Tag: wes schweitzer

Giants sign guard Wes Martin off Washington’s practice squad

Wes Martin was a fourth-round pick in 2019 who failed to hold down a starting spot in 2020.

The New York Giants signed guard Wes Martin off the Washington Football Team’s practice squad on Monday.

Martin, a fourth-round pick in 2019, appeared in 25 games for Washington, with 10 starts in 2019-20. He began the 2020 season as Washington’s starter at left guard, replacing Ereck Flowers, who left in free agency.

After five games, Martin was replaced by Saahdiq Charles, who was quickly injured. Instead of turning back to Martin, Washington’s coaches went with veteran Wes Schweitzer, who started the rest of the season.

Martin was a part of Washington’s final cuts at the end of training camp but was quickly re-signed to the practice squad. Washington protected Martin in Week 1 but did not the last two weeks.

Martin replaces Nick Gates on New York’s roster, who injured his leg in the Week 2 meeting between Washington and the Giants.

Washington’s offensive line deserves a ton of credit for adapting on the fly

With a makeshift group of players settling into unfamiliar positions, Washington O-line has strung together several really nice performances as of late.

If you take into account the injuries suffered on the offensive line, plus the loss of both Trent Williams and Ereck Flowers this offseason, it would be extremely easy for the front-five in Washington to pack things up and make a litany of excuses for why they aren’t getting the job done.

However, through 10 games this season, they’ve been doing anything but that, instead adapting to the current circumstances and finding a way to string together a few nice games that have allowed QB Alex Smith some time to work in the pocket.

After Sunday’s win against the Cincinnati Bengals, the offensive line deserves a lot of credit for what they were able to accomplish. With both Geron Christian and Cornelius Lucas unable to play, veteran right tackle Morgan Moses shifted over to the left tackle position, and backup LT started at the RT position. It was a make-shift plan that had a high probability of not working.

It worked pretty well.

Alex Smith was sacked once and pressured only four times. He was given time to stand in the pocket and make his reads downfield, getting the ball to seven different receivers. Not all of the credit goes to the tackles on the outside, though. After the game, coach Ron Rivera offered a lot of praise to his guys in the middle, RG Brandon Scherff and LG Wes Schweitzer, who had stand-out games as well.

 

The offensive line rarely gets a lot of credit when things go right, and regularly shoulders much of the blame when things go wrong. From a birds-eye view, things are going wrong more often than not in Washington, but for the first time in a while, you can’t pin all of the blame on the O-line. Instead, they’ve been a very solid unit that is performing above expectations through 10 weeks, and though they lost two star players, plus an offensive line coach who is regarded as one of the best in the business in Bill Callahan, they’ve been able to put together several nice games, and give this offense a chance to succeed.

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The Bills released LG Quinton Spain, which should catch Washington’s attention

The Bills cut ties with veteran LG Quinton Spain, who might provide a great solution for Washington’s struggle to find a solid left guard.

The left guard position in Washington has been a bit rough to watch for the entirety of the 2020 season. It started with Wes Martin getting the start, but after a few games, it became clear that he isn’t the answer. Last week, we saw rookie Saahdiq Charles — who was drafted as a left tackle — fill in at LG, but he went down with a dislocated kneecap on the second play of the game. In his place stepped Wes Schweitzer, who was solid, yet not perfect.

Now with the news breaking that veteran LG Quinton Spain has been released by the Buffalo Bills, and is available on the open market, Washington should be doing what they can to try and bring him in for the season. With six years in the NFL, Spain has made himself known as a valuable starter, and though he has been dealing with some foot soreness this season, he could definitely help out Washington upfront.

Making a move to add Spain doesn’t mean that you’re going away from Charles, either. In the limited work that we saw from the rookie on Sunday, head coach Ron Rivera said that he was extremely impressed with what he showed, and has high hopes for his future. However, Charles has been unable to stay healthy all season, so it would make sense to have a legitimate backup plan. When he comes back healthy, it wouldn’t be crazy to stick the rookie at LT as well, replacing Geron Christian, who has been okay in that role this season.

In reality, all it would take for Washington to pick up Spain is putting in a waiver claim for him, where they are near the top of the priority list. It could end up being long-term, or it could be a one-year rental, but if you’re Washington, why not take the chance and see if you can nail down an answer for your questions at the position? What do you have to lose?

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Report: Rookie Saahdiq Charles to start at LG on Sunday

Washington is expected to give Saahdiq Charles his first NFL action on Sunday, starting him at the left guard position over Wes Martin.

Anyone who followed reports out of practice in Washington this week might have seen this coming, but now it’s officially being reported that rookie Saahdiq Charles will get his first career start in the NFL, this time at left guard, rather than left tackle, where he was drafted to play.

Charles was drafted out of LSU in the fourth round in 2020, and many people think that he has an incredibly high ceiling as an NFL player, though most people expected him to carry out his career at the LT position. However, Washington has struggled greatly to get production from the LG spot this year, with second-year player Wes Martin taking the snaps there thus far.

It appears now, ironically, that Martin may be the second player in Washington to quickly go from No. 1 on the depth chart to No. 3 at his respective position in the blink of an eye. With the expected return of RG Brandon Scherff, it would not be a shock to see LG Wes Schweitzer slot in as the backup behind Charles now, after his impressive time filling in for Scherff on the right side.

No matter what happens, it will be intriguing to watch Charles make his NFL debut, and hopefully provide a big boost to the offensive line.

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Rookie Saahdiq Charles’ shift to LG could provide major spark for Washington O-line

Rookie Saahdiq Charles has been working as the starting LG this week, which could go a long way in helping the offensive line.

It’s been the same old story with Washington as far as the offensive line play goes this season, with the unit struggling as a whole to get much push in the run game, and allowing the quarterback to be under constant duress. Fortunately, they appear to be taking some measures to fix it this time around, mixing and matching some players in the front five to try and find a combination that works.

We posited earlier this week that the return of RG Brandon Scherff could allow Washington to shift Wes Schweitzer over to LG, placing Wes Martin on the bench. However, there is another young player that might be getting tapped for the start at LG with week, giving Washington a fresh look upfront that might actually instill some confidence from the fanbase.

Rookie Saahdiq Charles, drafted as an LT out of LSU in the fourth-round this year, is currently getting run with the starters at the guard position. There were high hopes that Charles could take over as the starting LT in his rookie season, but a calf injury held him out of training camp and much of the start of the season, and Geron Christian Sr. got the nod instead. Shifting one spot to the inside might not be a bad call for Charles for the time being. He will still be playing on the left side, with just a few of the techniques and responsibilities shifting a bit. We saw Ereck Flowers go from LT to LG last fall, and he had a breakout season.

Expecting a rookie who is yet to have any real experience in the NFL to be the answer for a struggling unit as a whole is a bit risky, but at this point, Washington needs to be willing to try anything to patch things up on the front line.

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Washington’s answer to offensive-line problems is simple if Brandon Scherff returns

With Scherff now eligible to return from IR, Washington has a quick fix on the O-line available to them whenever the Pro-Bowler is healthy.

We are now heading into Week 6 in the NFL, which means that Washington’s Pro-Bowl RG Brandon Scherff is officially eligible to be taken off of the injured reserve and placed back onto the active roster. We won’t know if he is healthy enough to do so until Wednesday, in all likelihood, but we can at least start to get used to the idea of seeing No. 75 back on the field.

Assuming he comes back within the next week or two — which seems likely, seeing as he was seen working off to the side of practice last week and is making progress on his return — it couldn’t be at a better time for Washington. They are coming off of the worst performance of the season in a 30-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams and gave up a total of eight sacks in the process while helping the team to just 38 rushing yards. It’s sad to say because we all had some pretty high hopes for him ahead of the 2020 season, but LG Wes Martin has been one of the main culprits behind Washington’s blocking failures.

Of course, the second-year player was tasked with blocking All-World DT Aaron Donald, but we can’t act like this is an isolated incident for Martin either. He’s been less than stellar in almost every game this season, and we recently figured that it would likely end with his starting place being taken away in the near future.

If it were up to us, the ‘future’ would be marked as whenever Scherff returns to the field. He would take over his spot at the RG position, and Washington would shift Wes Schweitzer — a player who has impressively stepped up to fill that spot — over to the LG spot in place of Martin.

Schweitzer has looked extremely solid over the past couple of weeks, and it was highlighted by a nice block he had on a screen pass Sunday in the first quarter against the Rams.

Could he improve the baseline performance of the offensive front in Washington if shifted back over to the LG spot in place of Martin? It’s possible, and would be hard to do worse.

All of this is riding on whether or not Scherff can return to the field soon. If he does, there’s an easy fix for Washington, for the time being at least. They just need to make it.

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Inactives List: Chase Young will play; LB Cole Holcomb listed as inactive

After missing the Week 4 game vs. the Ravens, Chase Young will return to the field on Sunday, alongside Chase Roullier and Wes Schweitzer.

  • No. 7 QB Dwayne Haskins
  • No. 37 CB Greg Stroman
  • No. 50 LB Jared Norris
  • No. 55 LB Cole Holcomb
  • No. 77 T Saahdiq Charles
  • No. 85 TE Marcus Baugh

Good news for Washington football fans who were hoping that their two front-lines would be as healthy as reasonably expected headed into this game against the Los Angeles Rams. According to the team, Chase Young will make his return to the field today after missing last week’s game with a groin strain, and both C Chase Roullier and G Wes Schweitzer will be healthy enough to play as well.

All three players were listed as questionable on the team’s final injury report of the week, but there was a report late on Saturday night that alluded to the fact that all three would likely play, barring any setbacks.

In some more good news for Washington, the Rams leading tackler, LB Micah Kiser, is inactive for the game on Sunday.

Chase Young, Wes Schweitzer, Chase Roullier all expected to play Sunday

All originally listed as questionable, Chase Young, Chase Roullier, and Wes Schweitzer are all expected to play on Sunday vs. Rams.

Good news came out for Washington fans on Saturday night when ESPN’s John Keim reported that the trio of Chase Young, Chase Roullier, and Wes Schweitzer are all expected to play in Sunday’s game vs. the Los Angeles Rams.

The three players are all listed as questionable on the injury report, but they are expected to play barring any setbacks.

Young hinted on his Instagram account on Friday night, posting a picture of himself running at practice with a winking emoji. The potential return of Roullier and Schweitzer is also huge, with the Rams’ defensive line lead by Aaron Donald being one of the better units in the NFL.

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Who is Wes Schweitzer, the Redskins newest left guard?

The Redskins signed G Wes Schweitzer on Monday, putting him in a place to compete with Wes Martin to fill the hole left by Ereck Flowers.

The Washington Redskins had a relatively quiet day on Monday while several teams around the NFL were making a splash in free agency. Though they did fill a few holes on the roster by re-signing MLB Jon Bostic and reuniting with CB Kendall Fuller, there was nothing that jumped off the page at you.

However, just hours after it was announced that former Redskins left guard Ereck Flowers would be packing his bags to return home to Miami, Washington did add G Wes Schweitzer to the roster. If you don’t know what that is and are struggling to get overly excited, we don’t blame you. Let’s take a look at what we know about him.

Schweitzer is a 6-foot-5, 300-pound guard that was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the 6th round of the 2016 draft. He started all 16 games for the Falcons in 2017, but was relegated to a reserve role as of late, and only played sparingly across the front line.

According to The Athletic, several people in Atlant are fond of Schweitzer and note his dedication to the game.

I checked with two sources and both mentioned Schweitzer’s intelligence. One praised his “grinder” vibe and forecasted Schweitzer as the type of player “for a new coach to point to as in ‘be like Wes in everything you do, and we will win.’”

Sounds like a great guy for Ron Rivera and his new coaching staff to lean on and trust to set a good example for the rest of the team in the midst of a changing culture. Don’t take the signing to mean that Washington now has their surefire starting left guard. Schweitzer will compete for the top spot with Wes Martin, a second-year player who showed promise at the RG position in 2019.

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Redskins and G Wes Schweitzer agree to three-year, $13.5 million contract

The Redskins have found a guard to replace Ereck Flowers, who was signed away in free agency on Monday morning.

The Redskins are signing guard Wes Schweitzer from the Atlanta Falcons just hours after Ereck Flowers was plucked from the roster in free agency.

The deal is reportedly worth $13.5 million over three years, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, which will average out to over $4 million per season. There is not yet word on how much guaranteed money is in the contract.

With the question mark still looming over Trent Williams and the left tackle position, the Redskins now have the rest of their front line set for the most part with this signing. It was thought earlier on Monday that second-year guard Wes Martin would move to left guard in order to fill the spot left by Flowers, but the Redskins felt they could fill the need by signing Schweitzer as well.

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