Washington Commanders

Washington Redskins: Robert Kelley Needs Bigger Role in Offense

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Washington Redskins passing attack is so dangerous, but it could use a little more Robert Kelley down the stretch.

It’s no secret the Washington Redskins have one of the best passing offenses in football. Kirk Cousins has transformed into one of the better quarterbacks in football, and he’s got an arsenal of weapons. Due to that, it’s easy for the running game—even with the emergence of Robert Kelley—to get tossed to the side.

Sadly, that could be a big reason as to why the Redskins have lost their last two games as there’s been a sudden disappearance of Kelley. It’s not that he’s not running well, however. The offense has just stopped running the ball, period.

In the Redskins Week 12 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Kelley ran the ball 14 times for 37 yards. Admittedly, that’s not a very good day on the ground, but he still didn’t get many opportunities. The Redskins do have a valid excuse this time around however, as they were playing from behind for most of the game, leading to more passes.

The Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals is much different and more problematic, however. First off, Kirk Cousins wasn’t on the money with every single throw like he was the week before. Second, the Redskins weren’t behind the entire game. Finally, Kelley was much better. He ran the ball only 14 times once again, but picked up 63 yards in Week 13. When could he have picked up an extra carry, you ask? How about near the end zone instead of throwing a fade to DeSean Jackson?

The tweet says it all. Jackson is a great receiver, but this was a complete mismatch in favor of the defense. The Redskins are lucky if this works once out of every 100 tries.

Kelley has done a few things for the Redskins since becoming the main running back. He’s stopped the turnovers, he’s limited negative plays, and he’s helped to bring back the play action. When a running game is working correctly, it opens up the play action. If a defense isn’t worried about an offense running the ball however, they won’t bite on the play action. Somehow, the Redskins forgot that over the last two weeks.

Jay Gruden said it himself, in fact.

A very good point was brought up, however.

Gruden makes the ultimate decisions for this offense. If he feels Kelley should be featured more in the offense, it’s as easy as making the call. It’s hard to disagree with him, though. The offense clearly runs much smoother when they have a solid running game in place.

If the Redskins want to get back to their winning ways, a little more Kelley just might be the trick. And as Washington currently sits on the outside of the Wild Card entering Week 14, now would be as good of time as ever to get back to Kelley and back to winning.

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