Washington Football Team: Alex Smith shouldn’t see the field again

Alex Smith took snaps for the Washington Football Team in Week 5, he should be done for now, though.

Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith suffered one of the most gruesome injuries anyone has seen in a long time back in 2018.

In his first year with the Washington Football Team, Smith had led them to a solid 6-3 record and first place in the NFC East through the first nine games. A terrible leg injury forced him to the rest of 2018 and all of 2019, though.

The injury was so severe that there was talk of Smith losing his leg. It seemed to get dangerously close to that at one point even.

However, he was determined to play in the NFL again. And in Week 5 of the 2020 season, he did just that. After an injury to starting quarterback Kyle Allen forced him out of the game, Smith took over.

He should not play again, at least not for a bit.

Look. I’m not a doctor or an expert in any sense of the word. Smith is incredibly brave for what he is doing. You have to commend him for the effort and will. The respect I (and probably many others) have for Smith cannot be understated.

But let’s all be honest. He was not right out there. What we saw was someone who looked skittish. He took a lot of hits and always got up. He looked like he didn’t want to get hit a lot, though.

That led to bad throws, sacks, Smith giving himself up. Oh, and the Washington Football Team offense barely moving backwards in the second half.

Seriously, Washington had minus-6 yards of total offense in the second half of their Week 5 game against the Los Angeles Rams.

You could chalk that up to a lot of different things. Washington’s offense simply is not good. The offensive line is bad and outside of wide receiver Terry McLaurin, the weapons are dreadful. Some could point to bad weather or just the fact Smith needs time to get accustomed to the game again.

Go back and watch though. Tell me Smith was skittish.

Again, this is no bash to him. He’s a whole hell of a lot tougher than I am (I wouldn’t even have thought about thinking about returning to football after that injury). And of course, he’s going to have a lot of emotions in his return. It is normal that he was nervous and excited, and all other types of feelings were swelling around.

That’s probably not going to go away any time soon, though. Head coach Ron Rivera said the team can still win the division and that’s their goal. So they need to put out the best players (that was one of the main reasons he claims they benched quarterback Dwayne Haskins).

Smith is not the guy to get them wins, though. Two years ago, absolutely. After that injury, though, no.

Smith may think he’s ready to be back on the field, but the eye test does not lie.

I truly hope he gets back on the field and gets back to the quarterback he was if that’s what he wants. But it just does not seem like he should be out there.

Suddenly there is all this extra tension of “will this hit be the one that destroys his leg again?” And it looked like he was wondering that too.

Remember that play when Smith escaped the pocket and took off? But fell to the ground after one yard because a defender was coming?

That was100 percent the right thing for him to do. He should not risk snapping his leg again for a few extra yards. But you need a quarterback who can get you those extra yards, especially with how desperately the offense needed something in Week 5 to go right.

Minus-6 yards. Really, that’s what it comes down to.

Smith was clearly not ready to be on the field no matter what he believes. Washington should not be risking further injury to a great quarterback, teammate, and man just for the story or whatever the reason. He clearly is not going to help them win at the moment.

You have two young and (at least semi-exciting) options in Haskins and Allen. Both are in just their second years in the NFL and both have shown some good with some bad. Both have also proven they can at least get the offense going a little bit.

Smith has the resume and veteran leadership. But those minus-6 yards should tell the whole story. He should not see the field again for the Washington Football Team at least for a little while longer until he can show he is ready to be out there.

Week 5 looked like his body wasn’t ready but his mind was fighting that fact. It led to a disastrous result.