It's a three-for-all at running back in D.C.
The Washington Redskins enter camp with a slew of questions on an offense full of new faces, but none is more pressing or presently unanswerable than who will start at tailback alongside dual-threat virtuoso Chris Thompson?
Jay Gruden doesn't have the answers yet, so the coach is letting rookie runner Derrius Guice, second-year back Samaje Perine and third-year option Robert Kelley battle it out this summer.
"It's a great three-way competition really with Guice, obviously 'Fat Rob' and Samaje," Gruden told reporters Thursday, per the Associated Press. "It's very, very important to let these guys play it out. They've all shown flashes of being good football players at the running back position."
Though Guice has been projected to win the job by the likes of NFL Network's Gregg Rosenthal and others, the LSU rook, who fell to Washington in April's draft due to character concerns, began training camp Thursday reportedly splitting first-team reps with Kelley and Perine.
Guice's competition is rebounding from a rough 2017. Kelley's production fell off from his 2016 rookie year to 2017 (4.2 to 3.1 YPA) before missing the back half of the season with multiple injuries. Perine was supposed to be a fantasy darling in his rookie campaign, but never quite took off despite all the injuries at the RB position (3.4 YPA, 785 yards from scrimmage, 2 total TDs).
Kelley, for one, is not ceding the job just yet, despite Washington's second-round investment in Guice.Â
"I've been there before," Kelley said, via the AP. "I came in as an undrafted guy. It ain't nothing new to me. It's just about overcoming it, man. I'm not the first guy it happened to, I'm not going to be the last guy it happens to, so just keep going."
With Thompson being brought back slowly from his broken fibula, Washington has three unproven backs in its RB room fighting for snaps, all with differing skill sets. This will be one of the most interesting non-QB position battles to watch in the coming weeks.
