The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D5

“There’s not much to say about
it,” Quinn said. “We’re young,
we’re inexperienced, but who
[cares]? It’s f ootball.... We’re just
competitive. We’re talented. The
only thing we don’t h ave is experi-
ence and, like I said, who [cares]
about that anyway.... We all
make plays.”
Quinn, in particular, feels the
need to prove himself as the top
slot receiver on the team. The
organization was comfortable
enough with the shifty route-run-
ner with sure hands that it al-
lowed Jamison Crowder to depart
in free agency and not sign or
draft a player to replace him. That
decision was questioned, which
annoyed Quinn, but he says he
will hold his tongue to avoid say-
ing something he shouldn’t.
“I want to be really freaking
explicit about it, but I’m just
ready to go,” Quinn said. “Prove
everybody wrong. I know it’s cli-
che to say, but I really don’t feel
like saying what’s on my mind
right now.”
Coach Jay Gruden said he has
no concerns about the relative
inexperience of the team’s receiv-
ing corps, adding that the team’s
goal of spreading targets around
should allow the youngsters a
chance to get acclimated without
having to shoulder a heavy load
immediately. At the same time,
there will be no easing into the
season, with four playoff teams
from last season on the Redskins’
schedule over the first five weeks.
The Redskins’ pass catchers
will have one advantage in Week

1. Their opponent, the Philadel-
   phia Eagles, won’t be familiar
   with them.
   “It’s a hard thing because there
   isn’t a lot of tape,” Eagles Coach
   Doug Pederson said. “We just
   have to focus on our preparation.
   We’ve got to go back and look at
   previous games. Obviously, you
   can look at the preseason, and

REDSKINS FROM D1

that might give you a little indica-

tion.”

The look on receivers coach Ike

Hilliard’s face gave an indication

that Quinn isn’t the only person

in the team’s wide receivers room

feeling slighted. Hilliard has

stressed a laserlike focus on de-

tails throughout training camp,

both in film study and in practice,

and the maturity of the young

wideouts has helped with that.

Still, it’s a group that hasn’t

proved itself, and Washington

hasn’t h ad a receiving corps capa-

ble of truly threatening defenses

since DeSean Jackson and Pierre

Garcon were putting up big num-

bers.

“A t the end of the day, t hey need

to step up to the front of the class,

and it’s time to get their jobs

done,” Hilliard said. “We have

more than enough talent....

With what we have in that room,

we’ll be effective, and we expect

them to play well.”

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Excerpted from

washingtonpost.com/redskins

Reed back at practice

but not cleared to play

Washington Redskins tight end

Jordan Reed returned to practice

Wednesday, taking part in some

workouts as he recovers from a

concussion suffered in the third

preseason game.

Reed will have to pass

concussion tests Thursday

before the team can consider

allowing him to play in Sunday’s

regular season opener at

Philadelphia.

“Hopefully that was the first

positive step,” Redskins Coach Jay

Gruden said about Reed’s

appearance at Wednesday’s

practice.

Reed, who had missed a week

of practice after taking a helmet-

to-helmet hit on his first catch of

the preseason, has been in the

locker room after practices this

week and has been laughing and

talking with teammates —

something he wasn’t doing the

week before.

Quarterback Colt McCoy did

not practice again Wednesday,

though Gruden continued to

insist that McCoy is progressing

after suffering a setback in

recovering from three offseason

leg surgeries. McCoy suffered a

broken fibula Dec. 3.

Cornerback Fabian Moreau

also missed practice with an

ankle injury and seems unlikely

to play Sunday.

Outside linebacker Cassanova

McKinzy, who suffered a

concussion in the final preseason

game, was limited in Wednesday’s

practice and is still in the

concussion protocol like Reed.

Defensive lineman Caleb

Brantley also was limited

Wednesday as he deals with a foot

injury that has slowed him at

times in recent weeks.

— Les Carpenter

and Kyle Shanahan, so the sys-

tem he installed relies on zone

running, play-action and boot-

legs, all of which makes life easi-

er on quarterbacks. Still,

Gutekunst pushes back at the

notion the Packers had moved to

that offense with Rodgers in

mind because Rodgers is the

uncommon quarterback who

doesn’t need the position to be

made easier.

“He can handle it,” Gutekunst

said. “He’s one of the few that I’ve

been around that can really han-

dle that kind of stuff. I don’t t hink

it was like, ‘We got to take some-

thing off Aaron.’ As good as he is,

we want to lean on him as much

as we can because he helps us win.

... But I did think it would be
beneficial for us if we did some-
thing that could complement
him.”
The complement came on the
other side of the ball. The Packers
splurged in free agency for pass
rushers Za’Darius Smith (four
years, $66 million) and Preston
Smith (four years, $52 million).
They used their first two draft
picks on defense, too, taking line-
backer Rashan Gary 12th overall
and trading up for safety Darnell
Savage at No. 21.
The Packers mostly stood pat
with skill players around Rodg-
ers, opting for youth, potential
and the belief that Rodgers can
make it all work. They hope an
increased workload unlocks run-
ning back Aaron Jones’s potential
and that a secondary threat next
to Adams will emerge from a
youthful receiving corps that in-
cludes Geronimo Allison, Mar-
quez Valdes-Scantling, Trevor Da-
vis and Jake Kumerow, a former
practice squad player who is a
Rodgers favorite.
The tilt toward defense,
Gutekunst said, had less to do
with Rodgers than recognizing an
urgent need to fix a broken unit.
But putting him in LaFleur’s sys-
tem and pairing him with an
improved defense should place
less pressure on Rodgers. No m at-
ter Rodgers’s brilliance, not ex-
pecting Rodgers to win shootouts
every week is a sensible path
forward for a quarterback enter-
ing the late stages.
Rodgers has noticed signs of
his age and mostly chuckled at
them. He c alled himself “a millen-
nial but an old millennial.” He
was telling a story that happened
several years ago to a handful of
teammates, and then he realized
none of them had been around
then or knew any of the princi-
pals. So he stopped. He chides
teammates for always having en-
joyed spell check on their mobile
devices.
“These kids don’t even know
how to spell,” Rodgers said, grin-
ning at another reminder that he
is no longer a kid himself.
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frequently speak one-on-one, too.

Rodgers considers himself a vis-

ual learner, and when he wants to

know why LaFleur called a cer-

tain play or installed a specific

concept, LaFleur will show him

20 clips on film.

“He’s got a lot of great ideas,”

LaFleur said. “It’s fun to see how

we can implement each other’s

ideas into how we’re building this

thing. It’s no different than when

you’re talking to a coach. You’re

always making sure we’re doing

stuff the right way.... T hat’s what

I appreciate about him. Every-

thing is, ‘How can we make this

better?’ ”

A defensive complement

LaFleur is a disciple of Mike

learned working with Falcons

quarterback Matt Ryan, he can

apply to Rodgers’s transition to

the offense.

“These guys have countless

reps of doing stuff a certain way,”

LaFleur said in late July. “A nd

they’ve done it at such a high

level. The trick for us is, ‘Okay,

how do we take what we know

and implement what he knows

and mesh that together and con-

stantly challenge each other?’ I’ve

had to get comfortable with some

uncomfortable things, as well as

him.”

Rodgers appreciates LaFleur’s

creativity and open-mindedness.

Rodgers leads robust conversa-

tions in the quarterback room

when LaFleur is present, and they

does not believe their closeness in

age — a gap of just more than

three years — matters. But their

constant communication has es-

tablished rapport.

“Him and I are friends,” Rodg-

ers said at the start of training

camp. “That’s the first part of the

relationship. The on-the-field re-

lationship is one that grows over

time. He hasn’t called a play in to

me in a game situation yet. So

there’s a process with feeling

comfortable the way the play

comes in, him trusting me and me

trusting him. But I feel great

about the communication.”

In Atlanta, as quarterbacks

coach, LaFleur helped install

then-coordinator Kyle Shana-

han’s offensive system. What he

despite breaking in a new offense,

Rodgers did not play a preseason

snap before Green Bay’s opener

Thursday night in Chicago.

This week, perhaps signaling a

shift in his thinking from the start

of camp after having worked with

Rodgers, LaFleur made clear he

wants to leverage Rodgers’s cre-

ativity and experience diagnosing

defenses at t he line of scrimmage.

He said Rodgers has “all the free-

dom” and the “green light” t o put

the Packers into a good play.

When LaFleur took over, he

viewed establishing communica-

tion with Rodgers as his most

important undertaking. Whenev-

er possible, LaFleur called Rodg-

ers to talk — not about football

but to get to know him. LaFleur

around Rodgers, either through
its own design, by the force of his
sheer talent and willfulness or
some combination of both. As
Rodgers nears his late 30s, he
remains the unquestioned center
of the Packers’ universe, and the
Packers recognize he offers them
an annual path at competing for
the Super Bowl. But they also
recognize that window, after
more than a decade and in the
aftermath of two seasons of disap-
pointment, could be closing soon.
“I’m obviously not lost to the
fact we had one of the premier
quarterbacks of all time and that
we needed to get better in certain
areas,” s aid Packers General Man-
ager Brian Gutekunst, who rose to
the position in 2018. “I don’t k now
if I thought about the fact we have
to win him a Super Bowl. But I did
feel a responsibility that, hey, we
have an opportunity with Aaron
to do some special things.”

Structured freedom

In February 2011, Rodgers and
coach Mike McCarthy won the
Super Bowl together. But by the
end, their partnership had grown
dysfunctional. Rodgers would
change plays at the line of scrim-
mage with abandon. He once
openly expressed frustration
about a perceived lack of touches
for No. 1 wideout Davante Adams.
At Green Bay’s training camp,
you could have gained the im-
pression the Packers are giving a
gentle tug to Rodgers’s reins.
When asked why he believed La-
Fleur would be a good fit with
Rodgers, Gutekunst replied: “His
communication skills. I thought
he was really, really bright, and he
wasn’t afraid to have the tough
conversations you have to have.”
Tim Boyle, Green Bay’s second-
year backup quarterback, said the
primary difference in the Packers’
new system is that LaFleur’s is
more “structured.” Rodgers had
power over the ultimate play-call
under McCarthy, able to audible
at the line of scrimmage if he saw
reason to veer from the play Mc-
Carthy sent in. LaFleur, Boyle
said, gives his quarterbacks op-
tions but not complete freedom.
“This year, it’s more of, you got
this play and this play,” B oyle said.
“If you get the second look, we’re
getting to this play. It’s not really
adjustment at the line of scrim-
mage. There will be some, but I
don’t think it’s as much as we’re
used to.”
LaFleur’s task is complicated.
He needs Rodgers — an alpha
male with a Super Bowl ring, a
nine-figure contract and a patho-
logical competitive streak — to
adapt without losing what makes
him great and fit his improvisa-
tional brilliance into a structured
scheme. How Rodgers operates in
LaFleur’s system is speculative —

RODGERS FROM D1

Rodgers begins the final phase of his career with a new coach — and new hope

MIKE ROEMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

First-year coach Matt LaFleur, left, wants to channel Aaron Rodgers’s improvisational brilliance into a more structured scheme.

REDSKINS NOTES

Redskins pick talent over experience at wideout

JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST

“We’re young, we’re inexperienced, but who [cares]? It’s football,” said wideout Trey Quinn, who was the last pick of the 2018 draft.