Chris Thompson Chokes Back Tears While Addressing Guice Injury

One of the highlights of the 2017 season in Washington was the emergence of running back Chris Thompson as one of the premiere offensive weapons in Burgundy and Gold. His fifth full season in the league was a coming out of sorts, primarily for his role in the passing game where here tallied a career-high 51 yards per game through the air. He also established himself as perhaps Redskins’ best blocking back in pass protection as well.

Thompson was on pace to set career highs in stats all across the board before his season was cut short when he fractured his fibula in crushing week 11 overtime loss in New Orleans.

Having sat out the preseason week 1 opener against the Patriots, Thompson is still on the mend, and looking to make his return to the field by the start of the regular season. However, in speaking with the media this week he was clearly heavily affected by the season-ending injury of his fellow tailback Derrius Guice, whose torn ACL landed him on the IR earlier this week.

I know you want to know about Guice, so I’m going to answer that question, and I’m going to try to keep it together here too, but it’s just a tough situation man. Just, it hurts me, he came into the facility with his brother yesterday, and his brother was crying, and it’s like, I just hate to see my brother like that. It’s the same way with me ... That man has been through a lot and to see him go down before the season even got started, before he can get a taste of the field, he was already down. It’s just tough. I just hate to see any of my boys go down like that, and I’m going to stay with him and make sure I help him keep his spirits up and to [help] him be the guy he’s always been, the guy you all have seen every day, but like I said: yesterday was the first time I saw him and I felt him faking the happiness. It’s not something I want to see out of my guys.

Thompson choked back tears as his emotions were clearly running high when discussing the injury to his rookie position-mate, whom many assumed would work in tandem with the fifth-year pro this season. After signing a two-year extension last fall that keeps Thompson in Washington through the 2019 season, he has taken the reigns as one of the leaders in the locker room, which is becoming all the more evident in situations like these. Now with one fewer weapon in the backfield this season, Thompson will be leaned on heavily this season to lead the way on the field among the Redskins running back corps once again.