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It looks less and less likely on the day that Alex Smith will play Saturday against the Buccaneers. The Washington Football Team listed him as questionable on Thursday, and he remains questionable on Friday night.
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reports Smith’s right calf injury it’s still sore and “didn’t let go”. It all comes down to how Smith feels before the game on Saturday night.
Regardless, it is clear that Smith is not 100 percent and will not be 100 percent at the start of the game.
Washington wants to give Smith, who is 5-0 in his last five games and has seven career playoff games, all opportunities to play. But Taylor Heinicke, who took over most of the representatives from the first team this week, is 100 percent. So what percentage of Smith is better than 100% of Heinicke?
It looks like a defeat for Washington in its first playoff game since 2015.
Smith started a game of week 17 to win or return home, but he intercepted twice and apparently left the game worse for wear and tear. Heinicke did not join the team until December and has an NFL debut, which came in 2018 for Carolina.
There seems to be a real chance that Heinicke’s second career start will happen in his first playoff game.