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Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has a good problem: How to keep all his talented players happy.
Historical data suggests the Commanders will take about 1,100 offensive snaps over the course of the season. There will probably more passes than runs. In what’s known as “score-neutral situations” — when the clock and scoreboard don’t dictate run or pass — Kingsbury called passes about 56 percent of the time last season, according to RBSDM.com, which was the eighth-highest rate in the league. While the Commanders could run more if they get better at it, it’s still safe to bet Kingsbury, a former Air Raid quarterback, will keep the ball in the skies.
So if last year is a guide, there should be about 620 passing snaps this season. The top priorities will be star receiver Terry McLaurin, who has averaged about 125 targets over the past four seasons, and quarterback Jayden Daniels, who’s an elite scrambler and will inevitably take some sacks, too. If he sustains last year’s pace and remains healthy, Daniels will likely scramble about 75 times and take about 45 sacks.
Overall, it seems likely Daniels, McLaurin and Samuel will account for a little more than half of the 620 passing snaps.
The other 300ish? They will be battled over by the rest of the skill players, including a couple whom Kingsbury probably had in mind when he imagined getting cussed out.
“I’ve never had a great player that didn’t want the ball, and so that kind of comes with the territory,” he said this week. “But that’s one thing I think that [Coach Dan Quinn] has created, where it’s the team above anything else. And these guys that had their success last year and got their touches, they know bringing [receiver] Deebo [Samuel] in, there’s going to be [fewer touches for them]. But we’re going to be better. And I think when they’re able to sacrifice for that and understand that the ultimate goal is winning, then it all works itself out. But you want those guys. I mean, I’ll get cussed out a few games, but it just comes with the territory. You’d rather have really good players cussing you out than bad players cussing you out.”
The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of the team.
There’s no telling at this point just how many snaps the second-round pick will get as a rookie or where he will land on depth chart, but Amos made the most of his snaps in seven-on-seven drills.
Amos, who the Commanders considered taking with their first-round pick, held his...
