Playing Time Battles: Who Should Be Seeing the Field More

Here is a look at some key positions on defense and the playing time battles going on with them:

Defensive End:

Jarvis Jenkins is back after his suspension, but all is not rosy among Redskins defensive linemen as Stephen Bowen has struggled to start this season. Kedric Golston hasn’t been great, and Chris Baker hasn’t done much, but they should rotate more than normal with Bowen. In the past two years, Stephen Bowen was among the league leaders in snaps played by a 5 tech DE, that needs to change this year as he’s not producing enough. Hopefully Jenkins becomes the primary DE, and the guy who can be on the field with Cofield for 70% or more of the snaps.

Percentage breakdown going forward: Stephen Bowen- 55%, Kedric Golston- 30%, Chris Baker-15%

ILB:

London Fletcher continues to struggle missing tackles and being lost in coverage. It’s a delicate situation for the team to be sure, but the Redskins have to start moving on from Fletcher if they want any chance of getting back in the playoff picture. He’s clearly a liability out there, and just can’t handle a full workload any longer. Fletcher is still a leader out there and a field captain, but it no longer seems to be enough to warrant his spot on the field. The Redskins should start to make the transition to Nick Barnett. While ideally Barnett would take 60-70% of those snaps that seems doubtful to happen.

Percentage breakdown going forward: London Fletcher 75%, Nick Barnett- 25% 

Cornerback:

Now the cornerback battle doesn’t seem like much of a battle since the Redskins are only really running with 4 corners who can be counted on in the field. Jerome Murphy really looks like a special teams only guy, and likely won’t take any playing time despite some of the struggles with the guys out on the field. The team may look to add Chase Minnifield at some point during the season, but he probably won’t get much playing time. Another factor that impacts the cornerback spot is the fact that E.J. Biggers is needed to help out at safety. Top corners DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson and David Amerson have all struggled some, but they aren’t likely to lose much playing time. The Redskins though should look to mix it up a little bit in an effort to not expose rookie David Amerson to too many struggles, and to recognize that Wilson and Hall should sit a little as well.

Playing time breakdown going forward:

Starting Corner spots (when they are using two corners): DeAngelo Hall- 95%, Josh Wilson- 90%, David Amerson- 10%, E.J. Biggers- 5%

When their 3rd corner comes in (note this is in relation to this spot, not how often they are on the field): David Amerson- 65%, E.J. Biggers- 30%, Chase Minnifield- 3%, Jerome Murphy- 2%

Safety:

Now Brandon Meriweather will handle one safety spot, but the other one is a wide open battle between safeties Reed Doughty, Bacarri Rambo and Jordan Pugh. Cornerback E.J. Biggers is also in the mix, which does convey just how desperate this situation is. Now it appears that Jordan Pugh doesn’t have the faith of the coaching staff (considering the struggles of everyone else, it makes you wonder how bad he could be doing in practice), so he can’t be counted on for anything more than spot duty. The team and the fanbase would like Bacarri Rambo on the field, but the situation has gotten so bad that he didn’t even get playing time on special teams versus the Raiders.

That leaves the position in the hands of Doughty and Birggers. Both players have struggled this year in all aspects of their games. Doughty has more experience and should probably get the greatest amount of snaps going forward, even in some passing situations. Now against maybe the Broncos/Chargers or in some third and long situations you rely more on Biggers, but I think Doughty should be the starter unless someone truly out plays him. At this point I wouldn’t expect much from Jordan Pugh, but Bacarri Rambo shouldn’t be forgotten about. I realize he may be in the dog house with the coaching staff, but the Redskins should try to give him some snaps each game. It might only be 5-10 snaps, but it would at least justify his being active on game days. Also, it helps allow Brandon Meriweather to play closer to the line where he’s at his best.

Percentage Breakdown Going Forward: Doughty- 45%, Biggers- 38%, Rambo- 12%, Pugh- 5%