With the first full week of preseason games upon us, teams have been releasing their first depth charts of the year and several of them have players listed at spots that make you scratch your head a little bit.
One of those is in Washington, where second-round pick Derrius Guice is listed alongside undrafted rookie Martez Carter behind Rob Kelley, Chris Thompson, Kapri Bibbs, Samaje Perine and Byron Marshall. Given that the team won’t be keeping six tailbacks or cutting Guice, that seems totally out of whack.
It’s all the more misleading once you listen to quarterback Alex Smith talk about his teammate. Smith said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that Guice has shown an ability to do everything they ask for from a running back.
“I didn’t know anything about him when we drafted him,” Smith said, via the Washington Post. “You hear all this nonsense, I guess, that’s out there. The kid has a smile on his face 24/7. He loves playing ball, he loves being out there. Then to be honest, I don’t feel like there’s a real weakness in his game. Pass game, protection, certainly he can run the ball. I feel like he does a heck of a job in protections, I feel like in the pass game he’s a weapon as well. So, I’m excited for him. Certainly as a running back, I think those guys really get to shine when we get the pads on and it goes live, and they can show breaking tackles and open-field stuff. … I think he’s got a lot ahead of him.”
The least of the things Guice would appear to have ahead of him is a climb up the depth chart. Whether or not he’s starting against Arizona on September 9, it is a good bet he’s going to be playing a pretty significant role in his first NFL regular season game.