The Washington Commanders may not be getting Trey Amos back as soon as Week 5, even though that’s the first point at which he’s eligible to return from injured reserve.
Head coach Dan Quinn said it’s still too early to know whether the second-year cornerback will actually be ready by then, and he pointed to Amos’ limited practice work as part of the issue. Quinn has been talking about that ramp-up for a while now, and he made the same point back on August 16.
"Yeah, I'm optimistic, but you're right about the practice piece," Quinn said. "Like, as we're coming back with Nick Allegretti, he had six reps in practice one and was injured.
So, I'm excited for him to get back to practice, and we all need it. And so that'll be an important piece for Trey, too, to get back to saying, okay, not only just the movements, the skills, the conditioning.
So, yeah, there's certainly concern. He's working hard, but with these next two and a half weeks, I would say those would be important, Nikki, to see the progress, to say, okay, ramping up hard, almost there, into that spot.
And so maybe in a week or so time I'll have a better estimate to say, okay, they do this return-to-play, which I love following, but I need to see each of the steps made."
Even if Amos becomes eligible in Week 5, Washington doesn’t seem in a hurry to force the issue. The Commanders are headed to Dallas, where they’ll face CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, a receiver duo described as arguably the league’s best. Those two oversized targets have already had success against Washington, which means the Commanders will be leaning on Mike Sainristil, Rasul Douglas, Amik Robertson, Fabian Moreau, and the safety group to handle the problem for now.
There’s no question Washington wants Amos back in the lineup. But the bigger priority is getting him all the way through Quinn’s return-to-play process instead of pushing him back too soon and risking another injury.
When he does return, it should affect how the Commanders use several of their corners. For now, though, Week 5 is only the date he can come back - not a date he has to.
Washington needs the rest of its cornerback room to stay afloat until Amos clears every step Quinn has laid out since August.
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Tom Brady noticed immediately from the Fox Sports booth, questioning whether the ball should have found one of Washingtons top skill players in such a high-leverage spot. For Blough, it was the kind of first test that can define how a coach is viewed in a hurry, and now the conversation around the Commanders is less about the call itself than what it says about how he wants this offense to function when the game is on the line. [Read more 🡒]