Terry McLaurin, who has been sidelined due to a quad injury, has missed his second consecutive game for Washington following their road win against the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s not often that Commanders’ fans see a game where Terry is inactive, let alone two consecutive weeks. In his absence, Washington has gone 1-1 in those games, granted, their one loss came without their starting quarterback, Jayden Daniels, too, so that context must also be factored in. Head Coach Dan Quinn is very optimistic
about McLaurin’s return to action this Monday night against the Chicago Bears. But what can we make of Terry’s absence to this point? While Washington has averaged 27 points per game in his two games missed, has Washington missed his presence on the field?
In the latest Trap or Dive Podcast, Senior Data Analyst for Pro Football Focus Nick Akridge joined the show and shared his thoughts on McLaurin’s absence and why he makes a difference. Last year, there was a mixed bag from defensive coordinators in terms of how they covered McLaurin. Sometimes he dictated coverage, and sometimes he did not. Akridge mentioned how defenses would shade their coverage to his side, in the form of a “cloud” coverage, though not as often. However, Akridge mentioned that McLaurin made defenses pay when they didn’t rotate coverage toward his alignment. Currently, Akridge still believes McLaurin’s value to this offense is high due to his unmatched separation ability and contested catch ability.
On a scale of 1-5, how badly do you think Washington needs Terry McLaurin back in the fold?
You can listen to the full Trap or Dive episode with Nick Akridge below. We discussed:
- Are Marshon Lattimore’s critics in the fanbase overreacting? Who’s to blame for Washington’s secondary problems
- Deebo Samuel’s impact on the offense
- Why PFF is high on Luke McCaffrey
- Dorrance Armstrong’s emergence
- First-quarter offensive and defensive MVPs
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