Washington QB Alex Smith (calf strain) won't practice again today, per source. The plan all along was to go easy on him through the week. They do want to get him moving around more today and see how he’s progressing.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 17, 2020
A report from Washington’s practice on Thursday is showing that QB Alex Smith is once again being hold out of the full work-load, giving the first-team reps to quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
This doesn’t come as a major surprise, with Washington hoping to give Smith as much time to recover from the calf strain that was suffered last week and play it safe with him going forward, hoping that he will be completely healthy for the final two weeks of the season. On Thursday, Smith was still at practice, but he didn’t go through the team work and rather did some work with trainers off to the side to see how he was moving on his injured leg and progressing towards Sunday.
If Washington were to play this completely safe, they would likely sit Smith on Sunday, since their game against the Seahawks isn’t technically a must-win game. The final two weeks of the season, however, against the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles, and likely games that Washington has to win in order to make the playoffs and win the NFC East. If they can do what they can to make sure that Smith is healthy by then, and ready to lead Washington into their first postseason berth since 2015, they need to take care of that first.
