Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden sounds pretty bullish on the guys in his receiver room as he heads into the meat of his second offseason at the helm of the NFL's D.C.-based franchise.
But while more heralded players like Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson headline the unit, it sounds like Gruden is expecting a big contribution from a recent fifth-round pick who didn't really do all that much during what essentially amounted to a redshirt rookie year.
"Ryan Grant? He's awesome, man. He really is," Gruden said recently, via Tarik El-Bashir of CSNWashington.com. "He runs every route exactly like you tell him to run it. He doesn't make any mental mistakes. He's got big, strong hands."
"It's just [that] right now, with Pierre [Garçon], DeSean [Jackson], Andre [Roberts], we also drafted [Jamison] Crowder, it's a crowded [meeting] room with a lot of skill," Gruden added. "But I won't hesitate one bit whether he's our starting Z, starting X or starting [slot receiver]."
Grant, entering his second season out of Tulane, finished his rookie year in Washington with just seven receptions on 15 targets for 68 yards. Despite his limited production to date, Gruden is clearly high on his potential.
"As a wide receiver, he's very polished and he's just waiting his turn," Gruden said. "He is ready to go, though, I promise you that. I love Ryan Grant and what he's about."
Still, it will be hard for him to garner much in the way of significant snaps if he can't show he deserves some touches over the likes of Garcon, Jackson and Crowder.
Perhaps fortunately for Grant - and unfortunately for Redskins fans - Paul Woody of the Richmond Times-Dispatch recently took issue with Gruden's assertion that Garcon and Jackson are "two great players."
"There's no evidence to support the case that Garcon and Jackson are great," writes Woody.
"To call Jackson and Garcon great diminishes the talent and impact of several Redskins receivers from the not-so-distant past."
While pointing to players like Art Monk and Gary Clark as comparisons for Garcon and Jackson is both unfair and a bit pointless, it does raise an interesting potential issue for this Redskins team.
Despite significant production to date and ample natural skill, neither Garcon nor Jackson is what you could consider "elite," which is troubling for Washington, especially in this NFL day and age of prodigious passing offenses and 1,000-yard, 10-plus touchdown receivers. Jackson posted 1,169 yards last season, but caught just 56 balls out of 94 targets and managed just six touchdowns. They're good numbers and Jackson is certainly a high-quality player, but would anyone really be able to argue that he's more valuable than the likes of Calvin Johnson, Dez Bryant, Demariyus Thomas, Antonio Brown, Julio Jones or Jordy Nelson? His 2014 yardage total wouldn't even put him in the top-10 in the league, behind players like T.Y. Hilton, former teammate Jeremy Maclin and Golden Tate.
There's also the fact that Jackson will turn 29 during the 2015 season. Diminutive receivers who rely on their quickness and ability to avoid major impact don't often last in the league once that speed starts to taper off.
If Skins quarterback Robert Griffin III is a failure, it could be as much of a product of the limited playmakers around him as it is his own ability to read and dissect an NFL defense. Of course, no one is going to confuse Griffin for Peyton Manning anytime soon, but Jackson, despite his still-immense talent, is a one-dimensional player and Garcon is a steady, if unspectacular presence - considering his career arc, his phenomenal 2013 seems more of an outlier than an actual indication of his professional abilities.
In short, while Crowder has been turning heads thus far in Redskins offseason work, if Grant can show an ability to make plays in his second NFL offseason, he could be in line for some significant playing time once the season rolls around.
The Skins offense is likely to remain predicated on the consistent exploits of running back Alfred Morris in 2015, but Grant may not have as much of an impediment to making a name for himself in the Washington offense next year as it would initially seem.
