Alex Smith is back, or at least very, very close to that. The veteran quarterback was close to returning from his calf injury in week 16 against the Carolina Panthers, but was dismissed as a playing time decision. The days that followed witnessed a great uproar within the Washington football team, led by the call for former first-round player Dwayne Haskins during the defeat on Sunday and later, releasing it completely to start the week. The latter pushed reserve Taylor Heinicke into the spotlight, with a chance that he would take over as the starter in the mandatory fight against the Philadelphia Eagles.
After making a few representatives from the first team this week, Heinicke is expected to be Smith’s backup, with the latter’s progress putting him in a position to return as a starter, and he plans to do just that – according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
There will be a final check before time, but as it stands, it is Smith that the Eagles will face, not a player who was recently in the third straight behind Haskins. Smith lost the last two games with the problem mentioned in the calf, and Washington lost both disputes with the chance to win the NFC East with a single victory. The attack averaged a negligible 14 points per game in his absence, a far cry from his productivity in the four-game winning streak led by Smith. They were not prolific in any way, but Smith’s presence makes the dynamic much more worrying for a destroyed Eagles defense, which will also have several key players and has now received news from the defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’s imminent departure.
This should logically make the road less difficult for Smith’s division title, but concerns about injury to receiver Terry McLaurin contribute to balance in this equation. Smith is under pressure to continue his miraculous comeback tour with a trip to the playoffs, which would be the first time Washington has played in January since 2015 and Smith’s first visit since his 2017 season as a Kansas City Chiefs starter.