Washington NFL Season Recap

Washington NFL Betting Odds

It’s now been 15 years since Washington last won a playoff game. Washington was a sizable underdog against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round after going 7-9 in the regular season. Taylor Heinicke outperformed almost everyone’s expectations by keeping Washington within striking distance of Tom Brady and Tampa Bay, but it wasn’t enough to pull off the upset. Regardless, there is now plenty of optimism and hope among Washington fans entering the 2021 season after what we saw in Ron Rivera’s first year on the job.

Washington Season Recap

Rivera and Washington went 2-6 through the first half of the 2020 season. In any other division, this team would already be looking ahead to the offseason at that point, but the NFC East was putrid this year. Washington ended up winning five of its last seven games to claim the division title and a playoff spot after beating Philadelphia 20-14 in an ugly season finale.

Washington started four different quarterbacks in 2020. First-round pick Dwayne Haskins was the starter for the first four games, but he was benched by Rivera at that point due to off the field issues. Kyle Allen came into the lineup and played well before suffering a season-ending injury, leading to the return of Alex Smith after the bye week.

Smith was clearly not the same quarterback he was pre-injury, but he was decent and helped Washington turn around its season. He went down with an injury in Week 14 against San Francisco though, forcing Haskins back into the lineup. Haskins started the next two games, but pictures of the second-year quarterback at a strip club shortly after the team’s loss to Seattle led to Rivera releasing him outright. Smith played in the season finale against the Eagles, but Heinicke started the playoff game as the former was still banged up.

Rookie running back Antonio Gibson played very well in his first year. Gibson ran for 795 yards, averaging 4.7 YPC, with 11 touchdowns in 14 games. His only two 100-yard games came against the Dallas Cowboys, but it was clear he was the best running back on the roster. J.D. McKissic proved to be a talented receiver out of the backfield with 80 receptions for 589 yards and two scores.

Terry McLaurin has been superb through his first two seasons in the NFL. Washington doesn’t have any other threats at receiver, but he continues to put up impressive numbers. He had 87 receptions for 1,118 yards and four touchdowns in 2020, nearly doubling up tight end Logan Thomas.

The strength of this team was clearly the defensive line. That’s pretty obvious when you see that Washington has used a first-round pick on a defensive lineman in four straight drafts, bringing aboard Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, Montez Sweat, and Chase Young. Young lived up to the hype as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft with 7.5 sacks and 12.5 tackles for loss, and he is likely to be named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

That unit was instrumental in Washington allowing just 21.2 PPG (5th in the NFL) and 316.5 YPG (5th in the NFL). The run defense was above average, while the pass defense was exceptional, allowing 6.0 YPA and 201.9 YPG with a sack on eight percent of dropbacks. Kendall Fuller and Ronald Darby are decent cornerbacks, but the real key to their success is opposing quarterbacks needing to hurry throws.

It’s back to square one for Washington when it comes to the franchise’s quarterback search. This team hasn’t had a top tier signal caller in decades, and they may use another first-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft to try and address the issue. They won’t have a high pick as a playoff team though.

Washington Schedule & Results

Washington Past Seasons (2000)

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