On third and 11 near midfield, Washington sent in Gibson. This was unusual. Gibson has played almost exclusively on first and second down; entering the game, only two of his 83 snaps had come on third down. But there he was lining up outside, another unusual position, against Baltimore Ravens safety Chuck Clark.
After the snap, Gibson displayed a wide receiver’s footwork, jabbing forward to fake a route and then stepping back. He caught a screen pass, avoided Clark and jetted down an alley created by well-positioned offensive linemen. He began pulling away, flashing the home run speed Coach Ron Rivera sounded so excited about when Washington selected him in the third round of April’s draft.
Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith caught Gibson at the 11-yard line to end a 40-yard gain. Gibson was heated. He hadn’t seen Smith in pursuit.
“I had no clue the guy to the right was coming,” Gibson said after Washington’s 31-17 loss, still lamenting his missed chance to take the screen all the way. “I was definitely sad about that.”
But Washington gave Gibson a chance to finish the job. He rushed between the tackles on three of the next four plays, finally stuffing in a two-yard touchdown.
The drive epitomized Gibson — powerful, flexible — and spurred his best day yet with 46 rushing yards, 82 receiving yards and that touchdown. It symbolized a step toward what the coaching staff hopes he can become: a rushing and receiving weapon, a bigger version of Carolina Panthers star running back Christian McCaffrey. This fits the modern NFL offense, which prizes versatility and chunk plays. And if Gibson becomes a second steady weapon alongside wide receiver Terry McLaurin, it would provide a huge boost to quarterback Dwayne Haskins and a sputtering offense.
Washington knows Gibson has a lot of growing to do, but Sunday continued the early-season blueprint for how Gibson might get there. The coaches are starting small. They want Gibson, a natural wide receiver, to embrace running back and essentially have one skill set catch up to the other. They’ve limited Gibson’s routes and lined him up in the backfield on 85 percent of his snaps.
This has been the plan since right after the draft, when Washington put Gibson in the running backs room. The lack of offseason and preseason has slowed this process, though the team has eased Gibson’s transition by managing responsibilities and leaning on its two veteran backs, who complement him. Peyton Barber is a short-yardage hammer. J.D. McKissic is a smaller Gibson, a player who has run more third-down routes in the NFL (150) than Gibson has career snaps (117).
In the rookie’s breakout performance Sunday, Rivera said he saw a combination of Gibson’s natural athleticism and offensive coordinator Scott Turner’s evolving understanding of how best to use the three backs.
“We were using [Gibson today] part of the way we’re going to need to use him [in the future] to be successful,” Rivera said Sunday. “I think part of it is [also] just his tremendous athletic ability as a football player.”
But Gibson still sees mistakes. He still sees moments when he’s a receiver playing running back rather than a weapon who can do both. After the big screen play, he took a handoff from the 2-yard line and looked up to see center Chase Roullier plugging the lane. Gibson hesitated, preparing to cut left, but just then, Roullier pushed his man out of the way. The hole was sizable, and Gibson missed it. He was already lateral.
“There are times where I try to make a play and I shouldn’t,” Gibson said. “That’s me not playing running back a lot. That’s me playing receiver, and I’m trying to make a play because, when I catch a ball, I am already downfield. At running back, you’re always in the backfield, so you have to get north quick. … I just need to learn when to pick and choose when I should just stick my foot in the ground and get north and get those two yards [versus when to try to make something happen].”
If the second half was the present, Gibson learning how and when to hit holes, the first half was the future. On that third down near midfield, when Washington trailed 14-0, Turner played his best card. It was splitting Gibson out right for the screen. It was a peek at what the offense could look like as Gibson grows more comfortable. It was what prompted Haskins, hours before, to tell Gibson he now had “his preseason schedule out of the way, and it’s time to go ball.”
“He’s getting ready to take off,” Haskins said. “Watching him in college, the dude was lining up in the slot running fades, so he’s definitely somebody who’s versatile.” Haskins listed ways the team can use Gibson in presnap motion to probe and expose a defense. “He’s a very versatile guy who can make some stuff happen for us, and I will try to get him to own up his role and take advantage of it.”
Gibson said he knows he has a long way to go, but his progress inches forward with games such as Sunday’s. And just as he must balance hitting a hole and trying to extend a play, Turner must balance his play-calling to accentuate Gibson’s strengths and develop his weaknesses. This is the challenge of a season during a rebuild, but Gibson feels like, little by little, he’s getting there.
“I just felt comfortable today,” he said. “I feel like, each week, I’m learning.”
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