The Washington Football Team will start Taylor Heinicke as a quarterback against the Buccaneers in Saturday night’s Wild Card game.
That’s right – Taylor Heinicke vs. Tom Brady in the playoffs.
It is not the plan that Ron Rivera envisioned when the week began. QB veteran Alex Smith has been struggling with a calf strain since his victory over the 49ers in Week 14, which made him miss two games.
Washington obviously preferred to go with Smith as a starting defender for the team’s first playoff game since 2016, but after gutting two touchdowns and two interceptions last week in a decisive division victory over the Eagles, the calf injury never recovered from time to face Tampa.
This means that instead of the former general number 1 chosen by Smith, Washington will roll with the unprocessed Heinicke.
Download and subscribe to the Washington Football Talk Podcast
By now, people are already familiar with the story – Washington only signed with Heinicke in early December. When Heinicke received the call to join Burgundy and Gold, he was in the middle of final exams online at Old Dominion University.
Heinicke has a deep understanding of Washington’s offensive system, as the 27-year-old QB first signed with the Vikings in 2016 and worked with current offensive coordinator Scott Turner.
In his NFL career, Heinicke has a start and 77 passing attempts, two TDs and three INTs.
In about a quarter of the action in Week 16 for Washington, Heinicke impressed. He completed 12 of 19 passes for 137 yards with a touchdown, and also ran the ball three times for 22 yards and repeatedly showed some slippery in his pocket.
What’s crazy – Heinicke will be Washington’s fourth full-time quarterback this season.
In September, this was Dwayne Haskins’ team. He was eliminated after a week 4 loss to Baltimore in favor of Kyle Allen. He was injured in the week 9 loss to the Giants, which brought Smith forward. Smith injured his calf in Week 14, which brought Haskins back to his original job. Due to poor performance in the field and worse performance off the field, Haskins was cut in late December, which made Heinicke the reserve.
It was a long, strange trip to Washington in 2020, and now that means Heinicke starts against Tampa in the playoffs.