Initial takeaways from Washington’s preseason opener
Some notes and thoughts from Washington’s opening preseason game
Washington’s first preseason game of the 2021 season is in the books. The Football Team fell to the New England Patriots 22-13, but as we all know, the score doesn’t matter in preseason. It’s about getting the starters enough snaps to get them ready to begin the season, giving the rookies their first taste of NFL action and letting the guys at the bottom of the roster battle it out for the final few spots on the team.
I am planning on looking more in depth at particular players when I watch the game back over the weekend, so let me know in the comments who you’d be most interested in reading about. But with that said, here are some of my initial notes from the first viewing of Washington’s preseason opener:
-First-round pick Jamin Davis wasn’t particularly flashy. Washington has decided to have Davis learn the defense from the inside out during camp, having him play the Mike (middle) linebacker spot. Davis, at least to me, fits better as a Will (weak side) linebacker early in his career and I think this is ultimately where he’ll end up when the season begins. It’s worth noting that last year, Jon Bostic played the Will all throughout training camp while guys like Shaun Dion-Hamilton got a shot to run the defense at the Mike spot. By the time the regular season started, Bostic was the full-time Mike.
By having Davis learn the Mike spot, he has to learn the defense as a whole, rather than just one spot in it. That means he should have an understanding of when he needs to be conservative and just fill a gap and when he can be a little more aggressive to try and make a play. Something we saw on Hard Knocks with the Dallas Cowboys was veteran linebacker Leighton Vander Esch explaining to rookie Micah Parsons that not every play is his to make. Trying to make every play can result in a linebacker being out of a gap and create a big play for the offense. By having Davis play Mike and having to make all the calls, he should learn this lesson for himself rather than needing a vet to teach it to him.
Davis did make some calls, but on first look, Bostic was the one running the show more often than not. In fact, when Washington went to its nickel package, Davis was the linebacker to make way, with Bostic and Holcomb playing linebacker and Davis watching from the sideline.
In terms of his actual play, Davis looked a little off the pace at times. For example, there was one run midway through the first quarter where Davis allowed the Patriots’ right guard to climb up to him and reach him at the second level. That left a big lane for the back to work up that side and pick up a strong gain on a first and 10 carry.
-Staying with the starting defense and I thought it was interesting to see which safeties played. Washington has a bit of a logjam at safety now with Kam Curl playing so well last year, Bobby McCain being signed in free agency and Landon Collins returning early from his Achilles injury last year. From first watch, it appeared as though Collins and Curl were the starting pair and McCain only came on to play free safety with the second unit.
The question then is what Washington does with Curl and Collins. Both are better in the box where they can have a bigger impact on the game. Washington showed plenty of two-deep safety looks where both of them were back, but they also rotated to single-high coverages too, Both Curl and Collins took turns playing as the deep safety. Collins played it in the red zone on the Patriots first field goal drive, allowing Curl to rotate down and match up with a tight end or play a flat zone underneath.
On the Chase Young non-sack, Washington had both safeties deep but just before the snap, Collins charged up to the line as part of an aggressive blitz while Curl rotated back into the single deep safety as Washington played man coverage outside.
-Speaking of Chase Young, he looked ready to go for the season. His first big rush attempt almost resulted in a strip sack that was ultimately ruled an incomplete pass.
The most impressive thing from Young was how he won this rep. It wasn’t a case of him just beating a tackle to the edge for speed, he won with good hands. He first extended his inside arm to jab the inside shoulder of the tackle. The tackle focuses on trying to reset his inside arm to prevent a long-arm rush from Young. Young takes advantage of the attention to the inside by swiping down with his outside hand to clear the outside arm of the tackle. That leaves the edge clean for Young to drop his inside hand and bend around the tackle to close on the quarterback.
-One final note on the defense was the nickel personnel. Last year, Jimmy Moreland played as the nickel corner while Kendall Fuller played almost exclusively outside. But with the addition of a long, press corner like third-round rookie Benjamin St-Juste, Washington has more options this season. With the base unit, Washington played Fuller and free agent signing William Jackson outside, but when forced into nickel, Fuller kicked inside and St-Juste played outside.
It’ll be worth keeping an eye on St-Juste throughout preseason to see just how ready he is for NFL action. I’ll hopefully get a closer look at him and the other rookies when I watch the game back over the coming days. But his length and physicality allows Washington to be aggressive and play more man coverage. That’s precisely what happened on the Young sack/non-sack play, with Jackson, Fuller and St-Juste sticking tight to their receivers, Cole Holcomb covering the tight end checkdown over the middle and Collins’ blitzing to force the running back to protect and slide his way. All that meant Chase Young had a one-on-one match up against the left tackle, which he won.
-On the offensive side of the ball, the standout was undrafted free agent running back Jaret Patterson. Patterson’s stats don’t tell the whole story, he had 10 carries for 40 yards, which is solid but a lot of that was with the third unit offensive line that didn’t create much for him. His first carry came behind the second unit and he instantly showed some potential.
Washington left the edge defender on the back side of the run unblocked, but with nothing going for Patterson on the front side of the run, he quickly had to cut his run back into that unblocked defender. However, Patterson showed terrific short area quickness, cutting back and avoiding the defender before bursting up the field for a 12-yard gain.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Patterson’s game was his catching out of the backfield. He continued to show that shiftiness in the open field, making defenders miss with the ball in his hands.
Here Patterson works to the flat as a checkdown option for the quarterback. He catches the ball on the swing pass but is quickly met by a defender running to him in the flat. Patterson shows off that quickness again, stopping on a dime to let the defender run by him as he skips back inside. Patterson then bursts up the sideline and shows off some physicality, stiff-arming another defender as he goes out of bounds.
Patterson’s most impressive play came off-script.
On this play, Patterson was initially a checkdown option in the flat, but after the play broke down and quarterback Taylor Heinicke began to scramble, Patterson realised he needed to make himself available. He took off down the sideline but the defender stayed on top of him. Heinicke, under pressure, made the throw anyway and Patterson did a fantastic job coming back to the ball and diving forward to make the catch to convert on third and long.
It’s going to take a strong preseason for Patterson to crack the final roster, but he certainly did himself no harm with his performance in the opening game. Let’s see if that can continue into the rest of preseason.
-I thought the starting tight ends stood out too. Washington’s first team offense shifted between 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) and 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers) throughout the time they saw on the field. Logan Thomas was Washington’s only real threat at tight end last year after developing significantly from his time with the Lions. It appears as though Thomas is ready to take the next step too.
This was a very nice catch by Thomas. Washington isolates him to the right of the formation and lets him run a fade from a tight split. That means Thomas has lots of room to work with and just needs to give quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick an option. As he works into the route, Thomas does a nice job swiping the hands of the defender away to keep himself clean. From there, he does a terrific job tracking the ball in the air and adjusting his body to turn and make the catch.
Aside from Thomas, rookie tight end John Bates also had a couple of plays that stood out. He made his first catch up the seam in a play that typified how he played in college.
Bates gets knocked off his route at the snap, stumbling after being jammed at the line, but recovers and gets back up the seam. Taylor Heinicke takes the shot and puts the ball outside to protect Bates from the incoming deep safety. Bates had begun to bend his route inside towards the middle of the field, but like Thomas, he does a nice job tracking the ball and shows off his body control in the air to complete a full turn around in the air to get his hands on the ball.
Bates also flashed in the run game. At times, he played as the more traditional Y tight end while Thomas played as the F or move tight end. This means that when lined up together, Bates aligned inside next to the offensive tackle while Thomas aligned outside of Bates. This resulted in Bates having tougher run blocking assignments, but from my first look, I think he held up well. On Antonio Gibson’s long run early in the game, Bates sifted back across the line on a zone run to the left. As he sifted back, Bates cut off the edge defender on the right side of the run, creating a big lane for Gibson to cut into.
-One final note I had was on rookie long snapped Camaron Cheeseman. Washington allowed veteran long snapper Nick Sundberg to walk in free agency this offseason and spent a sixth-round pick to replace him with Cheeseman. For a long snapper, that’s a significant investment, which puts a lot of pressure on him to be almost perfect from day one.
Cheeseman was inconsistent. I noticed a few snaps on punts and field goals that were slightly off. Dustin Hopkins missed a few field goals and perhaps Cheeseman’s snaps played a part, though Hopkins certainly merits criticism for them too. But the one I noticed most was on a punt by Tress Way midway through the second quarter.
Way aligns to the right side of the line, suggesting he wants the ball snapped out there to give him space to kick to the other side. However, the snap from Cheeseman is down the middle of the hashmark, forcing Way off his spot to make sure he can secure the snap before resetting himself to make the punt. Way gets the punt away safely, but ends up kicking the ball out the back of the end zone for a touchback, which is unlike Way, who typically manages to down his punts inside the 20.
It was his first NFL action and there’s plenty of time to correct things and get on the same page, so there’s no need to panic just yet. But it was a somewhat rocky outing for Cheeseman. If that inconsistency continues throughout the preseason, pressure could quickly mount on a player that is replacing a fan favorite and incredibly consistent performer in Nick Sundberg, who is still a free agent.
Mark, please break down Cosmi and Charles.
Sims Jr vs Carter