Football Outsiders: Guice And Thompson Would Have Made Perfect Thunder And Lightning Combo

This year I had the chance to ask Football Outsiders a few questions on behalf of Hogs Haven. Football Outsiders provides in depth stats that you can’t find anywhere else. There signature metric is DVOA which not only takes into account statistics but it measures efficiency and accounts for circumstance. They don’t just aim to through out numbers though their goal is to provide objective writing and analysis backed by their research to improve and change that way football is written about. Their work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, ESPN, SB Nation, CBS Sports, and Bleacher Report.

Here is today’s question and answer:

Hogs Haven: What kind of an impact can a Derrius Guice / Chris Thompson duo have rushing the ball? Where do you place the probability that the Redskins will be top 15 in rushing?

Football Outsiders: Oh, man. I’m writing this on Friday afternoon just a few hours after news broke that Derrius Guice tore his ACL and will be out for the year. So this is depressing. On paper, Guice and Thompson would have made a perfect thunder-and-lightning combo, with Guice hammering defenses on early downs, and Thompson’s rare receiving ability coming through on third downs. Without Guice, it will be once again up to Thompson, Samaje Perine, and Rob Kelley to run the ball -- and they were the ones who were so bad at it and that Washington felt the need to draft Guice in the first place. The good news is that Washington is almost certain to have more health along the offensive line in 2018 than it did in 2017. And as we noted in Football Outsiders Almanac 2018, before the injuries kicked in, Washington’s run game was middle-of-the-pack, not the disaster it turned into in November and December. And hey, speaking of the offensive line…

Thanks to Vincent Verhei who you can follow on twitter @FO_VVerhei

What could have been still hurts to think about for sure. With improvement from Perine and if health blesses the offensive line the rushing attack could be decent but I think we all can surmise it will be a lot less explosive with a lot less big play potential without Guice.

You can pick up a copy of Football Outsiders 2018 Almanac here