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Are you prepared for your daily Curtis Samuel update?
On Monday, Washington coach Ron Rivera met with the media after his team’s 33-22 loss to the New Orleans Saints. While the highlights of his Zoom meeting revolved around the defensive struggles, Rivera did mention wide receiver, Curtis Samuel.
Samuel, who played in his first game of the season last week, missed practice time and was listed as questionable for the game. Well, Samuel played, but he was only on the field for five snaps. He departed the game after apparently re-aggravating his groin injury.
Rivera said Samuel would be “week-to-week” moving forward.
“We’re just going to continue to be smart with it, and hopefully it’ll settle in, and he’ll be ready to go,” Rivera said.
LIVE: Coach Rivera speaks with the media https://t.co/d1WtsVJWI3
— Washington Football Team (@WashingtonNFL) October 11, 2021
At this point, is it fair for Samuel to even be on the practice field? He apparently told coaches he felt the groin tightening up on the sideline, so, as a precaution, Washington ruled him out for the game. He’s clearly not healthy.
This entire saga has been a strange one. Samuel initially suffered the injury back in minicamp and essentially missed all of training camp. Do you keep a roster spot for Samuel now if he’s going to be week-to-week?
DeAndre Carter proved he could play a Samuel-like role on Sunday, and Dyami Brown and Cam Sims will also return. Sometime soon, Washington should make the difficult decision of putting Samuel on season-ending injured reserve, so this injury doesn’t impact him in the offseason.
Samuel is an integral part of the team’s future. If this is still going on four weeks from now, Washington is wasting a valuable roster spot on a player who may not be healthy at all during the 2021 season.