recently arrested), Antonio Gandy-Golden (a fourth-round rookie who projects as a possession receiver) and Antonio Gibson (intriguing player who can slot at either running back or wide receiver). Those additions are unlikely to move the needle all that much next season.
When you put it that way, it’s hard to argue…
Of course, the Redskins aren’t building a roster to be good in 2020. They’d like to compete, of course, but the real measure of success won’t be how many wins they can rack up this year alone — it will be how many winning seasons they can have over the next five years. If you were to rank the 32 teams’ receiving corps based on young talent, I have no doubt that Washington would find a way to move up quite a bit in the eyes of others.
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