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Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports

What's Holding Back Commanders WR McLaurin?

Originally posted on Washington Commanders on SI
By David Harrison | Last updated Dec 8, 2023 12:00 PM ET

The Washington Commanders (4-9) have all the markings of a team about to go through a major transition.

The Commanders are under new ownership for starters, and that typically brings with it expectations that staff changes are happening sooner rather than later.

On top of that, Washington has also secured its eighth straight season without cracking .500 in the win-loss column (fourth in four years under coach Ron Rivera) and just traded the current regime's first first-round NFL Draft pick for pennies on the dollar.

The final sign of a franchise coming apart at the seams is star players lashing out in the media. Cue defensive tackle Jonathan Allen who earlier this week admitted he's considered whether or not he'd be better off with another franchise and star receiver Terry McLaurin causing quite the stir with his 'cardio' comment following a 45-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins (9-3) in which he had just three targets and no receptions.

And that's where we think most people are really confused and frustrated. After trading defensive ends Montez Sweat and Chase Young it was easy to predict struggles trickling down to Allen and fellow defensive tackle Daron Payne.

But McLaurin having such a down season in a pass-happy offense run by Commanders assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is not only surprising, it's alarming.

It's not necessarily due to a lack of trying per se because McLaurin is on pace to have the second-highest target and catch numbers of his career.

He's also on pace to have the second-fewest receiving yards and the fewest receiving touchdowns of his career.

So the issue seems more to be about the quality of targets, not quantity, and to that, we point to one thing - the hitch route.

Also known by some as a hook or a button hook, the route features a strong upfield stem with a quick stop and turn back toward the quarterback at the breakpoint.

Hitch routes can be short, or can be as deep as 20 yards downfield in Bieniemy's - and others' - offense.

It's a good route to run against off-coverages that also lean toward shell coverages designed to take away vertical routes deep downfield.

Washington has played a lot of those defenses this season, and that may explain why with four games left to play McLaurin has run almost twice as many hitch routes in 2023 than he did all of last season.

The downside of the hitch route is it requires solid timing between the receiver and quarterback, and doesn't lend itself to high probabilities of yards after catch (YAC) where guys like McLaurin do some of their best work.

This season when the Commanders throw to McLaurin they're getting about 4.5 yards on average, ranking 51st among 62 NFL receivers with at least 50 targets this season.

Within the same population of receivers, McLaurin's 3.5 YAC per reception ranks 41st.

Last season, arguably his best in the league to date, he ranked 13th in YAC per reception among NFL receivers with at least 50 targets and tacked on about 5.1 yards every time he touched the ball.

He also ran many more vertical or in-and-out-breaking routes that allowed him to catch many of his passes in stride while separating from defenders.

That separation is minimized with the increased use of hitch routes, and when the pass is late by even a small measure of time he's forced to attack the pass eating away at his opportunities to produce yards for his team.

So if you ask us why McLaurin's production has been down so much this season, and why he's as frustrated as we can remember, it starts with the hitch route and likely only goes deeper from there.

And as long as that's being installed as a major part of his involvement in the game plan, we wouldn't expect it - or his feelings about it - to get much better over the final four games of the season.