The biggest question marks of the 2018 Skins

The only thing certain in this life are death, taxes and mediocre Washington Redskins football.

Each and every season, we get excited about the potential on the team, the free agent additions, the rookies, and everything in between. The team has a good balance of veteran leadership and young talent, with the veteran presence allowing us to operate under several certainties.

Alex Smith is going to protect the ball and basically do what Kirk did the last 2 years, just for a cheaper price tag. Trent Williams and Brandon Scherff will be cornerstones on the line. Kerrigan and Smith will be a formidable duo on the edges, and Zach Brown will rack up 783 tackles. And Jordan Reed will most certainly be injured by week 4.

But the 2018 Washington Redskins have a lot of question marks. A LOT. Here’s a look at the most uncertain aspects of the team:

 

Will Adrian Peterson emerge as an effective starting RB?

Jay Gruden all but 100% declared Peterson the starting RB yesterday. Which, although it scares me to say this, is definitely the right call. AP is a generational player, one that has that special “IT” factor that we all could immediately see shining through in Guice this preseason prior to his injury.

Kelley has a lot of rushes in this system. And Chris Thompson is a dynamic player out of the backfield, but AP, even at 33 years of age, just has next level vision, burst, and strength that, unfortunately, no other RB on the roster has. If they can limit him to 10-12 carries or so a game, allowing Kelley and Perine to combine for another 8-10, with CT coming in on passing downs, the run game as a whole could be quite formidable.

 

Will the Bama boys dominate up front?

Last year, the combo of Jonathan Allen and Matt Ioannidis was dominant for the first quarter of the season. When both were healthy, the Defense was rated in the top-10, but unfortunately both were lost to injury in a couple week period.

Add in rookie Daron Payne to the mix. He has shown in a couple preseason games that he is a force in the middle who is most certainly going to demand double teams, opening up Allen to sling around interior lineman in one-on-one matchups.

If the combo of Allen, Payne and Ioannidis stay healthy, the run defense could be dominant, which will help out the situation on the back end.

 

Will the young secondary flourish?

With the departures of both Breeland and Fuller, we really don’t know what to expect out of the backfield. Josh Norman is still a top-10 DB in this league, but many think he has lost a step. Dunbar is a converted WR that, although with his size has shown he is deserving to be on a roster at his position, hasn’t cemented himself worthy of a starting CB spot. Swearinger is a thumper, but isn’t 100% consistent in pass coverage. Nicholson and Moreau both stepped up last season and made some explosive plays, but can they put it all together week in and week out in a more significant capacity?

The wild cards for me are going to be Greg Stroman and Adonis Alexander. These Virginia Tech guys are both big, physical DB’s that have the intangibles that could really transfer over to the NFL, a la dare I say it, the Legion of Boom.

 

Will the outside WR’s stretch the field?

Josh Doctson was drafted 2 years ago with HUGE expectations. He’s a big body with off the charts athleticism, but thus far he cannot stay healthy (Jordan Reed Jr.). We know what we have in Crowder in the slot, which is promising, but in order to really get a downfield passing game going, we need someone opposite of Doctson to emerge.

Welcome to DC Paul Richardson.

In Seattle, Richardson established himself as a lightning fast downfield threat with reliable hands. Basically a Desean Jackson-esque player without the attitude. If Doctson stays healthy, the duo could create real problems for opposing defenses and allow a (healthy?) Jordan Reed to eat defenses up across the middle.

If all of these things pan out, best case is playoffs for this team. If a lot of these question marks come up short, we could be staring down the barrel at another 7 or 8 win season.

#HTTR