Ted Bolser: What Can Redskins Fans Expect Next Year

By: Justin Partlow

When you head into the 7^th round of the NFL draft, you generally are looking for guys who have one area that they are specialized in over anyone else at their positions and in the draft. For the Redskins they took a TE in Ted Bolser who has the height to become a matchup nightmare, but also has a ton of work to be done before he could ever reach that point. Bolser has the size and athleticism to be successful, but has poor blocking technique along with very poor concentration lapses. What Bolser makes up for with his errors is the effort in which he plays. It always seems as if Bolser is playing with his hair on fire and will play until the whistle blows. Bolser has the ability to be a good successful #3 TE who specializes as well on special teams, but will face an uphill battle as he’s got incumbents who already have shown the ability to be successful in that role. Below I’ll take a look at Bolser’s strengths and what then Redskins fans can expect next year from him.

Now I’m not going to pretend here that I’ve watched every game of Ted Bolser and know exactly every nook and cranny of his game. What I have seen though is enough film and tape of Bolser to get a good judgment of what he can do as well as what he does need to improve on. When I started to watch Bolser, I immediately jumped back to another player I watched last year in Joseph Fauria out of UCLA. Fauria was in a lot of ways just a touchdown machine who didn’t have a lot of substance outside of it. The Detroit Lions then took him and used his strengths to their advantage as they now have a TE who can be a matchup nightmare in the red zone. In a lot of ways I think the Redskins want Bolser to become that jack of all trades player who can be an H-Back/TE type, but also has that Fauria in him with his ability to get touchdowns over defenders in the red zone. Bolser is someone though who gives you all 110% effort that is wanted, but he also has his fair share of issues and really will have an uphill battle moving forward. As mentioned earlier, Bolser struggles to remain focused and will have timely drops that can kill momentum. As well, Bolser struggles a lot when it comes to blocking, which will be critical in the Jay Gruden offense. Now the Redskins don’t just want him to become only a blocking TE, but at the same time he needs to be at least average in it. Bolser truly has the ability to take that #3 TE job by the horns, but at the same time he’s got quite an uphill battle with his negatives and having guys already in place like Niles Paul who have shown the ability to do what is already needed.

What then can the Redskins fans expect from Bolser next year? I’d expect Bolser to either unseat Niles Paul or if he cant, then he’ll get moved to the practice squad and have another year to develop and have his chance to then go after and become the #3 TE. If Bolser makes the roster, he’ll really get his chance to make his name on special teams and will have the chance to make a name in the red zone with his height that he possesses. As has been the theme with many of the 2014 class, Bolser could see his time come in 2015, but again will need a lot of seasoning before he can truly reach that level.