Taylor Heinicke might be here to stay. The Washington quarterback has a real chance to keep his grip on the starting role, according to sources who spoke with NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. 
Heinicke will start on Sunday afternoon against the Bills in place of Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is dealing with a painful hip subluxation. Fitz, who has been placed on injured reserve, could be able to return by mid-November. But, depending on how things go in the coming weeks, the veteran could wind up holding the clipboard for the former UDFA.
The Old Dominion product helped the WFT top the Giants in his first start this year. In that game, Heinicke completed 34 of 46 of his throws for 336 yards and two touchdowns against one interception.
Just a few weeks ago, there was talk of Ron Rivera pursuing old pal Cam Newton. Now, Washington seems especially high on Heinicke. With Kyle Allen as his safety net, he’ll try to advance WFT to 2-1 today.
Wow! R Rivera now realizes that a 39 year old QB, who has never started 16 games, or lead a team to the playoffs might not be the answer?
I appreciate the Fitz story, classic. But to count on him this year was just foolish.
Foolish? Definitely not. Fitzpatrick has played very well since his stint with the Titans years ago (minus that one ruinous year in New York when the offense was poorly run). He’s somehow gotten better as he’s gotten older, which is something only a few QBs have done (Alex Smith and Luke McCown come to mind, but their success was less than Fitzpatrick’s).
For a team that will certainly select or sign a new QB soon, Fitzpatrick is definitely a good holdover choice who can help build a professional atmosphere in the locker room as well.
He’s done well in spurts, kind of his m.o. his whole career. You can go back to when Buffalo gave him a job and they started off 5-0 or even back to his Cincinnati days. People used to realize this back in the day, but today’s fans and media hype these guys up who are strictly backups.
Washington is not starting Fitz for the next two years. For a young team with no franchise quarterback, there’s hardly anything wrong with starting a veteran who’s had some success.
Fitz did have a good season long run with the Jets his first season there, so it’s not like he’s never done it before. And he’s had two recent seasons (in Tamps and in Miami) where he likely could have had longer periods of starting had he not been randomly pulled by the coaches. I do agree that Fitz can be inconsistent, but he is never abjectly terrible these days (usually his bad starts are not solely his fault) and to be fair, a lot of QBs are streaky as is. They just get more of an allowance because they’re not thought of as 39 year old backups. The real value though is sort of what you alluded to-you can pull Fitz with no qualms if you end up picking a guy next year. I don’t see any problem with Fitz as a transitional QB.
On second thought. If Fitz is healthy he will start. Very important for Skins to get Samuel back healthy as well.
ODU deserves the job until he doesn’t- it’s not that complicated
I sincerely hope they just keep this name for ever. Still would have preferred Washington Football United or the Washington FU
Henicke’s history says he cannot stay healthy. If I were Washington I’d be contacting other teams in order to acquire one of those guys who always
“looks good in the pre-season but never makes the real squad” wunderkinds, as you’ll need another starting QB in about 2 weeks.
Rivera liked Heinicke back in Carolina as well. He brought Heinicke in as a third QB, and kept him around the facility as much as he could. I’m not surprised that he got the nod, even without his impressive performance at the end of last year. Rivera seemed that he was trying to get him in as much as possible when in Carolina.
I have to admit that I didn’t expect Heinicke’s arm strength to be as good as it was, though. The guy seems like a very hard worker, and trustworthy in terms of work preparation. Maybe his physical shortcomings are greater than a typical blue chip QB, but he seems like a determined guy who prepares well and has a high will to win.
It’s probably why his defense looks like it’s quit. Guys are like these are our QBs and we’re supposed to risk life and limb on every play while our coaching staff and front office are playing with the most important position on the field?
That sounds like a smart idea. What in the world is going on in Washington? But haven’t we been saying that since Bozo Snyder bought that team? How do you go into the season with three backups as your QB and try to pass it off as a plan?