Hail and Farewell

The Washington Football Team did not go gently into the offseason.

- Rick Snider

A quarterback with one career start traded blows with the game’s greatest passer. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won 31-23 in the wild-card round, but all anyone talked about was the potential of Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke despite few knowing who he was or how even spelled his last name.

Suddenly, there was hope that while the 2020 season ended, energy for 2021 emerged because young quarterbacks are always welcome in Washington.

“It was gutsy. It really was,” coach Ron Rivera said. “It’s one of those things that – a guy like [Heinicke] who works hard at what he does, he creates an opportunity for himself. We’ll see what happens. I was just very proud of what he did, coming out and competing the way he did and helping us get where we are today.”

Quarterback Alex Smith remained sidelined by a strained calf that didn’t respond quickly enough so Rivera decided with one day remaining to switch to Heinicke. No matter it was the team’s fourth starting passer this season or Heinicke only signed six weeks earlier as the COVID-19 emergency quarterback. With Dwayne Haskins released and Smith hurt, the former Old Dominion quarterback with 120 career snaps abandoned his math finals to play for Washington.