Commanders' depth chart exposes unnecessary gamble at key spot

If you want to take a truly glass-half-full look at the Washington Commanders’ preseason, try this one. By surrendering 109 points over the three warm-up games, head coach Dan Quinn and special teams coordinator Larry Izzo got to take a long look at potential kick-off returners.

Hopefully, once the games start counting, the Commanders will not be returning six kickoffs per contest. But that’s exactly what they did in the preseason.

Eighteen kick-offs over three games. Four different players. Kazmeir Allen ran back nine, and Demetric Felton took back seven. Noah Igbinoghene and Jaylin Lane each had one return.

Izzo was looking for Allen or Felton to demand a roster spot. To be so dangerous on returns that they would be impossible to cut. Unfortunately, though the former looked pretty good, neither did enough. Both were released as part of Washington’s final cuts.

Commanders are playing with fire by making Deebo Samuel Sr. return kicks

With new rules designed to encourage more kick returns this season, the Commanders need to find an effective answer. On the Week 1 depth chart released by the club, the answer they came up with may have surprised a few people.

Starting wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. will seemingly be returning kick-offs for Washington, at least to begin the season.

Samuel can return kick-offs. He may well be the Commanders' best option for the role. He ran back 17 kicks for better than 31 yards per return last season with the San Francisco 49ers. That is an exceptional number. He was actually one-tenth of a yard better than Washington's second-team All-Pro returner Austin Ekeler.

But just because Samuel can do it, that doesn’t mean he should.

The former South Carolina standout is projected to be an integral part of Washington's offense. He will likely be the second-most-targeted receiver after Terry McLaurin, and we have all witnessed his explosive ability to run out of the backfield. His one preseason touch came on a running play — a 19-yard jet sweep that opened the Cincinnati Bengals contest.

Asking him to return kicks exposes one of the team’s most important offensive players to unnecessary injury risk. Last season, Ekeler suffered a concussion on a kick return against the Dallas Cowboys and ended up missing the next four games. Washington cannot risk similarly losing Samuel.

What seems so odd about the decision to list Samuel as the team’s top kick-off man is the fact that there are other options. Four different players returned kickoffs for Washington last year. All of them remain on the roster heading into opening day.

Even if Kliff Kingsbury doesn’t want to risk Ekeler — the team’s top returner last year — he still has Luke McCaffrey, Igbinoghene, and Jeremy McNichols available. All have experience returning kick-offs. None are starters.

McCaffrey returned 10 kicks last year. Though he never looked particularly explosive, his 29.9-yard average wasn’t too far behind what both Samuel and Ekeler managed.

Depth charts aren’t binding. It bears watching whether it is actually McCaffrey — who is currently listed as the second returner — who drops back to field kicks against the New York Giants.

Or perhaps when the dust settles, it will be the rookie Jaylin Lane. The fourth-round pick, who is the Commanders’ primary punt returner, ran back 39 kickoffs in college, and one this preseason. He looks far more comfortable handling punts at this point, but perhaps that will change as he gains experience.

For now, it looks like the job belongs to Samuel. Kick-offs figure to be a much more significant part of the game under the rule tweaks. It’s not hard to see why Washington would want to establish good field position by putting its best returner on the field.

Still, it seems like an awfully big risk to take in putting Samuel — or Ekeler, for that matter — out there for a relatively modest improvement over what someone like McCaffrey can provide.