NFL 2020 Team by Team Year in Review and Look Ahead to 2021: Washington Football Team

2020 Grades on everything from the draft, front office and coaching staff, and players. First look at potential 2021 retained, outgoing, and incoming free agents, fits and needs, and mock drafts.

-John Turner

The Washington Redskins hired a new coach for the 2020 season, who was probably hoping to get a full offseason with his new staff and players. However 2020 had different plans as Covid-19 hit. Stripping the entire league of its training camps and interviewing process, and thus hindering their ability to bring in free agents in the same fashion as they have been accustomed to for years. Long time All Pro left tackle Trent Williams refused to come back to the team after a full year hold out stemming from a beef between himself, then medical staff, and team President Bruce Allen, so he had to be dealt to San Francisco.

Then of course, major sponsors including FedEx(who owns the naming rights to the stadium WFT plays their home games in) joined the cancel culture movement when they decided, it would no longer be a sponsor to the team if they did not immediately change their name. This would not only have an impact on Washington, but throughout the league as it has a shared revenue system in place. Enter Football Team. But wait, there’s more… Newly appointed head coach Ron Rivera is then diagnosed with cancer and immediately starts undergoing treatments. Just about every expert in America across major media platforms picked the newly dubbed Washington Football Team to not only finish last in the NFC East, but to be in the running for Trevor Lawrence all season long. However, as Chris Berman would always say, “that’s why they play the game”.

After an absolutely embarresing end to the 2019 campaign, the team decided to clean house, and rightfully so. They brought in the captain of the riverboat himself, Ron Rivera. Also they made a move at team president, hiring Jason Wright.

Title	2019	2020	2021
Team President	Bruce Allen	Jason Wright	Jason Wright
General Manager			Martin Mayhew
Executive VP of Player Personnel			Marty Hurney
Sr VP of Player Development			Doug Williams
Sr VP of Football Administration			Rob Rogers
Sr VP of Player Personnel	Doug Williams	Doug Williams	Kyle Smith
Director of Pro Scouts		Eric Stokes	Eric Stokes
Director of College Scouts	Kyle Smith	Kyle Smith	Tim Gribble
Sr VP of Football Operations	Eric Schaffer
Director of Pro Personnel	Alex Santos

The Ron Burgundy and Gold era began. The well respected former member of the 85 Bears immediately started reinventing the coaching staff. There’s not many around the league that don’t have good things to say about Rivera. He’s a proven leader of men and his teams are typically always competitive. I’m not at all surprised that Snyder wouldn’t let him out of the building before signing a contract. It appeared he had say so on personnel on and off the field and he’d immediately start forming his staff…

Title	2019	2020
Defensive Coordinator	Greg Manusky	Jack Del Rio
Defensive Line	Jim Tomsula	Sam Mills III
Assistant D Line		Jeff Zgonina
Linebackers		Steve Russ
Outside Linebackers	Chad Grimm
Inside Linebackers	Rob Ryan
Defensive Backs		Chris Harris
Assistant DBs	James Rowe	Brent Vieselmeyer
		Richard Rodgers Sr
Defensive Quality Control	Cannon Matthews	Vincent Rivera
	Kyshoen Jarrett

Starting with Jack Del Rio at defensive coordinator, the team made it clear they’d be switching from a base 3-4 to a 4-3. Del Rio quickly noted that in his opinion, Montez Sweat and Ryan Kerrigan had been playing out of position up to this point. If the pairing of Del Rio and Rivera wasn’t a sign that defense was going to be a priority, you don’t watch much football. Rivera has fielded a top 10 defense five of his nine years with the Panthers. Del Rio has put out a top five defense four times and another four top ten defenses across three different teams since being a coordinator or head coach.

Title	2019	2020
Offensive Coordinator	Kevin O’Connell	Scott Turner
Quarterbacks Coach	Tim Rattay	Ken Zampese
Running Backs	Randy Jordan	Randy Jordan
Wide Receivers	Ike Hilliard	Jim Hostler
Assistant WRs		Drew Terrell
Tight Ends	Brian Angelichio	Pete Hoener
Offensive Line	Bill Callahan	John Matsko
Assistant O Line		Travele Wharton
Offensive Assistant	Matt Cavenaugh
Offensive Quality Control	Chris O’Hara	Luke Del Rio

Scott Turner, who’s father coached in Washington for seven seasons was brought in to run the offense. He’d aim to transform a finesse West Coast Offense over to hybrid Air Coryell system. At only 38 years old he already has 15 years of coaching experience. In his second season working with Teddy Bridgewater as a quarterbacks coach the team went 11-5 and Teddy went to the Pro Bowl. 2015 also his only season working with a quarterback that remained healthy for entire season.

Free Agency hit first with the team and the new staff was able to plug in some starters with very few misses. J.D. McKissic ended the season with 954 total yards and four touchdowns, while being a major part of the offense including being second on the team in catches. Logan Thomas had a break out season going 72 for 670 and 6 TDs. Through the course of the season he’d line up at Tight End, Fullback, Wide Receiver, and Quarterback. Scott Turner much like with Gibson And McKissic, just found more unique ways to utilize him as the season progressed.

Lastly two home town Cornerbacks came home with Kendall Fuller coming back from Kansas City and Ronald Darby coming down 95 south from Philadelphia. Fuller played with Blake Countess and Stefon Diggs at Good Councel High School during the same time Darby went to Potomac High School in the neighboring county. No shortage of talent comes out of the DMV so fans were excited to see them in the Burgundy and Gold.

Name	Position	2020 Grade
Kendall Fuller	CB	A
Logan Thomas	TE	A
J.D. McKissic	RB	B
Ronald Darby	CB	B-
Wes Schweitzer	OG	C+
Cornelius Lucas	OT	C
Peyton Barber	RB	C
Jon Bostic	LB	C

With the second overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft there were very few that had Washington selecting none other than Chase Young. Chase would end up with 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, three recoveries, a touchdown, and a defensive rookie of the year award. Outside of pass rush though, they needed help all across the board. Playmaker Antonio Gibson fell to them in round three. In only one season of part time work as a senior he had 12 touchdowns on 71 offensive touches at Memphis. Linebacker Khaleke Hudson and Safety Kamren Curl turned out to be late round steals as they provided quality play as rookies all season long.

Round	Player	Pick	Position	College	2020 Grade
1	Chase Young	2	DE	Ohio St.	A+
3	Antonio Gibson	66	RB	Memphis	A
4	Saahdiq Charles	108	T	LSU	TBD
4	Antonio Gandy-Golden	142	WR	Liberty	TBD
5	Keith Ismael	156	C	San Diego St.	TBD
5	Khaleke Hudson	162	LB	Michigan	C+
7	Kamren Curl	216	S	Arkansas	B+
7	James Smith-Williams	229	DE	North Carolina St.	TBD

Following the 2020 NFL Draft they were able to pick up a couple of players players that could end up being key contributors in the future with Isaiah Wright and Thaddeus Moss. Wright would see plenty of playing time as Turner carved out a few design plays for him throughout the season. Unfortunately Moss would be put on the team’s Injured Reserve and not see a down of action his rookie season. He posted 570 yards on 47 catches with 4 touchdowns in his lone season at LSU.

The season was almost a reflection of the way the team played nearly each game. It was a “Tale of Two Halves”. Still trying to figure out exactly what they could be on offense, having little to absolutely no offseason to prep with and preseason being cancelled altogether, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see the team struggle to out score their opponents.

Though the defense would keep them in nearly every game, the offense only managed to score more than 20 points twice in the first half of the season and those were weeks one and seven… both victories. Also it probably didn’t help that by the half way point the team had seen three different quarterbacks start games. Be that as it may they’d continue on.

	1	2	3	4	Final
Philadelphia Eagles	10	7	0	0	17
Washington Football Team	0	7	7	13	27
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	0	0	3	12	15
Arizona Cardinals	14	6	0	10	30
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	7	0	13	0	20
Cleveland Browns	0	17	0	17	34
	1	2	3	4	Final
Baltimore Ravens	7	14	7	3	31
Washington Football Team	0	10	0	7	17
	1	2	3	4	Final
Los Angeles Rams	6	14	3	7	30
Washington Football Team	7	3	0	0	10
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	0	10	0	9	19
New York Giants	10	3	0	7	20
	1	2	3	4	Final
Dallas Cowboys	3	0	0	0	3
Washington Football Team	9	13	0	3	25
	1	2	3	4	Final
New York Giants	10	10	3	0	23
Washington Football Team	0	3	7	10	20

Did I mention it was a Tale of Two Halves? The Football Team would go on to help Alex Smith win Comeback Player of the Year, give up more than 20 points only once, and unleash the Legend of Taylor Heinicke in the ladder half of the year. They entered the stretch at 2-6 with both wins proving to be being pivitol, as they were against divisional opponents. The front four on defense absolutely terrorized backfields. The make shift offensive line while not being confused with The Hogs, would finish the year ranked 13th per PFF.

Wanna know how good this first year coaching staff was this season? In the first eight games they’d outscore their opponents 84-57 in the second half of games, pitching two second half shutouts in the process. In the second half of the year they’d outscore the opposition 116-34 with another three second half shutouts. If that’s not making second half adjustments I don’t know what is.

Failure to adjust was also one of the main issues with the last few coaching regimes. Two of the magic numbers for the year were 24 and 21. They went 7-4 when they held their opponent to less than 24, and went 5-1 when scoring more than 21! Imagine this team having an actual offseason with another solid year of free agency and draft class.

They’d go 5-3 in the second half and not only win the NFC East with a 7-9 record, but completely derail the season of mighty and at the time 11-0, undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers in the process. Unfortunately the prize for that was playing the greatest quarterback of all time in the playoffs in the Wild Card Round. Although they played well enough to beat many teams that day, I’m not sure any others were making the GOAT go home early. But hey we swept Dallas by blowout games… so we got that goin for us, which is nice.

	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	3	0	7	17	27
Detroit Lions	7	10	7	6	30
	1	2	3	4	Final
Cincinnati Bengals	0	9	0	0	9
Washington Football Team	7	0	10	3	20
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	7	10	3	21	41
Dallas Cowboys	3	10	3	0	16
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	0	3	7	13	23
Pittsburgh Steelers	0	14	0	3	17
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	0	13	10	0	23
San Francisco 49ers	7	0	0	8	15
	1	2	3	4	Final
Seattle Seahawks	3	10	7	0	20
Washington Football Team	0	3	0	12	15
	1	2	3	4	Final
Carolina Panthers	6	14	0	0	20
Washington Football Team	0	3	3	7	13
	1	2	3	4	Final
Washington Football Team	10	7	0	3	20
Philadelphia Eagles	0	14	0	0	14

A losing season that actually shows progress in Washington is a rare feat, however that’s exactly what occurred. As of now they go into the offseason with plenty of cap space and eight draft picks they’re set themselves up nicely. They’ve already brought in a new General Manager in Martin Mayhew and a new Executive VP of Player Personnel in Marty Hurney. Between those two and Kyle Smith (Senior VP of Player Personnel), that’s a lot of very good talent evaluators sitting at a conference table. It won’t be easy though, as The NFL Combine and personal workouts have been canceled already due to Covid chaos of 2020 now eating into 2021.

You could never convince me that it’s safe to play the game of football but not safe enough to hold a combine but I’ll rant about that on my next show and no here. That said let’s take a look at some of the moves I think they should or could make that may help set them up to win the division again with a better than 7-9 record. First up will be some of the pending free agents I think they should consider bringing back.

Brandon Scherff is one of the best Right Tackles in the game. I’d estimate he’s worth about five years at around $80 million and I believe he’s worth every penny, athlough it would be nice if he could stay healthy for more games than he has thus far. Ronald Darby was’nt the lockdown of all lockdown corners but he was good enough at CB2 to consider bringing back. He had trouble with double moves and was burnt a few times, but who knows… if a healthy Landon Collins returns he’d have some help over the top theoretically.

Two wild cards for me are The Show Stopper, Ryan Kerrigan and Rueben Foster. Foster hasn’t played a single down since being picked up here but if he’d like to sign for the veteran minimum, no risk to the team contract I don’t see the problem… he may very well end up one of those players that overcome previous injuries and salvage his career. Ryan has made it clear he’d like to play where he can start… I love the guy and hope he finds a big payday, but I think after he tests the market, he may find that perhaps the best deal available might be a 2 year deal thats reasonable for both parties to stick around be part of a solid rotation in part time work. Most of the other FAs that are of the restricted variety I believe will return.

Name	Position	Age	2021 Grade	Position Ranking	FA Type
Brandon Scherff	G	29	86.3	4	UFA
Ronald Darby	CB	27	69.8	31	UFA
Cam Sims	WR	25	62.5	97	ERFA
Fabian Moreau	CB	27			UFA
Jeremy Reaves	S	25	84.1	4	ERFA
Kyle Allen	QB	25			ERFA
Ryan Kerrigan	DE	33	59.3	83	UFA
Jordan Kunaszyk	LB	24			RFA
Danny Johnson	CB	25			RFA
Reuben Foster	ILB	27			UFA

Then we have free agents of other teams that may be available if they decide not to re up with their current clubs and don’t command a King’s Ransom. Taylor Moton sticks out for the simple fact that PFF has him ranked as the highest RT in the game for the 2020 season. He was drafted by Rivera and Hurney so they may have a slight advantage there. Zach Pascal is a true WR2 and many would argue Washington needs to make that a priority this offseason. While I don’t feel as strongly about NEEDING a compliment opposite Terrific Terry McLaurin, I also don’t think the asking price would be that steep for Pascal.

Every single other player I list either has a local tie, a tie to Rivera and Hurney, or in the case of Richard Rodgers a tie to the coaching staff, as his father is on it. One wild card not mentioned is the return of left tackle Trent Williams. He had issues with members of the staff as mentioned above, but those folks are now no longer in the organization.

Name	Current Team	Position	Age	2021 Grade	Position Ranking	FA Type
Taylor Moton	CAR	RT	27	81.2	14	UFA
John Johnson	LAR	SS	25	87.4	3	UFA
Zach Pascal	IND	WR	26	62.9	92	RFA
Mo Alie-Cox	IND	TE	27	81.0	6	ERFA
Richard Rodgers	PHI	TE	29	88.6	2	UFA
Yannick Ngakoue	BAL	DE	26	69.4	39	UFA
Shaquil Barrett	TB	OLB	28	71.1	29	UFA
Alex Armah	CAR	FB	27	57.0	8	UFA

Last but certainly not least… the 2021 NFL Draft. There’s a bonanza of talent available this year so even if you don’t get your guy… but wait, there’s more. I’ve put together a mock draft and after several attempts I took the average of my 7 mocks. I based my selections on need, as well as how I personally think the staff in Washington likes to build a roster.

Most will say that Washington needs to get their guy of the future now ad while I can kinda sorta agree, I feel that if you can’t protect him or surround him with a few weapons, he’s as good as a bust. That said I love Christian Darrisaw. Big, bad, local. Hard to go wrong with Brevin Jordan and or Chuba Hubbard in the mid rounds. Brady Breeze shouldn’t have opted out this year, but if the right team takes him, he’ll be a star. Damon Hazelton could end up being one of those Marques Colston type late round gems.

Name	Current Team	Position
Christian Darrisaw	Virginia Tech	OT
Alex Leatherwood	Alabama	OG
Brevin Jordan	Miami	TE
Chuba Hubbard	Oklahoma State	RB
James Wiggins	Cincinnati	S
Tommy Kreaemer	Notre Dame	OG
Brady Breeze	Oregon	S
Damon Hazelton	Missouri	WR

WFT came a long way back to respectability, and I believe they’ll build off that in 2021. Moving forward I think they’ll be rough as they’ll be as tough as they come. Who know’s what Ron and the crew will do… It’s A Football World, we’re all just passing through.

Feature image photo credit: Washington Football Wire