Logan Thomas and Jonathan Allen, among others, did not play Monday night because they were 'nicked up,' which is a general term that could mean anything from soreness to minor injury…or, as is oft the case with the Commanders, something that will cause them to somehow miss weeks, plural.
"I don't fault teams for being misleading, but there's enough of a track record now where I think it's okay to say, 'this is what they're saying about an injury, but that is not gospel,'" Grant Paulsen said on Wednesday's show. "If you would've listened to what they said about Thomas right after the injury, you'd have lost a lot of money in bets because he's still not practicing weeks later."
Chase Young suffered a stinger in the first preseason game and is not yet back on the field, with Ron Rivera saying Wednesday 'he continues to work on the side, and everything is positive and looks like it's going in the right direction.'
An injury update that, once again, did not instill confidence in Grant H. Paulsen.
"I don't feel as good about this, because I thought there was more information given on other injured guys, and he was vague with Chase Young," Grant said, noting that Thomas and Terry McLaurin's injury updates were more verbose. "With Chase, it was, 'he'll see a doctor soon, but we feel good.' They've said all along this isn't a long-term thing, but am I making something up there? And also, the word doctor, that could just mean an update, but is it 'we're sending him to someone to see what's going on?'"
Danny Rouhier, though, has an interesting conspiracy theory.
"It's still an issue, he is not just full go," Danny replied. "I may be reading too much into it too, but I get the sense that Ron learned his lesson last year doing the thing where he says one thing about Young and the reality is something different. Maybe they thought this was the week several times before it was, so I think he's going to be purposely vague about Chase Young – I speculate that they've just kind of thrown their hands up and said, 'I don't know, when he plays, he plays.'"
Grant disagrees to an extent, thinking it's more just being cautious 'semi-normal being careful with an important player stuff' than intentionally vague to hide displeasure, but does agree that last season could have brought some of that frustration.
"I agree there was a point, and we had info from the building, where over and over again they thought the time had come last year and it didn't, and I think frustration was setting in," Grant said. "But right now, I just think that if there's ever a time you don't need to practice to be 100 percent in the most important year of career, it's right now."
Grant also wants to be encouraged that Young took part in some team activities Wednesday, but because it wasn't 'normal team activities,' that enthusiasm is tempered – and we're at the point now where we wonder how much we should be worried.
"They were kind of going through motions and getting looks and stuff, but it does not sound like him returning to practice as is traditionally the case," Grant said.
Follow Grant & Danny on Twitter: @granthpaulsen & @funnydanny
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