Alex Smith says no one ‘skipping a beat’ after Derrius Guice injury

RICHMOND — Alex Smith didn’t know the precise number of practice reps he has received over the last few weeks. But in that span, the Redskins quarterback has been thrown into all types of different situations: working on two-minute, red zone and short yardage drills.

The work, he said, is paying off.

“We’re pretty far ahead from where we first started,” Smith said Tuesday, as he and the Redskins wrapped up training camp here to return home for a preseason test Thursday against the New York Jets at FedEx Field.

For Smith, the repetition of summer is about preparing for any possible scenario the team could face this fall.

But it’s tough to prepare for season-ending injuries. The team has lost three players for the year, including promising rookie Derrius Guice.

Guice, who went down in last week’s exhibition against the New England Patriots, was the key to the Redskins’ hopes for a better run game in 2018.

But don’t tell Smith the Redskins might have to lower expectations. The 34-year-old said Tuesday if there’s one position group equipped to handle an injury, it’s the running backs.

“Right now, we’re so deep at that room,” Smith said. “We’ve got a ton of guys that can play at a high level, [guys] that everybody has confidence in. So obviously wishing Derrius well as he goes through the process of his rehab and coming back next year, but at the same time, I don’t think anybody is skipping a beat with the guys we have here and the ability to go out and execute.”

The Redskins hope the combination of Rob Kelley, Samaje Perine, Chris Thompson and Byron Marshall (or Kapri Bibbs) is enough to turn around its 28th-ranked rushing attack from last season. Coach Jay Gruden said Kelley is running faster now that he has lost weight and Perine looks more comfortable in his second year.

But the responsibility partly falls on Smith. As camp progressed, it became increasingly clear that the Redskins plan on using the threat of Smith’s legs as a weapon. Washington will incorporate more RPOs (run-pass options) after Smith had success with them in Kansas City.

Even without Guice, Smith’s speed — or at the least the threat of it — could help Washington’s offense improve.

“You can just tell … how much the playbook has grown,” right tackle Morgan Moses said last month.

On some level, Smith can relate to Guice being lost for the season since he missed all of 2008 with a shoulder injury. In discussing Guice’s absence, Smith added every NFL player has dealt with learning a teammate was out for the year.

Smith also knows what it’s like to help a team move on. Just three years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs started the 2015 season 1-5 and star running back Jamaal Charles suffered a torn ACL in the fifth game of the year. The Chiefs looked done.

Smith, however, went on to have an excellent stretch in which he had a 100.7 passer rating over the final 10 games of the season — throwing for 14 touchdowns to just four interceptions.

Combined with Kansas City’s excellent defense, Smith led the Chiefs to an 11-5 finish and Kansas City won their first playoff game in 22 years.

And even last year, the Chiefs lost starting running back Spencer Ware for the season in August, and Kansas City didn’t fold with Smith. (Though in that case, running back Kareem Hunt’s emergence ultimately was a game-changer for Kansas City.)

But fast forward to 2018 and Smith has to help his team again.

“As a quarterback, the important thing is being able to handle all the situations,” Smith said. “You don’t just roll it out and there play. … You have no idea what you’re going to be thrust into from a position standpoint, a situation. Having that confidence level of being able to go out there, know what our objective is, how we’re going to go about it and handling it is obviously huge.”