Redskins burning question Can Cousins overcome the losses in the passing game

It all starts with the quarterback. fans, of course, already know this, having endured the topsy-turvy supernova that was the era. RG3 was followed by , who grew into the starting role, and then that of franchise quarterback. And now, Cousins heads into the 2017 season again playing on the franchise tag. He'll make $23.9 million this season, a year after earning $19.9 million. As one of the league's best young quarterbacks, Cousins deserves a long-term deal. Presumably the Redskins know this, even though their feet-dragging on the matter could complicate things next offseason. Another po sible complication: A downtick in Cousins' performance could prompt a lowball offer from the team, or the Redskins could choose to let Cousins leave altogether. But here's the thing: Cousins ranked third among all quarterbacks last season, according to ' metrics (behind only and and ahead of Dak Prescott). Certainly some of his succe s is a function of the players around him, but Dean Wade Jersey a lot of it has to do with the system Cousins played in under offensive coordinator Sean McVay, who is now the head coach with the . (The Redskins are back at training camp! Don't MISS anything as they prepare to try and make the playoffs -- ) The knock on Cousins is that while he has a quick release, his arm is good but not great. But McVay's scheme masked weakne ses and highlighted strengths by featuring a lot of presnap motion that created favorable matchups for receivers coupled with a ton of play action, where Cousins excelled. In fact, Cousins completed 73 percent of his throws on play-action pa ses with a pa ser rating of 100.8. That ranked third in the league last season, according to , behind only Prescott and . By comparison, Cousins completed just 65.7 percent of his throws during traditional drop-back situations with a pa ser rating of 96.5. Matt Cavanaugh replaces McVay as offensive coordinator but coach Jay Gruden will return to calling plays, like he did during his first season in Washington in 2014 -- and as he did with much succe s with the as their offensive coordinator from 2011-13. In fact, the biggest change from last season to this one may not be Cousins' surrounding cast on the field, but how quickly Gruden gets . "It's just something that I need to work on more than Kirk," Gruden said in June. "Kirk gets the plays and executes them, it's just about me spitting them out quick enough because some of the terminology has changed over the years from when I called plays in Cincinnati and a little bit in my first year here. So it's just a matter of me getting back in the flow. It's been smooth so far. We've got a long way to go." That's one of the biggest questions heading into the regular season. The other one: How will the lo s of and affect this offense? Garcon, who signed with the , ranked 10th in total value among all wideouts last season, according to . And Jackson, now with the , ranked 12th. In their place, the Redskins added quarterback-turned-receiver and , formerly of the . Pryor in total value last season with the and Quick ranked 79th.So yeah.But there's more!The Redskins return , who was second on the team in receptions last season (67), as well as tight end , who had 66 catches. There's also , the 2016 first-round pick who played in just two games as a rookie because of an Achilles injury.On paper, this doesn't seem like an even trade, but keep in mind that creating favorable matchups before the snap is a big part of Washington's offense. Also keep in mind that Jackson and Garcon were 5-foot-10 and 6-foot; Pryor, Quick and Doctson are 6-4, 6-3 and 6-2. And while being tall isn't nece sarily predictive of being a great NFL wide receiver, in the right system . "They know us big bodies -- we go and get the ball and go attack it," Quick told the A sociated Pre s at the start of training camp. "Some (defensive backs) are smaller, so they expect us to use our size all the time. That's (what they mean) when they say, 'You can't teach height.' You just go and attack the ball."Gruden expects all that height to be an advantage in the red zone, where the Redskins managed a touchdown on just 46 percent of their trips inside the 20-yard line last season, which ranked 29th in the league."I do like to have bigger receivers in the red zone here and Kevin Porter Jr. Jersey there to be able to throw some fades, too," the coach said. "What the heck, I love the fade. ... There's a lot of room for error when you have a guy who's 6-foot-5. You can throw the back-shoulder fade, you can throw it over the top, they can go up and get seam balls." Which brings us back to the Redskins' love of play-action pa ses. As TheMMQB.com's Andy Benoit , Washington will employ play action just about anywhere, at any time, which only complicates things for players trying to defend against it. This help explains why slot receiver was so dangerous last season (67 catches, 847 yards, seven touchdowns) ."I've said all along Jamison can play anywhere," Gruden explained in June. "He can play outside, inside. He can play running back probably if he wanted to, so Taurean Prince Jersey we'll utilize Jamison and try to get him more involved, not just in the pa sing game and the running game. He's an excellent player, dynamic player. He just continues to prove every day why we like him so much. He's great on option routes, he can run vertical stems. He can run just about anything you ask him to run ... He gets himself open because he's got a great feel. He's got quickne s in and out of his breaks."He plays a lot longer than his size. He has got really long arms. He goes up and gets balls. Sometime he plays bigger than a taller receiver because he uses his height and he's got great jumping ability and times the jumps extremely well. Some tall guys you see, they misjudge it and they don't jump. But Jamison, he times them perfect and makes big plays." Again, the system is important. It's certainly helped make an already dangerous even more so, though he continues to battle a toe injury that limited him last season (66 catches, 686 yards, six TDs) after a breakout performance in 2015 (87/952/11).An improvement in the Redskins' running game could also go a long way in mitigating the lo s of Jackson and Garcon by creating a more balanced offense. Last season, Washington's rushing attack could best be described as inconsistent, though some of the blame was with the offensive line. As that unit improves, and the running game along with it, it will only open things up in the pa sing game, specifically -- wait for it -- in play-action situations.Put another way: There's every reason to believe that Cousins will have another big season, and he will parlay that succe s into a huge, well-deserved new contract. The only question is whether it will come in Washington or elsewhere.
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