Projecting the Commanders 53-man roster
With roster cuts coming soon, I took a crack at projecting Washington's "final" 53-man roster.
With the final preseason games wrapped up, it's time for NFL teams to start cutting down their rosters ahead of the regular season. In training camp, teams are allowed to carry up to 90 players on their roster, with smaller cuts down to 85 and then 80 during the preseason. However, with preseason now over, the team has to cut down to a “final” 53-man roster by the August 30th deadline, which each team needs to cut nearly 30 players within the next day.
With so many players getting cut around the league, teams will also be keeping an eye on who is being released elsewhere and could add them to their own roster, meaning more players have to be cut in the following days after the deadline. The Washington Commanders certainly could use with adding a few players at certain positions, so while this roster projection is called a final 53-man roster, it could easily change a few times by the end of this week.
So let’s get into it. Here’s my projection for the Washington Commanders’ 53-man roster.
Quarterbacks: Carson Wentz, Taylor Heinicke, Sam Howell.
This is probably the most obvious position to project. The Commanders traded for Wentz to be their starter this year and he’s being paid as such. Heinicke provides a solid and cheap back up option in case Wentz gets injured while rookie Sam Howell makes the team as the third quarterback that hopefully isn’t required to play and is able to spend the year developing behind the scenes.
Running backs: Brian Robinson, J.D. McKissic, Antonio Gibson.
News broke late last night that Brian Robinson was shot multiple times in a reported carjacking/attempted robbery. He sustained non-life threatening injuries, but it’s unclear the extent of the injuries he did sustain and when he’ll be able to return to the field. Obviously we all hope for the best for Robinson and that he makes a full and speedy recovery, but his priority should be his health rather than playing football right now.
Until we learn more information, it’s impossible to project this position. Robinson had seemingly earned the starting running back role after Gibson’s fumble problems persisted from last year, so I originally had the projection with just three backs: Robinson as the lead back, McKissic in his third down back role and Gibson as the primary back up to both. Obviously if Robinson misses time, that could significantly change the projection of the roster. Gibson would presumably return to the lead back and perhaps last year’s preseason star Jaret Patterson or Reggie Bonnafon would make the team as the back up option. The team could well consider adding a back that gets cut from elsewhere, with a team like the Dolphins carrying an excess of solid running backs.
I’ll stick with three backs as the projection for now, but obviously with Robinson’s situation, the Commanders could easily opt to keep four if he misses significant time. In that scenario, they’d likely add a veteran back from elsewhere and keep one of Patterson/Bonnafon until the veteran back got up to speed with the system and terminology Washington uses. At that point, the Commanders would need to cut down elsewhere, probably from the offensive line or maybe one of the extra defensive ends.
Wide Receivers: Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Curtis Samuel, Cam Sims, Dyami Brown, Dax Milne.
This one was fairly simple for me. McLaurin, Dotson and Samuel are all locks and will likely receive the bulk of the workload assuming all stay healthy. Sims brings a different skillset with his size and his catch radius suits Wentz at quarterback. Dyami Brown probably hasn’t had the preseason he would have liked. He had a few drops, including two in the final preseason game which led to a number of fans calling him a bust and suggesting the team should cut him. That’s premature in my eyes. Yes, he can’t continue to drop passes, but he was still a highly-rated third-round pick just a year ago and he has plenty of talent to offer this team. I think he may have fallen behind Sims in the pecking order a bit, but he still makes the team without question for me.
Dax Milne is the final receiver. He’s still a bit of a project but I think the talent is there to be developed. He’s a good route runner that can win in the slot and has good awareness of finding holes and adjusting to throws to make himself a quarterback friendly target. His catch against the Chiefs on a double move is a great example. He beat the defender and would have expected a ball over the top, but Howel went with a back-shoulder throw. He made the adjustment and was clever enough to extend the ball away from his body so he could use his body as a shield against the defender and protect the ball. He makes the team as a versatile back up that can play inside and out and perhaps be the punt returner too.
Alex Erickson and Marken Michel both flashed in preseason. Erickson was brought in to compete as a returner, but I didn’t feel he particularly stood out there. He was more effective in the slot, where he caught the eye more, but not enough to displace any of the top six guys. Michel made some nice plays and had some positive reports from training camp, so he could be a good practice squad candidate.
Tight End: Logan Thomas, John Bates, Cole Turner, Armani Rogers.
This was one of the harder positions to project because of the injury situation. As things stand, the top three on the depth chart are all unavailable to play. Thomas was just recently reactivated off PUP while Bates and Turner are dealing with injuries they picked up in camp. Ron Rivera has said he’s hopeful at least two of the three will be ready to go by the opening game, but with the uncertainty I think the Commanders need to keep a fourth option, at least early on in the season.
Rogers is an interesting story, transitioning from college quarterback to tight end over the summer and it appeared as though things really started to click for him after the first few weeks of training camp. With all the injuries, he got to run with the starters a lot and caught the eye with a number of positive reports. He had some solid performances in preseason too. So he’s the one I’ve opted for here. But Curtis Hodges could just as easily make the team, given he’s more experienced at the position. The team also just recently claimed Kendall Blanton off waivers from the Rams. If the Commanders want someone with a bit more experience, then Blanton could be the man kept as the fourth tight end early in the season with both Rogers and Hodges being high priority practice squad candidates.
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