RICHMOND — After three weeks, the Washington Redskins wrapped up their Richmond portion of training camp and will now head to Ashburn as they prepare for the final three preseason games. In the meantime, coach Jay Gruden is still no closer to deciding a starting quarterback.
“I don’t want to … come to any conclusions right now,” Gruden said. “It’s silly to, so there’s still a lot of ball left to be played, lot of passes, lot of things, lot of situational work we still have to do.”
Fine. Maybe it’s too soon to jump to conclusions. But there’s nothing stopping us from reading into how the quarterback competition has played out so far. Here’s a breakdown of each quarterback after camp:
Case Keenum: Stock up
Keenum had to work through kinks in his first preseason game as Redskin — even the small ones. The quarterback, for example, didn’t know exactly where the quarterbacks sat on the bench during the game.
But sorting through them, Keenum was solid in limited playing time in Cleveland. He engineered three drives, going 4 of 9 for 60 yards and a touchdown. Gruden said he came away impressed with the nine-year veteran. Keenum threw a near-perfect ball to draw a 43-yard pass interference penalty, scrambled 10 yards to keep a drive alive and hit a wide-open Robert Davis for a 46-yard touchdown.
Throughout the spring and the summer, Keenum has mostly been steady as he has battled for the job. The 31-year-old hasn’t been fazed with limited reps, and lately, he’s performed the best out of the group. Keenum, too, has done a solid job of performing with a variety of players, not just the starters. For instance, the Redskins rested most of their starters in Cleveland — leaving Keenum to play with backups. But Keenum was still able to execute well enough to score Washington’s only touchdown.
Washington has also taken the same approach in practice, interchanging receivers left and right — making it hard to tell which of the receivers are “starters.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s tough,” Keenum said of playing with different receivers. “I’ve been in this long enough to know you’re going to wind up playing with different combinations of guys all year long. So you got 11 guys out there, and everybody’s been coached up and is here for a reason. You take that, but you continue to do your job: That’s to get first downs, move the ball and score touchdowns.”
Colt McCoy: Stock down
It may be unfair to classify McCoy’s stock as “down” — he didn’t get a chance to play in Thursday’s game as he was held out for precautionary reasons while he recovers from a broken leg — but the 32-year-old has struggled in practice lately.
After throwing two interceptions Saturday, McCoy tossed another one Sunday shortly into team drills, with safety Montae Nicholson making a play to snatch the quarterback’s tipped pass. More so, McCoy has looked off — if not outright frustrated. McCoy admitted earlier in camp he was still “fighting through some things” after undergoing three leg surgeries since breaking his leg in December against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Even putting his potential injury concerns aside, McCoy’s Achilles heel has been his decision-making. Too often, he’ll try a force a throw that ends up being a turnover. “We have such high expectations for him, and sometimes he’ll miss a throw, very uncharacteristic,” said Gruden, who called McCoy’s camp “up and down.”
That being said, don’t discount McCoy in this race. The veteran has received a good chunk of first-team reps, usually being the first quarterback of the day to be under center in team drills. McCoy’s institutional knowledge of Gruden’s system is also an added benefit.
McCoy should be available for Thursday’s game against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals, Gruden said.
Dwayne Haskins: Stock up
Upon reviewing film of Haskins’ first-ever preseason game, Gruden noted there were a lot of encouraging things to build on. In two quarters of playing time, Haskins seamlessly ripped the ball downfield, kept plays alive with improvisation and even surprisingly used his legs to gain yards (something he rarely did at Ohio State). “I mean, I can do it,” Haskins said. “I just don’t want to.”
But there were some obvious growing pains for the rookie.
Haskins threw two interceptions — both of which were ugly. Haskins released the ball and anticipated where his targets were supposed to be, but didn’t realize the routes were broken down before that. His first interception, for example, occurred when Davis failed to pick Browns linebacker Mack Wilson in order to free up running back Byron Marshall. Because of that, Wilson still covered Marshall and grabbed Haskins’ pass with ease.
Haskins was also sacked twice, the second of which was his fault. The rookie failed to flip the protection at the line of scrimmage, allowing Browns safety Juston Burris to blitz freely.
“The big thing we’re trying to really get corrected is just everything – his fundamentals, protections and all that stuff which will come,” Gruden said. “But, for his first game I thought he handled the pressure, the noise, the cadence, the huddle. The tempo I thought was really good, so there is a lot to build on.”
Haskins went 8 of 14 for 117 yards against the Browns. The next day, the 22-year-old wrote on Twitter, “It’s a marathon,” and included a checkered-flag emoji. Haskins didn’t necessarily make a strong case to start Week 1 with his performance, but he did show he was ready for the race.
Jalan McClendon: Stock steady
Yes, there is someone named Jalan McClendon on the Redskins’ roster, and he does play quarterback.
The Redskins signed McClendon, an undrafted free agent out of Baylor, on Sunday after Josh Woodrum — Washington’s previous camp arm — tore his pectoral muscle against the Browns. He is not a candidate to win this job, but maybe he’ll have some nice memories for his family if he gets to suit up for the fourth preseason game.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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