The Redskins have finished up OTAs, and for now, most of the talk seems centered around if
Dwayne Haskins can win the starting quarterback job.
"The biggest story is not who the quarterback's gonna be. The biggest story's not
Bruce Allen. It's this injury thing," Rouhier told
The Sports Junkies Monday.
The Redskins have endured a rash of injuries in recent seasons, leading the NFL in man games lost due to injury in 2018.
NFL 2018 regular season, Top 5, most games missed by injured players. Number in brackets is league ranking when injuries are quality adjusted (Lost-av metric). Eagles 1st in Lost-av.WAS 275 (3)IND 238 (25)CIN 234 (17)OAK 225 (11)PHI 224 (1)https://t.co/cSML6LTJOy
— Man Games Lost NFL (@ManGamesLostNFL)
January 18, 2019 Several of the injuries have been major, season-ending and possibly career-ending, from Derrius Guice's torn ACL during the 2018 preseason to Alex Smith and Colt McCoy's broken legs to Reuben Foster's torn ACL on the first day of 2019 OTAs.
"People don't want to admit that it has hair, and it does," Rouhier said of the Redskins' injury issues. "The amount of devastating injuries they've had, plus the amount of 'Well, this guy had a sprained ankle, shouldn't he be back in a couple weeks' and he's gone for the entire season —
Trey Quinn. 'This guy's got a strained calf, why isn't he playing' —
Jamison Crowder."
"The injuries to the Washington Redskins players, and how prevalent they are, is the story. Whether it's a combination of poor medical advice, whether they're drafting injury-prone guys, whether it's an organizational philosophy. Whatever it is, this is the story, and until it's fixed it's going to be the biggest deal."
Rouhier believes Williams will return to the Redskins this season but doesn't want anyone to discount his frustrations with the organization.
"I ultimately do, but I think people are discounting how serious it is," Rouhier told the Junkies. "The thing I don't buy are people going, 'It's a play to get more money, he's really not mad.'"
"I think he's livid. I think this was a life scare, I think this was something so massive where imagine you telling people, 'Hey, there's something wrong. There's something wrong.' And them going 'No, there's not. No, there's not.' I think he's furious."
