ASHBURN — At one point or another since the start of the regular season, various members of the Washington Redskins organization have relayed some form of the same message: This year’s team is much different than the one that combined for just seven wins in 2013 and 2014.
“It’s definitely been an emphasis of ours to stop underachieving, which I feel like we’ve been doing for quite some time around here,” left tackle Trent Williams said before a Week 3 loss to the New York Giants.
“I don’t really know what it is, but it’s starting to finally click. It’s just more of a mindset.”
It is easy for the Redskins to say the attitude is different this season, but the personnel moves that first-year general manager Scot McCloughan and the coaching staff are making on the field reflect a serious commitment to winning.
To put it simply, the Redskins want to win and they are willing to play whoever helps them achieve that, regardless of status. It hasn’t always been pretty, but through the first quarter of the season, the Redskins are 2-2 and in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC East.
The loudest proclamation was made on Aug. 31 when coach Jay Gruden declared Kirk Cousins the starting quarterback for the entire season. “It’s Kirk’s team,” the coach simply said.
The quarterback position was the one with the least clarity until McCloughan and Gruden decided it was time for the carousel to stop spinning. The move showed a willingness to move on from Robert Griffin III. It no longer mattered that the Redskins hedged four draft picks, including three first-rounders, to acquire Griffin. The team did not want to play three quarterbacks like it did in 2014.
That was the glaring change that needed to happen. Cousins has taken his lumps — four interceptions in the first three games — and he’ll take more this season. On Sunday, he also showed he was capable of leading the Redskins on a 15-play, 90-yard, game-winning drive.
The personnel moves that have followed after the decision to start Cousins show the same commitment to doing what it takes to put the team in the best position to win.
On Sunday, veteran wide receiver Andre Roberts was inactive after playing nearly 70 percent of the team’s offensive snaps the first three games. Roberts had already dropped three passes and the Redskins held him accountable. It didn’t matter that the Redskins are paying him $2.75 million in base salary this season, or that they needed depth at the position with DeSean Jackson out with a left hamstring injury.
Instead, they gave rookie Jamison Crowder an opportunity to do the job, and he delivered. Crowder was targeted a game-high 12 times and caught seven passes for 65 yards.
Speaking on Monday, Gruden didn’t close the book on Roberts getting back on the field, but made it clear Crowder had surpassed him as the team’s slot receiver.
“It was clear in the game,” Gruden said. “He’s definitely our slot receiver right now. Andre [Roberts] is a pro. He’s going to be a valuable player for us as the season goes on. Obviously, with the injuries that take place, he’s going to be needed again.
“You know, you try to play the best player, and I think the players understand that and they appreciate that and they understand that every day they have to earn the right to be a starter on this football team. Every game they have to perform to keep their job. That’s the only way it can be. That’s the only way it should be in pro football and I don’t think this is the only place that handles it like that.
“It’s a performance-based business. In order to keep your job, you have got to perform at a high level. That’s what we’re expecting from all our guys.”
Earlier this season, the Redskins released cornerback David Amerson, the team’s second-round draft pick in 2013. Amerson started 15 games in 2014, but played zero snaps in Washington’s 24-10 win over the St. Louis Rams in Week 2. In a 17-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, Amerson was targeted and exposed by quarterback Ryan Tannehill, the breaking point in his regression from a starter.
It did not matter that Amerson, now with the Oakland Raiders, was a high draft pick. The Redskins wanted results. That’s why strong safety Jeron Johnson, signed to a two-year deal in March, was beaten out by Duke Ihenacho for a starting role in camp — and replaced by Trenton Robinson when Ihenacho broke his left wrist. It’s why defensive end Chris Baker played 24 snaps on Sunday instead of free agent signee Stephen Paea, who played 12, and why if they needed depth at corner, they felt they could turn to rookie sixth-round pick Kyshoen Jarrett.
Jarrett, originally a free safety, expressed interest in playing slot cornerback to the coaching staff during training camp. With the secondary hobbled because of injuries to cornerbacks DeAngelo Hall, Justin Rogers and Chris Culliver, Jarrett played 56 defensive snaps on Sunday, all in nickel packages.
“Jarrett, really, is a surprise to me because he’s not doing it at safety,” Gruden said. “He’s doing it at nickel. We had no idea that would be the case. We had him penciled as competing for safety, being a special teams player [in] year one, but he came in here and really surprised us with his versatility.
“We had a penciled-in punt returner job for [Crowder], but for him to win the starting inside slot receiver is a testament to him and how quickly he picked it up and his production. When you draft guys, you have high hopes for them, but you never expect them to be this much of a factor this early.”
Four games into the season, it is clear the Redskins are not counting on the players they expected to win them games, but the players who are proving they can do it.
• Anthony Gulizia can be reached at agulizia@washingtontimes.com.
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