Washington’s season in trouble with Trey Adams out for year
The Washington Huskies have already started the 2018 season 0-1 and things could get worse with star offensive tackle Trey Adams now done for the year.
It was clear in Week 1 of the 2018 college football season that the Washington Huskies missed having Trey Adams at left tackle. Up against the Auburn Tigers, quarterback Jake Browning was met with pressure more often than not in the season-opener. Unfortunately for Browning and the Huskies, this is going to be a reality they’ll have to contend with for the rest of the season as well.
On Thursday, Adams revealed that he would have season-ending back surgery, per the Seattle Times. Details regarding the injury itself and the subsequent surgery are scarce at this point. But the issue that it presents for Washington is that they are now down an All-American caliber offensive tackle.
Losing an offensive lineman of Adams’ talent would be difficult for any team to contend with, in truth. However, it becomes near catastrophic when you consider the situation that it creates with the Huskies moving forward in the 2018 season.
In the 21-16 loss to Auburn, the Washington defense actually played decently enough, forcing the Tigers to look discombobulated on numerous occasions. The Huskies offense was just unable to take advantage of it. Between Browning and running back Myles Gaskin, there was just no rhythm being established whenever they had the ball. And a big reason for that extends from not having Adams.
The effect on Gaskin in the run game is obvious as not having an All-American left tackle means worse blocking to lead the way. It may be an even more critical loss as it pertains to Browning though. Even if we’ve seen the quarterback put up big numbers throughout his collegiate career, he’s also shown severe flaws in his game. Perhaps the biggest of these flaws is his ability to handle pressure.
Browning simply isn’t a mobile player at the position, thus largely eliminating his ability to move around and escape pressure. Even worse, when faced with pressure, the Washington quarterback’s decision-making often takes a stark turn towards the negative.
This isn’t to say that Browning and the Huskies offense won’t be able to find some success this season now that Adams is out. Simply put, they won’t be facing a defense the caliber of Auburn each week. However, this is a team that entered the year ranked No. 6 in the country and, even after the opening loss, still finds themselves at No. 9. It’s going to be hard to live up to that billing with Adams out of the fold.
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Playing in an ostensibly tough Pac-12 this season surely won’t help the Huskies either in this regard. Browning will be put up against big-time pass-rushers that can get after him and exploit the fact that Adams isn’t protecting on the left side. When that’s the case, the quarterback has given us no reason to believe he’ll be able to handle it properly with consistency. As such, there’s no reason to believe that 2018 might turn out much worse for Washington than expected.