Washington Football Team: Terry McLaurin needs to be more involved

Washington Football Team superstar wide receiver Terry McLaurin needs to be more involved in the offense.

The Washington Football Team suffered a tough 20-16 loss in Week 1 to the Los Angeles Chargers. That loss saw the defense struggle to get off the field and the offense lose quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick for 6-8 weeks. There was another troubling trend, though, and it has to do with Terry McLaurin.

Now, McLaurin actually put up pretty decent numbers. The superstar wide receiver finished with four receptions for 62 yards — not terrible at all. But there’s an obvious problem right in front of us. McLaurin caught every single pass thrown his way. That’s right, he was targeted just four times.

This is not a shot at the receiver either. McLaurin simply didn’t seem to get the looks. And that’s something you can’t do with a superstar receiver; and yes, McLaurin is a superstar receiver. But do you remember not long ago when Nick Wright didn’t have McLaurin in his top 15 wide receivers? This was probably why. It has nothing to do with the receiver himself, but the fact that Washington doesn’t seem to view him that way.

He is top 15 though. McLaurin has it all. He has elite speed, incredible hands, superb route running, great athleticism, and unfair awareness and ability to find the ball in the air and adjust to it (did you see that catch he had in Week 1?)

McLaurin can do it all. But Washington isn’t drawing up the plays for him. The blame needs to be distributed. You can argue that the quarterbacks aren’t looking for him enough, or that the coaches aren’t giving him the first reads, or whatever you want. It’s not on the receiver himself though.

That might sound a little ridiculous, you could say that maybe McLaurin didn’t get open enough in Week 1. But do you know who gets the ball thrown to them sometimes even when they don’t have great separation? Keenan Allen, Davante Adams, Amari Cooper, DeAndre Hopkins, Adam Thielen, Tyreek Hill, etc.

Those guys get their targets almost no matter what. Terry McLaurin is the clear top passing option for the Washington Football Team. With Curtis Samuel out the gap between him and the second option is even bigger. Despite that, McLaurin was tied for second in targets on Washington in Week 1 behind Antonio Gibson (5).

Who was he tied with, you ask? Rookie Dyami Brown (one reception for negative two yards). Unacceptable. Yes, Brown has the potential to be phenomenal one day, but right now there’s no reason to be giving Brown the same opportunities as McLaurin.

Now, Washington did only throw the ball 21 times in Week 1. So that attributes to the situation as well. But there were still far too many drives where it seemed like the entire offense was just disinterested in McLaurin. He wasn’t even getting looked at. When he was, the offense moved.

In fact, the lone touchdown drive that Washington put together saw McLaurin get targeted three times for three receptions and 45 yards. That included the insane catch he had for 34 yards. It was capped off with a touchdown pass to tight end Logan Thomas (who had a nice grab and a solid day altogether as well).

In the first half of the game, Terry McLaurin was targeted zero time. Zero. Washington went into halftime down 13-9. Two of those three field-goal drives were aided heavily by penalties on the Chargers. They simply weren’t moving the ball at all.

Washington is 0-1. They were playing a Chargers team that has a chance to be very good this year though. They also had to deal with a QB change midway through the contest. There is a lot of season left and a lot of time to right the ship. They need to get their star wide receiver involved more though.

Until the Washington Football Team treats Terry McLaurin like the elite wide receiver he is, it’s hard to get upset with analysts for not seeing him in that light. If Washington wants McLaurin to get the respect he deserves, they need to give him the ball. If they want to move the ball and win games, they need to give him the ball. Get it done.