The Commanders starters played a whole half on Monday night, and that resulted in Terry McLaurin getting hurt at the end of the half. Nice going guys.
For some reason these starters were all out there for that long… but he had x-rays on his right big toe, which came back negative. Hopefully that’s a bullet dodged and he’ll be good to go for Week 1.
McLaurin left the game during a 2-minute drill for Sam Howell and Washington’s offense, and once McLaurin was off the field, Howell targeted Jahan Dotson play after play - I think it was 5 targets in a row as soon as McLaurin left.
Either way, as JP Finlay indicated in our conversation together, both of these guys are going to have big years - we’re just hoping that McLaurin is fine. But since this is turf toe he’s dealing with, he’s in jeopardy to miss Week 1 – and there’s a chance he’s not 100% for several weeks at the start of the year.
What that means is that Jahan Dotson can get a boost for those few weeks… so just a bit of a bonus for anyone who’s drafting Dotson. I liked McLaurin this year, but this might be a tie-breaker between him and someone else in his tier on draft day unfortunately.
And Howell himself - we’ve been saying it all off-season. This dude has it, and he showed it in the first half of this game. I know it’s preseason, but he’s looked pretty good so far in all of his action in 2023. He has weapons, he has a good offensive coordinator, and he’s showing some promise. He’s the ideal QB3 for me because he has Top-12 QB upside.
I’ve been saying it, and I think it can happen as long as his guys stay healthy. He has some rushing ability too guys, don’t forget. He has been named the Week 1 starter.
As far as the split in this backfield, it looks similar - both Antonio Gibson and Brian Robinson were involved in different situations… and as you guys heard on the JP Finlay episode, I’m probably too low on Robinson… he’s still going to be very involved in the offense, and he’s more involved in the receiving game than we want to think he will be.