FanPost

At Least Bruce Arians Respects Washington....

There's been a lot of shade thrown at the Football Team regarding their status as only the third team to compete in the playoffs with a losing record. Tampa Bay HC Bruce Arians is trying to keep his guys focused on Saturday's game, by warning that this isn't a 7-9 team.

We don't see them as a 7-9 team, we see them as a 4-1 team because every time Alex Smith has played, they went 4-1 and had a plus-three turnover margin. It's a different team when Alex is playing and we know that. We're playing that 4-1 team, not that 7-9 team.

Of course, Arians is disregarding the Niners game where Smith only played the first half of a game that was completely won by a 2 touchdown effort by Washington's defense. With Dwayne Haskins and Kyle Allen under center, the Team went only 2-7 this year. Arians recognized that a lot of Washington's less-than-respectable record was at least partially due to poor play from the quarterback position.

We're not playing Dwayne Haskins. We're playing Alex Smith.

Notably though, Smith has had some concerning issues these last few weeks with regards to a calf strain he's been dealing with for a while now, which forced him to miss two games (both losses). The injury is likely more severe on him than it would be with another player, due to the fact that it is on his reconstructed leg.

He's shown that he's had some problems planting that leg and driving the ball downfield, and his ability to climb the pocket and escape pressure has been even more restricted than usual. Even if he's able to start, Washington may have to face the possibility that they'll need to put Taylor Heinicke in to relieve him, either due to a reaggravation of the injury, or poor play caused by his decrease in mobility and throwing power.

Coach Rivera discussed the possibility of rotating Smith and Heinicke, as the game plan is apparently exactly the same for any quarterback.

The thing that we have to be willing to do, and think about, is whether or not to rotate them in and out. We have to definitely look at that. There's nothing you can do about it, that's the truth of it. We're going to play a very aggressive defense this week, and it's something we most certainly have to have a look at.

Heinicke looked good in limited action against Carolina, but I wonder how he'd fare against a stronger defense with more on the line. Hopefully Smith plays well enough that Heinicke never needs to see the field.

Let me know what you think in the comments.