We are now heading into Week 6 in the NFL, which means that Washington’s Pro-Bowl RG Brandon Scherff is officially eligible to be taken off of the injured reserve and placed back onto the active roster. We won’t know if he is healthy enough to do so until Wednesday, in all likelihood, but we can at least start to get used to the idea of seeing No. 75 back on the field.
Assuming he comes back within the next week or two — which seems likely, seeing as he was seen working off to the side of practice last week and is making progress on his return — it couldn’t be at a better time for Washington. They are coming off of the worst performance of the season in a 30-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams and gave up a total of eight sacks in the process while helping the team to just 38 rushing yards. It’s sad to say because we all had some pretty high hopes for him ahead of the 2020 season, but LG Wes Martin has been one of the main culprits behind Washington’s blocking failures.
Wes Martin’s pass block grade from Week 5, brought to you by Aaron Donald:
☠️ 0.2 pic.twitter.com/MpoIXt8Fxo
— PFF Washington (@PFF_Washington) October 12, 2020
Of course, the second-year player was tasked with blocking All-World DT Aaron Donald, but we can’t act like this is an isolated incident for Martin either. He’s been less than stellar in almost every game this season, and we recently figured that it would likely end with his starting place being taken away in the near future.
If it were up to us, the ‘future’ would be marked as whenever Scherff returns to the field. He would take over his spot at the RG position, and Washington would shift Wes Schweitzer — a player who has impressively stepped up to fill that spot — over to the LG spot in place of Martin.
Schweitzer has looked extremely solid over the past couple of weeks, and it was highlighted by a nice block he had on a screen pass Sunday in the first quarter against the Rams.
Wes Schweitzer with a nice block on the screen. He's been showing off his athleticism in the screen game this season, getting out and making blocks in space. Leads the way for Gibson here pic.twitter.com/Yhb0ri8pEU
— Mark Bullock (@MarkBullockNFL) October 11, 2020
Could he improve the baseline performance of the offensive front in Washington if shifted back over to the LG spot in place of Martin? It’s possible, and would be hard to do worse.
All of this is riding on whether or not Scherff can return to the field soon. If he does, there’s an easy fix for Washington, for the time being at least. They just need to make it.
