Another big story came out of Washington on Friday night when it was announced that quarterback Alex Smith was cleared by his doctors to return to full football activity after over a year of rehab following his gruesome leg injury that broke both his tibia and fibula, and forced him into a subsequent countless surgeries to repair it.
So now that Smith is back in the picture, does that mean that he will start playing in Washington again? More importantly, does that mean that Dwayne Haskins’ job is at risk?
To put it simply, no.
A clear distinction was made on Friday that Smith had been cleared by his doctors, though the Washington training staff and the medical team had yet to sign off on his playing. That won’t happen until the end of July, and even then it is unclear how much opportunity to train he will get, as COVID-19 has decimated training camp rules and there is little confidence that 11v11 scrimmages will take place for quite some time.
On the contrary, Smith’s return to football activities may be beneficial for Haskins, as he has one of the more prominent mentors back at his side on the practice field. Haskins went through his trials and tribulations during his rookie season in 2019, and several claims were made that Smith’s guidance and leadership helped Haskins along the way. It’s important to note that Smith was one of the players who NFL-star Patrick Mahomes credits for some of his early success as well.
Going forward, there are several ways that this can play out. If it becomes clear that Smith is ready to actually play within the near future, it’s very possible that Washington looks to either release him — saving them $14 million against the salary cap — or trade him to another team where he has a better chance to play. There has also been a notion that more NFL teams might choose to carry three quarterbacks on the roster instead of two, likely because of the coronavirus threat. If this were the case in Washington, Smith could stay put for the season and then re-evaluate going forward.
Long story short, everyone should be ecstatic about Alex’s return to football, and celebrate it for the monumental achievement it is. His return after such a horrific injury is nothing but a complete miracle, and it was undoubtedly harder than any of us could imagine. We can figure out the football side of things later, right now we just want to celebrate Alex.
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