Grading the Washington Football Team 2021 special teams
By Hunter Noll
How did the Washington Football Team’s special teams unit play in 2021? Let’s grade them out.
The 2021 season was a disappointment for the Washington Football Team. They started the year with pretty decent expectations. The NFC East title and a playoff win was definitely in the minds of many.
However, a combination of injuries, COVID, and just some bad play led to Washington ending the year with a 7-10 record. And we’re going to limit the discussions about injuries and COVID here. Yes, it all hit Washington pretty hard so we won’t completely gloss over it. That being said, every single team has to deal with that stuff.
It’s all about the next man up. How you handle the adversity. And while there were some standouts, Washington wasn’t up to the task when it came to all that.
Not everything was bad though. There were a decent amount of negatives this season. But there were plenty of positives too. And with that in mind, we’re going to break down the three units (special teams, defense, and offense) of the team over the next few days. We’re going in a slightly odd order here, starting with the special teams.
Honestly, that’s just for the drumroll effect. Let’s not kid ourselves, people are more interested in talking about the defense and the offense than they are a punter (no matter how good that punter is). So let’s save those discussions for a little bit later.
That means that today we’re going to be talking about the special teams. It will be broken down into four categories: punting, kicking, returning, and overall. Each will get a grade. How did the special teams unit of the Washington Football Team perform in the 2021 season?