What should fans make of the Washington Football Team quarterback situation now with Ryan Fitzpatrick out for an extended period of time?
The Washington Football Team did not have a great first week of the season. They lost at home to the Los Angeles Chargers, with the defense struggling to get off the field. Just for added pain, Ryan Fitzpatrick suffered a hip injury and is now expected to miss 6-8 weeks. Where does this leave Washington?
Well, the simple answer is Taylor Heinicke. He was inserted into the game when Fitzpatrick left. After shaking off the rust in his first few throws, Heinicke looked fantastic. Kyle Allen will serve as his backup.
So how should fans feel about that?
Well first off, regardless if you wanted Fitzpatrick to start or not, you can’t be too excited about losing a veteran quarterback. And if you’re one of those weirdos that is happy he got hurt because you wanted Heinicke to start, stop reading — forever.Now that we’ve got rid of those toxic fans, let’s move on.
There’s certainly no denying tha Taylor Heinicke has looked phenomenal since joining the Washington Football Team. In two games (neither as a starter) in the regular season, Heinicke is a combined 23-for-34 for 259 yards and two touchdowns (compared to no interceptions). He’s also run for 39 yards on just six attempts. It’s all going well.
Throw in that playoff game and you’ve got something brewing. Everyone knows about that game by now. Washington lost to the eventual Super Bowl winners, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They gave them their toughest contest though. And Heinicke was a major part in that, throwing the ball well and making plays with his feet.
This offseason though Washington did what I believe to be the smart thing, and they brought in Fitzpatrick. He’s a veteran and you know what you’re going to get with him. Yes, there will be those bad games where he throws a few too many interceptions, but he will open up the offense. He’s a leader with 165 games under his belt (164 before this season). That’s compared to the nine (eight before this year) of Heinicke.
Washington decided not to gamble on the 28-year-old all that much. He still had a chance to win the starting spot and could prove himself as a backup. But they wanted security.
That security is sort of out the window now. They have to “gamble” on Heinicke. There is definitely upside. He’s proven he can perform while in a Washington uniform. However, that’s been done in a short sample size. The reality of the situation is, this is a 28-year-old with still under 100 passing attempts in his career.
So there should be cautious optimism. And yes, I do think there should be a lot of optimism. I know this has sounded like a “hit-piece” so far, but that’s not the case. There is a lot to love about Heinicke. He’s performed very well in Washington. More importantly, though, he has a lot of great tools. He takes care of the ball, has a solid arm, and can move extremely well (that’s big for quarterbacks in today’s game).
But there still isn’t a large sample size. We’ve seen 92 regular-season passing attempts from Heinicke in his career (136 if you count the postseason). This isn’t some rookie and highly-touted prospect either. When that’s the case, you have the vision of what they could become. A reason to tolerate watching the growing pains.
Instead, this is a 28-year-old quarterback. One who went undrafted. And one who didn’t even play in 2019 and was not on a roster for most of 2020.
Heinicke has shown he could be special though. And 28 is far from old. Just look at what Tom Brady is doing at 44. You could even simply look at Fitzpatrick (who is 38) as an example of a quarterback proving his worth at an “older” age.
With Taylor Heinicke at quarterback you should probably expect some growing pains. You should also expect some electric plays and potential though. The recipe is there, and Washington is far from dead in 2021. This may not have been the play a week ago, but things change.
The Washington Football Team needs to adapt. It’s now Taylor Heinicke’s offense. Maybe don’t expect as many crazy air-attack games, but the offense will still move.