Commander Country

Guice is RB1 for Washington in Week 1, but will drama follow behind him?

The running back room is the hot topic of the day for the Redskins.
KD Drummond|
Guice is RB1 for Washington in Week 1, but will drama follow behind him?
Guice is RB1 for Washington in Week 1, but will drama follow behind him?

Last season, Washington was put in a bit of a bind when their prize draft pick Derrius Guice was lost for the season due to an ACL tear. A little while later, the Redskins signed Adrian Peterson to help the position, not knowing they were getting themselves a workhorse still capable of providing a spark to their rushing offense. Peterson raced out for a 1,000 yard season, at the age of 33, proving how well conditioned the future first-ballot Hall of Famer was.

Fast forward to the new season with Guice healthy and ready to contribute, and it would seem the Reskins have one of the deepest and well-organized backfields in the league. It would seem. According to some reports though, while the club is planning on running the offense through Guice, head coach Jay Gruden may not even be particularly happy Peterson is still in the mix.

Let's start with the facts, first.

Guice opened up practice Tuesday as RB1 on their depth charts.

That isn't much of a shocker. Despite not suiting up for a preseason game until the third week, Guice was trending that way in training camp and whenever Gruden discussed the position, his affection for how well Guice looked was pretty forthcoming.

The next part, is a bit of conjecture, but allow us to try and make sense of it.

When Peterson was a backup running back in New Orleans in 2017, things didn't go well. He averaged just 3.0 yards a carry as all of their runners struggled out the gate, even wunderkind Alvin Kamara. With Mark Ingram as the lead dog, Peterson was holding back the most dynamic force of the group (Kamara) from getting his fair share of snaps. Things were not pretty in the meeting room, and after four games he was traded to the Arizona Cardinals for a conditional sixth-round pick. That's basically a ham sandwich in the NFL world.

"I'm so ecstatic," Peterson texted NFL Network's Stacey Dales following the trade.

So how does that impact Washington's current situation?

Peterson is once again in a backup role, and the team clearly wants Guice to be a feature back and not part of a rotation, it's tough to envision Peterson getting enough snaps in Washington to keep him happy for long.

106.7 The Fan's morning show The Junkies discussed this aspect Tuesday morning, and while radio hosts have a different audience and tend to inflate the context of words to suit their medium, there could be some grains of truth in this exchange.

"Well, there was an argument. There was an argument," Eric Bickel interjects. "I wouldn't be so strong in saying that."

Bishop responded: "Well, the argument was, 'Should we cut AP or not?' And one guy was on the yes side and the other guy was on the no side."

Bickel adds this was not because of Peterson's production, but because the 13-year veteran "doesn't like being a backup."

"AP likes to get in Jay's ear if he's not playing. And Jay doesn't want to deal with it," Bishop said. "And that's a well-placed source that told us that. And so there was a fight... apparently, there was some sort of a disagreement on Saturday over (at Redskins) Park about it."

So why should this be believed? It could be simple coincidence, but when the Washington Redskins first released their unofficial depth chart later Tuesday, Peterson was in the top spot.

Things were later adjusted to show Guice there, and again this could have been a simple clerical error, but where there's smoke there's often fire.

So what could come of all this?

If Guice looks spry and healthy through the first few games, could Washington look to trade Peterson like the Saints did, or would they rather keep him in the fold, knowing how important the run game will be to their success this season?

Peterson is set to make just over $1 million this season, a more-than-acceptable amount for someone who over 1,200 yards from scrimmage the prior year.

The club is certainly all-in with Guice. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post outlined things succinctly, including this tell-all quote from Gruden.

“We drafted him for a reason. We feel like he can be a first-, second- and even third-down back if needed. The offense, carries-wise, will probably go through him, pretty much.” 

Gruden’s evaluation of Guice was the biggest clue yet as to what the running game might look like. The question of how snaps will be allocated has yet to get a firm answer, although running backs coach Randy Jordan this summer predicted a 60-40 split one way or another between Guice and Adrian Peterson. Neither seemed to be the clear lead back in practice.

Again, Guice spent the summer with an easy workload making his way back from injury. If the practice split was close to being even, and Gruden sharing that the regular season wouldn't be, there's certainly reason to believe Peterson could come out of that revelation feeling similarly to how he felt in New Orleans. Granted, that was a much different offense than what Washington runs, but the Saints are actually one of the more run-heavy teams in the league.

Published
KD Drummond
KD DRUMMOND

Home/News