Tag: Morgan Moses

Redskins’ front finishes No. 13 in PFF’s offensive line rankings

Even without Trent Williams, the Redskins offensive line finished in the top half of the league with some make-shift pieces filling holes.

The biggest concern for the Washington Redskins heading into the 2019 season centered around the offensive line.

With a new QB set to be under center, and long-time All-Pro Trent Williams holding out from the team, the Redskins were forced to piece together a make-shift front and hope that it could hold up.

That group did a pretty solid job, considering the circumstances, and they finished in the top half of the NFL’s offensive line rankings, according to Pro Football Focus, coming in at No. 13 out of 32 teams in the league.

The Redskins’ offensive line was operating without its best player all season, as Trent Williams sat out, but the group still managed to finish among the top half of the league in our rankings, led by Brandon Scherff before his season-ending injury. Scherff was a force to be reckoned with in the run game this season. His 76.3 run-blocking grade ranked fifth among all qualifying guards.

Left tackle Donald Penn was signed right before the season, and though he was probably the weakest member of the front-five, he wasn’t a complete liability. Next to him was Ereck Flowers, who did a magnificent job of bucking the ‘bust-narrative’ that has followed him throughout his young NFL career, and he likely earned a spot with the Redskins for several years to come.

The three staples of the line, C Chase Roullier, RG Brandon Scherff, and RT Morgan Moses, were all expectedly solid, and they will remain incumbents at their position for as long as they want the spot. Of course, Scherff is entering free agency with a desire to be paid top dollar this year, so there is a possibility that Washington moves on from the Pro-Bowl guard. However, should Scherff vacate his spot, rookie RG Wes Martin played will in the veteran’s absence this past season, and would step right into the starting spot with ease.

There are few accolades being thrown around the Redskins organization after a 3-13 season, expectedly so. However, we aim to give credit where credit is due, and the offensive line deserves it this year.

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Dwayne Haskins and Morgan Moses both questionable to return

Both Haskins and Moses went down on the first three plays of the half, and both are questionable to return.

It has been a rough start to the second half for the Washington Redskins, as both starting QB Dwayne Haskins and starting right tackle Morgan Moses have been ruled questionable to return after going down with injuries in the first three plays of the quarter.

Haskins was sacked on the first play of the second half and he appeared to injure his ankle on the play. He was later carted to the locker room and expressed frustration. Two plays later, Moses went down with what looked like a knee injury, and he stayed on the ground for a while before slowly limping off under his own power.

Backup QB Case Keenum and rookie tackle Geron Christian are now in the game.

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What’s one overarching reason for the Redskins struggles in 2019?

If you took all of Washington’s problems this year and boil them down to one thing, the inability to play up to expectations is the culprit.

While they sit with a 3-10 record and have been officially eliminated from the playoffs, the Washington Redskins are coming in danger of matching their lowest win total in 25 years. Looking back on the last year, where did it all go wrong?

Sure, a coach was fired after Week 5, and a rookie quarterback has been subjected to some bumps and bruises as he starts to gain his footing in the NFL landscape. Still, those two factors can’t be solely responsible for the incompetence that is the 2019 season for the Redskins. However, there is one reason that is currently the leader in the clubhouse for ‘Things That Went Wrong in 2019’ and it’s just so appalling that quite possibly zero NFL teams would be able to overcome it:

The players who are paid top-dollar on the team have looked like anything but top-dollar players.

Of the eight most expensive contracts on the team, six of those players have either been benched due to lack of production (Josh Norman — $75 million); been lost due to injury (Alex Smith — $94 million); or refused to play for the team (Trent Williams — $68 million). Check out this breakdown of the top eight contracts in Washington, and see if you can spot the two players who have arguable played up to their wages.

  • Alex Smith — $94 Million
  • Landon Collins — $84 Million
  • Josh Norman — $75 Million
  • Trent Williams — $68 Million
  • Ryan Kerrigan — $57.5 Million
  • Jordan Reed — $46.75 Million
  • Paul Richardson — $40 Million
  • Morgan Moses — $38.5 Million

Of those eight players, you can really only say that Collins has lived up to the billing, and even then it’s tough to say that his play has been worth every penny of that $84 million contract he signed this offseason. Kerrigan has also played decently this season, but it is nowhere near the level of production that Washington expected when making him one of the 15 highest-paid edge rushers in the NFL — he currently ranks as the 74th best edge-rusher in the league, according to PFF, and his recent move to the injured reserve adds injury to insult.

“The guys who you have big money invested in, those guys have got to be key contributors,” former Redskins salary cap analyst J.I. Halsell said, via The Washington Post. “And when they’re not and if there’s a bunch of them, there’s a threshold where it becomes insurmountable and you just can’t navigate it.”

Many Redskins fans are quick to blame the ineptitude in Washington on the front office and coaching, and there is a lot of truth in doing so. Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen put this team together, and they should be held responsible for the roster that takes the field each Sunday during the season. However, any roster decision can look good on paper, but it’s all for not if the player doesn’t pan out on the field.

So what do you get when a historically inept front office puts together a roster, and those players don’t live up to the billing? You get the Washington Redskins, and it’s not a pretty sight.

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Morgan Moses put up the highest Redskins grade at PFF vs. Lions

Morgan Moses had an elite game for the Redskins during the win over the Lions.

The best player on the field for the Washington Redskins this year has seemingly been all over the place on a weekly basis.

This week, as seen in the tweet above, the honor goes to tackle Morgan Moses at Pro Football Focus. He not only put up the team’s highest grade, he posted the second-highest grade of his career.

Moses played 100 percent of the snaps while putting on his great performance on a gritty day where the running backs had a rough time en route to 86 yards on the 19-16 victory.

If Moses can keep playing in this range, the Redskins might end up having one less issue to deal with on the offensive line this offseason.

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Dwayne Haskins ‘selfie situation’ is nothing to beat the rookie QB up about

The rookie QB had a late-game blunder when he missed the final victory formation, but it’s nothing to make a big deal about.

Fortunately for Washington Redskins’ quarterback Dwayne Haskins, he got the first win of his career on Sunday. Unfortunately for the rookie, his victory was overshadowed by a late-game blunder that saw him miss the final snap of the game because he was interacting with fans, thinking that the clock had ticked to zeros.

On the list of problems that the team needs to fix, this ranks way down there, but it still is something that needs to be addressed going forward. After the game, Haskins said that it would never happen again, and head coach Bill Callahan laughed it off, saying that they’ll talk about it. It seems that some of the Redskins’ players have similar views on the situation.

“The guy got his first career [win]. I’m not going to sit here and beat him up on him not being out there,” Morgan Moses said, via NBC Sports Washington. “He’s a young quarterback, man, he’s in the moment. He thought the game was over.”

Before the celebration took place, Haskins orchestrated his first career game-winning drive — a six-play, 33-yard jaunt that set up Dustin Hopkins 39-yard game-winning field goal. The emotions were running high on the sideline, and the excitement was palpable.

So the rookie missed the final snap of the game because he was soaking in the moment with some Redskins’ faithful. It’s not ideal, but it’s not even close to a big deal. The next time Washington wins, I’m sure Haskins will act like he’s been there because now he has.

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Morgan Moses says the Dwayne Haskins video isn’t as bad as it seems

The Redskins tackle opened up about the video.

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A viral video from over the weekend shows Washington Redskins quarterback Dwayne Haskins pleading with his offensive line on the sidelines.

On first pass, it seems like Haskins is asking his guys to step up. He’s animated in a good way, but most of the guys he addresses look disinterested at best.

But offensive tackle Morgan Moses says otherwise, per Kareem Copeland  of the Washington Post:

“I knew when he came over there his intentions. And everybody else might not have known, but I knew what he was asking. It wasn’t, ‘You guys have got to do better.’ It was, ‘Hey, help me feel this out because I need some direction.’ That’s what we’re here for as veterans and guys that have been here and been in the league and seen all these exotic looks, to help him figure this out and figure it out together.”

It’s a good note from Moses, who also said his reply in the heat of the moment was simple — there wasn’t much the line could do. The topic of discussion, per Moses, was a scenario in which the opponent brought seven rushers.

The video comes from a 34-17 loss to the Jets, which slumped the Redskins to 1-9. Haskins threw two touchdowns and one interception, but iffy play up front and overall for the offense was a common theme.

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