Tag: Steven Sims

Sims, Gibson, and McKissic highlighted as playmaking threats in Washington

The Redskins gameplan is to get the ball to their most dynamic players and let them go to work in space, which should be fun to watch.

When you have talented and dynamic players on the offensive side of the ball, the last thing you want to do as a play-caller is to overthink things and try to scheme yourself to a victory. Sometimes, all you need to do is get the ball into your playmaker’s hands and let him go to work.

We saw that often last year when the Washington Redskins finally got an understanding of just what Steven Sims Jr. could do in open space. It started on the kick-return team and soon transitioned into the offense where OC Kevin O’Connell started to run quick swing- or screen-routes for him, sitting back and watching him make players miss. Now, for new OC Scott Turner, the plan is similar.

This plan was evident based on the Redskins offseason roster moves. We knew what Sims could do, but Washington also drafted Antonio Gibson, a do-it-all back who thrives on escaping the backfield and making people miss in the open field. J.D. McKissic is another player who can keep a defense guessing based on where he lines up in the backfield.

A great example of how Turner might use these players is to look at the Carolina Panthers offense in 2019, and how they used Curtis Samuel. The Panthers thrived on having Samuel catch the ball near the line of scrimmage and go from there, and he was able to rack up seven total touchdowns and over 40 first downs.

We don’t yet know who will serve primarily in this role for the Redskins, but we know that they plan on giving it to someone. In the new wave of NFL thinking, coaches want to find positionless offensive players and let them do what they do best — make people miss.

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Redskins WR corps rank dead last among the 32 NFL teams

The Redskins have a talented receiving corps, but the youth and inexperience of many has low expectations for 2020.

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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Should Redskins try to trade for Panthers WR Curtis Samuel?

The Panthers are reportedly accepting calls for WR Curtis Samuel, and moving him to Washington could make a lot of sense going forward.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Carolina Panthers are reportedly open to trading 2019 breakout WR Curtis Samuel during the 2020 NFL Draft. While nothing official has come out yet, the team has been fielding calls on the former second-round pick and trying to find a deal that they can’t refuse.

So should the Washington Redskins make such a deal? Before you dismiss it completely, consider the fit if it were to happen. Samuel, who has 11 touchdowns over the last two seasons, had a great year in Carolina’s offense during 2019, playing under Ron Rivera and Scott Turner, both of whom are now in Washington. The Redskins also have a dire need at the WR position, and pairing a burner like Samuel next to Terry McLaurin and Steven Sims could be lethal.

A couple arguments against this move would be that giving up draft capital for Samuel is counterproductive for the Redskins, as they are currently trying to increase their haul of picks via trade of Trent Williams, not give picks away. Adding Samuel to the Washington offense may also be unnecessary, as Sims is already a young speedster who is expected to occupy a role similar to what Samuel had with the Panthers last year.

Nonetheless, the news that this impressive, young WR is on the market should make a few ears prick up in Washington. He could soon be on the move, and a trip to D.C. isn’t completely out of the question.

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The Redskins are on a hot-streak when drafting WRs, and it comes at a perfect time

The Redskins have hit on their last four consecutive WR additions, and they’ll have a chance to continue the hot-streak with a deep WR draft class.

If you were to take the Washington Redskins haul of draft picks that have been made over the past three years and ranked them by value, it’s hard not to say that the selection of wide receiver Terry McLaurin was Washington’s top-rated pick from that time period. It just may have started a drafting hot-streak at the position, coming at the perfect time as we head into the 2020 NFL Draft — which has one of the deepest pass-catching groups in recent memory.

After being selected in the third round in 2019, McLaurin burst onto the scene — quite literally — with 125 yards and one touchdown in Week 1. Over the first five weeks of the season, the buzz surrounding this rookie out of Ohio State continued to grow, and his 408 yards and five touchdowns made him a name that many watched when it came to fantasy football, which is one of the biggest signs of relevance in today’s NFL.

When you look past McLaurin, the Redskins continued their solid 2019 draft by adding some promising depth to their wide receiver corps, picking up Kelvin Harmon in the 6th round, and adding Steven Sims as an undrafted free agent. Both of those players showed an ability to make plays in their rookie season, and both have high ceilings going forward. If you were to step back another year, you’d see the Redskins selection of Trey Quinn with the last pick in the 2018 draft as well — a player who may not be a game-breaker, but has had some solid production and can get you a first down when needed.

What’s the point of all this? It means that the Redskins are on a hot streak when drafting receivers, and finding a value that few other teams see, at that. As Washington enters the 2020 draft with a remaining need to add at least one more productive receiver, this hot streak has a great chance to continue, as the WR class in this year’s draft is as deep as we’ve seen in years. We already laid out a receiver that the Redskins could look to take in each round of the draft, and it was hard to narrow it down to only one per round, even in the seventh.

With their last handful of picks at the position, the Redskins have been able to find value and pick up a productive player, if not now then for the future. Here’s to hoping that they are able to do some going forward with the next WR draft pick as well.

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Predicting the starting offense for the 2020 Washington Redskins

The Redskins lineup is anything but set, but we have a decent idea as to what the starting 11 will look like at the start of the 2020 season.

The 53-man roster is anything but set for the Washington Redskins, and there are still a million things that need to happen before the coaching staff can have a solid idea of the guys they have on the team going forward. Beyond just setting the final roster, it will be even tougher to figure out who the starting unit is on both offense and defense, weighing the top position battles and figuring out who is most worthy of playing time.

Will Dwayne Haskins or Kyle Allen be named the starting quarterback? Will Derrius Guice be healthy enough to take the RB1 role away from Adrian Peterson? Who is going to start alongside WR Terry McLaurin? Let’s get down to our offensive predictions, starting with the backfield.

QB — Dwayne Haskins

(Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

It will be an interesting battle for the QB1 spot between Haskins and Allen, but in the end, I think that Haskins is a more talented player, and he will likely get the nod. He’s been working hard this offseason, trying to improve on a frustrating rookie season, and I believe a lot of that work will pay off. Slot him in for the start in Week 1, and hopefully watch him go to work.

RB — Adrian Peterson

(Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

A tough call between Guice and Peterson, but I think the stability that AP provides will give him the nod here. There’s no certainty that Guice will be 100% by the time the season rolls around — though it is expected — so I think that Peterson will end up getting the first reps in Week 1. That doesn’t mean Guice won’t get his fair share of reps though. If he can stay healthy, the RB1 job will be his by the time the season is over.

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What is the Redskins’ plan when it comes to wide receiver?

We know that the Redskins absolutely need to add another WR before 2020, but we don’t really know how they plan to do so.

The free agency period in the NFL is a time for all 32 teams to take stock of their roster and try to fill their positional needs. For the Washington Redskins, several areas need to be addressed, like the offensive line, tight end position, and wide receiver position. So far this month, they’ve done a few small things to better their roster, but nothing spectacular.

So as we continue through the NFL offseason, one question kept sticking in the back of my mind: What is Washington’s plan at the wide receiver position? What will the starting lineup look like come September, and who will the rotational players be? Let’s try to answer that question by breaking down what we know, and go from there.

Projected starters: Terry McLaurin, Kelvin Harmon, Steven Sims Jr.

Is it ideal to have your top three options all be entering their second year in the league? Not exactly, but it could be a lot worse. What we saw from McLaurin all year should provide enough confidence to label him as your WR1 for the extended future, and Sims late-season heroics were highly encouraging as well. Putting him in a Scott Turner offense should be fun to watch. As for Harmon, he was the least impressive of the three, but his size and physicality still paints a bright future for him as more reps come his way.

Projected rotation: Trey Quinn, Cam Sims, Darvin Kidsy

This is where the problem lies… Depth is a buzz word for any fan who is uncertain about their roster strength, and the Redskins currently don’t have much depth at the position. Sure, all three of these players have shown flashes of ability that warrants more playing time, but none of them have taken advantage of those minutes on the field. If you had to trust any one of them to come up big in a key moment, my guess is that you would struggle to do so. It’s not out of the question that any one of these players makes a jump this offseason and becomes a reliable option, but until we see it, I’m not going to pencil them in there.

Potential Targets: Breshad Perriman, Devin Funchess, Robby Anderson

The Redskins were expected to make a splash in free agency by picking up a big name receiver, and so far it hasn’t happened. They did everything they could to convince Amari Cooper to rejoin many of his college teammates in Washington, but the Dallas Cowboys were able to lure him back to Jerry World.

Luckily for Washington, the free agency market is moving pretty slow this year, and there are still some solid names on the open market. Perriman had a breakout end of the 2019 season when he was asked to take over as the WR1 in Tampa Bay, and he showed what he could do when given the spotlight. Redskins coach Ron Rivera is also very familiar with Funchess, who he coached in Carolina for a couple of years. As for Anderson, he may be the hottest name on the market, but until he starts asking for a little bit less money, I don’t see anything happening there.

Draft Targets: K.J. Hill, Antonio Gandy-Golden, Chase Claypool

One of the reasons that free agency has been moving so slowly for the WR position is due to the deep draft class we have at the position this season. There are a number of WRs expected to be drafted in the first round, with names like Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III, and CeeDee Lamb highlighting the leaderboard. For the Redskins, assuming that they draft Chase Young with the No. 2 pick — all signs point towards that — they will be forced to wait until the third or fourth round to take a WR. They can still get some great prospects in that range, but it won’t be the projected WR1 type like the aforementioned names.

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A core set of players have been set for Redskins ahead of 2020 season

The Redskins have identified their core set of players that they plan to take into the 2020 season, according to Kyle Smith.

For any team that is starting fresh and working with some new voices at the very top, there is a checklist that you must go through in order to get the ball rolling again in the offseason.

This is very true of the Washington Redskins, who are virtually starting anew at 90 percent of the major positions in the coaching staff and front office this season. Since Ron Rivera took over, and many of the front office members transitioned into their new roles, we’ve been operating in the dark as far as assuming what the Redskins have been up to. However, when Kyle Smith, the VP of Player Personnel, chatted with the media on Tuesday at the 2020 NFL Combine, we got to get a glimpse at what’s been going on behind closed doors in Ashburn.

Near the top of the list of ‘to-do’s’ for the Redskins was determining a core of players that they plan to build around for the future. It could be 20 players, it could be 40 players; what matters is that the coaches and decision-makers are confident that they have a group of Redskins that they can trust will be there come fall, should all go right. Smith said that he’s confident the team has found that thus far.

“We’ve set our core,” Smith said, via Redskins.com. “We’ve identified who our core players are and what positions we’re going to be attacking in the offseason, whether it be free agency or the draft.”

So who is the core of players? That’s still unknown, but we can at least take an educated guess. Obviously, it involves players like Dwayne Haskins, Terry McLaurin, Derrius Guice, Steven Sims Jr., and other productive offensive players. It also is safe to assume that Landon Collins, Montez Sweat, Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and Cole Holcomb made the list as well. But what about players like Cam Sims, or Deshazor Everett, or Aaron Colvin? How does the team view Quinton Dunbar or Brandon Scherff? That much is still up for debate.

We probably won’t ever know the exact list, but as the offseason rolls on and more cuts are made ahead of the 2020 season, we’ll get a clearer idea for sure.

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Young and cheap talent could lead to major success for Redskins in near future

The majority of Washington’s production comes from a number of young and cheap players, which leads to a hopeful bright future.

In the midst of the NFL offseason, while teams prepare for the free agency period and the draft, the value of a young player can often be lost.

While the Washington Redskins made four moves on Friday that cleared upwards of $15 million in salary-cap space, it’s important to note one of the core reasons they were able to do so. It starts with their success in recent drafts, and their ability to rely on young players to produce while on cheap contracts.

The Redskins released WR Paul Richardson Jr. on Friday, making it so they don’t have to pay him approximately $6 million in 2020. When comparing the price they would have to pay for the discouraging and rather inconsistent play they would have gotten from Richardson in 2020, consider this — Washington is set to pay roughly the same amount to arguably their top five offensive players next year.

If you were to couple together the 2020 contracts for QB Dwayne Haskins, RB Derrius Guice, and WRs Terry McLaurin, Kelvin Harmon, and Steven Sims Jr., you get a cap hit of approximately $6.5 million. If you were to add Bryce Love’s $773,583 cap hit, plus Adrian Peterson’s $3 million hit should the Redskins pick up his team-option, you’re left with roughly 90% of your offensive production coming from about $10 million out of your salary cap.

That stat alone should allow the Redskins to hopefully compete in 2020, as they will have a great deal of money to spend on outside talent this offseason, and potentially build a real contender under the new coaching staff.

When you look at teams who have had recent success in the NFL, most of them did so while leaning on cheap talent who produced above their price tag. The Kansas City Chiefs were able to win the Super Bowl this season because QB Patrick Mahomes acted as a $4 million cap hit when he was performing like a $40 million quarterback. If Haskins is able to make a leap and play well above his contract value, and the rest of the young core is able to continue their progression, the Redskins will be in a position to succeed in the coming years, and a couple of playoff runs aren’t out of the question.

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7 Redskins among Fantasy Football Top 200 ahead of 2020 season

It’s never too early to start thinking about fantasy football, and seven Redskins were ranked in the top 200 big board for the 2020 season.

It’s never too early to start thinking about fantasy football, is it?

The NFL season only just ended, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the San Francisco 49ers, but if you’re a fantasy nerd, like many of us are, the basketball season just doesn’t quite cut it when you have 17 weeks of pure bliss each fall.

While we are a discouraging number of months away from 2020 fantasy mock drafts to be an acceptable meeting place once again, that doesn’t mean you can’t sneak in a little bit of research on the side. With the help of our friends at NFL Network, we are able to do so, as Michael Fabiano ranked the top-200 players to look at going into the next season. For the Washington Redskins, they have seven players making that cut, with WR Terry McLaurin heading up that list at No. 59.

Here’s a breakdown of the seven players tabbed by Fabiano.

No. 59 — Terry McLaurin (WR29)

Nov 24, 2019; Landover, MD, USA; Washington Redskins wide receiver Terry McLaurin (17) celebrates with fans while leaving the field after defeating the Detroit Lions at FedExField. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports

This rookie was definitely one of the lone bright spots for the Redskins in 2019, and his seven touchdowns and 900+ receiving yards made him a nice contributor for whatever fantasy manager dared to draft him or pick him up off of waivers, early in the year.

With more than 60 yards and a touchdown in both of his first two games, McLaurin became an instant sensation among the fantasy community, and he was able to keep up pretty decent production despite some rocky quarterback play for the Redskins.

As defenses start to key on his strengths, things will definitely get tougher for McLaurin down the road, but he is only going to get better, as the offense in Washington continues to improve.

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Redskins see Steven Sims excelling for a long time after breakout

The Redskins say Steven Sims has a bright future.

Terry McLaurin isn’t the only breakout at wideout this year for the Washington Redskins.

The other honor goes to Steven Sims, who paid his dues on special teams and just erupted during a loss to the New York Giants, catching six passes for 64 yards and two touchdowns.

Bill Callahan is one of many who see this as only the beginning of a trend, per ESPN’s John Keim:

“I see him being a slot receiver for the Redskins for a long time. It’s the tip of the iceberg; he can do so much more.”

Sims, a rookie, has slowly been a fun story for the Redskins. That he’s excelling from the slot and as a deep threat is a big deal given another underwhelming year from former free-agent add Paul Richardson.

If Sims keeps it up, the Redskins suddenly have something of a dynamic duo at the position and can focus elsewhere when it comes to bulking up the roster around Dwayne Haskins.

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