Uncertainty about Jordan Reed leaves Redskins’ passing game up in the air

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/uncertainty-about-jordan-reed-leaves-redskins-passing-game-up-in-the-air/2015/10/05/ddbe7064-6b91-11e5-b31c-d80d62b53e28_story.html

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The Washington Redskins’ day-after injury report was long following Sunday’s showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles, as Coach Jay Gruden rattled off assorted sprained knees, a hip pointer, ankle sprains and a bruised glute.

But the concussion suffered by tight end Jordan Reed on the final drive of Sunday’s 23-20, come-from-behind victory at FedEx Field weighed most heavily on the coach.

It’s at least the fourth concussion of Reed’s football career, following two at the University of Florida and two, counting Sunday’s, since the Redskins drafted him in 2013. Reed missed the final six games of his rookie season with lingering effects of a concussive blow to the head.

There’s no way to gauge the severity of a concussion 24 hours after it occurred, and Gruden didn’t attempt it Monday, saying only that Reed was undergoing the NFL concussion protocol, which spells out five steps before a player can return to competition but assigns no timetable for progressing from one step to the next.

Gruden also disclosed that Reed has a sprained left ankle and sprained left knee but made clear he was less concerned about those ailments.

The uncertainty adds Reed, the Redskins’ most productive receiving target this season, to a list of sidelined starters that includes wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who strained a hamstring in the first quarter of the Sept. 13 season opener and hasn’t played since.

“These are two of our top weapons going into the season,” Gruden noted, asked about the prospect of moving forward without Reed, who has caught 24 passes for a team-high 278 yards and one touchdown, and Jackson, the team’s deep-play threat.

Redskins officials initially said they expected Jackson, 28, to miss three to four weeks, which would put his earliest return at Sunday’s game in Atlanta. But ailing hamstrings are tricky to predict, and doctors typically caution against hasty returns, given the risk of re-injury.

“We’ll try to get a little bit more out of him this week, see what he can do,” Gruden said of Jackson, who missed most of training camp and all of the preseason with a shoulder injury. For now, Jackson will be listed as day to day.

Four games into the NFL season, the Redskins have exceeded expectations by managing a 2-2 record. But Sunday’s game at Atlanta is a tough time for Washington to lack offensive playmakers. The 4-0 Falcons are averaging 34.3 points per game, which ranks third in the NFL; the Redskins’ 19.5 points per game is tied for 22nd.

Gruden won’t lack options in the passing game if Jackson and Reed aren’t able to play. Pierre Garcon, who lunged for the game-winning touchdown after converting a crucial third down on that final drive, has proven the offense’s rock, equaling Reed’s 24 catches (for 216 yards and two touchdowns) and blocking with a safety’s fury.

Rookie Jamison Crowder, who has supplanted six-year veteran Andre Roberts as the starting slot receiver, tied Garcon’s game-high seven catches Sunday. But statistics can’t convey the toughness the 5-foot-8, 185-pound rookie flashed in making a leaping catch in triple coverage.

“The way he played in college is the way he’s playing now,” Gruden said of Crowder, a standout wide receiver and returner at Duke, drafted in the fourth round. “He’s just a football player that you can see, loves it — tough, quick, explosive. We had a feeling about him as a good return guy. We had a penciled-in punt returner job for him, but for him to win the starting inside slot receiver is a testament to him and how quickly he picked it up and his production.”

Ryan Grant has played well, though he lacks Crowder’s speed. Rashad Ross supplies speed but has even less experience than Grant, a second-year player. And tight end Derek Carrier, a three-year NFL veteran acquired in an August trade, will inherit many of Reed’s opportunities, Gruden said.

While the young Redskins wide receivers impressed Sunday, their promise doesn’t offset the loss of the physical mismatch posed by the 6-2, 237-pound Reed or the loss of Jackson’s breakaway speed.

Of Reed’s 24 catches, 18 have produced first downs.

“We’d like to have our full arsenal of weapons healthy one time this year,” Gruden said of the thinning receiver ranks, “but I’m happy with the guys who are playing and the way they’re playing.”

Gruden praised cornerback Chris Culliver for gutting out every defensive snap against the Eagles despite a sore knee. Unable to run full out, Culliver was targeted on two of Philadelphia’s touchdowns, but Gruden said the cornerback should have been helped by a safety on the plays.

Already missing two opening-day starters, the defensive backfield faces a challenge in covering Atlanta’s Julio Jones, whose 478 receiving yards are tied with Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown for most in the NFL through four games.

Asked if he felt the Redskins would have an advantage against Atlanta, given their familiarity with the scheme of Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who held the same job in Washington, Gruden said: “The only advantage we have is if Kyle decides to play.”