The Washington Football Team is currently sitting atop the NFC East as we start Week 15 of the 2020 NFL Season. The team has exceeded all expectations, but one thing is blatantly clear.
The quarterback of the future is not on this roster.
Alex Smith's comeback has been a wonderful story in a year filled with despair, and his leadership and poise has the team contending for a playoff spot, but he is not the long-term option at signal caller.
Most never expected Smith to take the field again after suffering one of the most catastrophic compound leg fractures in recent memory, undergoing countless surgeries and rehabilitation to get to the point he is at now.
His presence has kept Washington competitive in the the NFC's weakest division, and the team's incredible upset victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13 was something that no one saw coming and has put the WFT on the map.
His overall play, however, has been average at best.
Smith's QBR through seven games (35.6) ranks last in the league among qualified starters.
Smith is currently throwing for just 203 YPG. The only players with a lower average are Mitchell Trubisky (191 YPG), Lamar Jackson (185 YPG), Cam Newton (181 YPG) Tua Tagovailoa (173 YPG), Sam Darnold (173 YPG), and Andy Dalton (168 YPG).
Smith is in line to make $19 million next season and will count $23 million on the team's salary cap. If Washington cuts Smith, the team would save about $15 million on the cap but would take a $9 million dead money hit, per NBC Sports.
Neither Dwayne Haskins nor Kyle Allen has shown enough to warrant consideration as long-term options as well.
With Washington in the driver's seat in the division, any hope fans had at the team being in position to select one of the top quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft are all but gone. The WFT could take a chance on a player like Alabama's Mac Jones or Florida's Kyle Trask, but after the mess they are already in for taking Dwayne Haskins 15th overall in 2019, the team would have to be completely sold on one of those QB's to pull the trigger.
Other options that Washington could look at include Jets QB Sam Darnold, who has most likely spent his last season with the organization. Could a fifth round draft pick get Darnold to DC? The reward significantly outweighs the risk.
Pro Football Focus lists the top five free agent QB's after the season in this order:
1. Dak Prescott, Cowboys
2. Philip Rivers, Colts
3. Cam Newton, Patriots
4. Jameis Winston, Saints
5. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Dolphins
Of the five, PFF predicts only three of them to hit the open market: Newton, Winston, and Fitzpatrick.
Do any of those three sound like long-term options for Washington?
Newton has had an up-and-down season in New England, Winston hasn't seen much action in New Orleans as the third QB on Sean Payton's depth chart behind Drew Brees and Taysom Hill, and Fitzpatrick is nearly 40 years old.
It's slim pickings in the QB department this offseason, and the Washington front office will have some big decisions to make about the future face of this franchise.