It was curious when Jahan Dotson played 32 snaps last weekend, almost three times as many as the other top WR on the depth chart, and even more so when Martavis Bryant was signed earlier this week – but Dan Quinn did indeed confirm that the competition for WR2 is strong in Commanders camp.
We’ll see what happens in Saturday’s preseason game in Miami, but right now, is it actually a WR2 competition as much as it is seeing who fits best where opposite Terry McLaurin?
“It’s going to be interesting to follow the snap counts for all the receivers, and obviously everyone's locked in to Jahan Dotson and that part already, but I'm also intrigued at who else is getting snaps and where,” Craig Hoffman said. “To color in some of the lines here, in two wide receiver sets at practice on Tuesday, Olamide Zaccheaus was outside, but he has also spent a lot of time inside in the slot, and Luke McCaffrey and Jahan can both play inside and outside. It will be interesting to note who is where in two wide-receiver sets, but most of the time, they’ll be in three, and so the whole wide receiver discussion is kind of convoluted.”
Craig mentioned how Matt LaFleur said this week that Green Bay has an X, Y, and Z instead of a 1, 2, and 3, and while every team has a true depth chart, they also have one for where guys will line up in certain situations and against certain coverages or matchups.
“You’re going to rotate, and who gets the snaps is gonna depend on what formation you use the most,” Craig said. “There might be a week where you want a certain guy in two tight ends or another in two running backs, so don’t just pay attention to snap counts – pay attention to where these guys line up, because that's gonna tell us more, I think, about what they would like the usage to be during the regular season.”
Craig’s very intrigued, because his thinking is that in two-receiver sets, you’re either run-heavy with two tight ends or heavy play-action with two backs, so who is on McLaurin’s other side will say a lot about a potential play call.
“If you are going to run the ball, it would make sense to have Olamide out there, because he’s a better blocker, or if you’re looking for a play-action go-ball, it makes a lot of sense to have Dyami Brown out there – but does that mean he’s WR2?” Craig asked. “Not necessarily, so I think that paying attention to the usage, where these guys line up, and who they're on the field with is extremely important.”
That will surely be tracked and discussed Monday on some talk radio shows and by some analytically-inclined beat writers, for sure, but the point is that it’s not just as simple as “Player X is our WR2” these days.
“It’s not as simple as ‘there’s two receivers out there, it’s Terry and Olamide, Jahan has lost all respect of this coaching staff and is at risk to get cut,’” Craig said. “And the other thing is looking to see who’s returning punts, because that has rotated, and DQ specifically said special teams will play a role in how this receiver room shakes out – and Dotson has never returned punts in the NFL, but has been part of the rotation of guys doing that in practice.”