Washington Redskins rookie running back Derrius Guice appears ready to start right away, and that could be bad news for defenses.
As the Washington Redskins entered the 2018 NFL Draft with no clear-cut answer at running back — aside from Chris Thompson’s role when healthy — what we’ve been hearing about second round pick Derrius Guice shouldn’t be surprising. He was a first-round talent that slipped to the end of Round 2 due to character concerns. And, for what it’s worth, those have been missing to this point in D.C.
What we’ve been hearing in terms of unsurprising things and of Guice’s role is that he’s likely to be the featured guy. According to a report from ESPN.com’s John Keim, anyone other than the LSU Tiger’s product taking the lead role in the backfield would be “surprising.” Again, considering he had to beat out Rob Kelley and Samaje Perine, that’s not a huge leap of faith to take.
However, what should most certainly be noted is that the Redskins offense functions best when they have a reliable running back option. Even better, it’s been proven time and again that head coach Jay Gruden is capable of creating some devastating run schemes that allow for overall offensive success.
Recall when Alfred Morris came onto the scene for the Redskins. In his first three seasons in Washington, he rushed for 3,962 yards and 28 touchdowns while averaging 4.5 yards per carry. It should also be noted that, in his rookie year of 2012, the Redskins had went 10-6 and made the playoffs with Morris having his best season of his career.
You won’t find many arguing the notion that Guice is a vastly superior prospect than what Morris was coming into the league. Thus, if the Redskins can keep him healthy and commit to him, we could see a tremendous amount of production from the rookie running back. After all, he is also running behind one of the best and most underrated offensive lines in the league as well.
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Guice slipping in the draft may have allowed the Skins to pick up one of the class’ biggest steals. Again, this is a clear first-round talent that they got at the end of the second. It appears as if they’re going to commit to him like a first-round pick in 2018 though, which is bad news for whatever defense they’re up against on a given week.