Washington Football Team linebackers
Linebackers were definitely a weird position for the Washington Football Team even heading into the 2021 season.
They had just spent a first-round draft pick on Jamin Davis. Meanwhile, Jon Bostic was a decent veteran and Cole Holcomb isn’t perfect, but he makes plays.
Bostic appeared in just four games before an injury ended his season. He’ll get an incomplete on his report card. Doesn’t feel fair to judge him off of just four games.
Davis didn’t have a very good rookie season. He looked out of place a lot. The athleticism is there but there were missed tackles, missed assignments, and all that other fun stuff. That being said, Davis did seem to figure it out towards the end of the season and had some of his best games and plays in the final weeks
. Turning things around a bit at the end helps his grade a bit. As does head coach Ron Rivera admitting they weren’t playing him in the right schemes and positions. But you can’t ignore the overall body of work. So Davis gets a C- grade for his rookie campaign. Still a bright future ahead of him.
Holcomb did his thing. He had some issues in coverage at times. But at others, he looked phenomenal there. He’s got good speed and is a pretty safe bet when it comes to tackles. In fact, he led the team with 142. He also had two forced fumbles, two interceptions, seven pass deflections, one sack, and even a touchdown. Overall it was a very solid season but nothing elite so he gets a nice B grade.
I’m going to put Landon Collins here. He played both safety and linebacker during the season but ended as an LB. And I know he wasn’t a fan but he played a lot better there than he was in the secondary.
Collins finished the year with 81 tackles and three sacks. He also had a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, two interceptions, and two pass deflections. I’ll grade him overall on his full season. Secondary Collins gets a D+ but linebacker Collins gets a B- grade. So he’s getting a final grade of C.
Outside of that, there was a lot of mixing and mashing. David Mayo, De’Jon Harris, and Khaleke Hudson are just a few that got a small chance at some point during the season. So no one else is getting grades. It’s tough to grade depth players anyways. Especially when they are getting thrown in and out of the lineup at different points getting no playing time, then a lot, then none, then some. It’s all so confusing.
Overall though, they did pretty decent. The unit as a whole was “eh” at best though. We’re going to give them a “C” grade as a linebacker corps.