Washington could rotate quarterbacks Alex Smith and Taylor Heinicke in playoff game vs. Bucs

“We have to look at it,” Rivera said. “There’s nothing you can do about [the situation]; that’s the truth of the matter. We’re going to play a very aggressive defense this week. Obviously, it’s something we most certainly have to look at.”

In Washington’s division-clinching win Sunday night, the injury that forced Smith to miss the previous two games became a glaring problem. Smith struggled to navigate the pocket, limiting his effectiveness and inviting Philadelphia to blitz. Even after Smith led an impressive touchdown march just before halftime, Rivera said he thought about bringing in Heinicke.

“The drive right before halftime was excellent,” Rivera said. “[But afterward] there were a couple things that happened, unfortunately, where you say, ‘Oh, I wish he had stepped away from that.’ But as long as he’s performing and doing the things that he needs to do to help us, we’ll keep rolling [with him on Saturday].”

The uncertainty at quarterback has contributed to Washington’s lengthening odds in sports books. The team opened as a 6½-point underdog Sunday night, according to Vegas Insider, but by Monday night the line had moved to 8. Late Tuesday morning, shortly after Rivera’s news conference, some books put Washington at plus-8½. The movement echoes an old NFL saying, usually applied to training camp battles: “If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have any.”

When asked whether he had an example of a successful quarterback rotation he would like to emulate, Rivera emphasized he is not sure if the team will try it.

“It’s just something that came up today,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you whether you want to do it or don’t want to do it. I couldn’t tell you whether there’s someone that’s done it successfully. I just know this — we’ll address it when it happens.”

“I can’t sit here and tell you what it would or wouldn’t be,” he added. “It’s going to have to be something that would come up in the middle of the game.”

If Washington goes for the gamble, it must rely on Heinicke to get hot on command as he did at the end of the Week 16 loss against Carolina. The 27-year-old was out of the league, studying for a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Old Dominion, until the team called in early December. But Washington trusts him to run offensive coordinator Scott Turner’s scheme, and Heinicke showed his familiarity with the system and ability to execute at the end of the loss to the Panthers. But this would undoubtedly be a more difficult situation.

The margin for error against the Buccaneers is thin. The league’s third-best scoring offense, averaging 30.8 points per game, is led by quarterback Tom Brady and a cadre of weapons. Even the defense, which will probably be without linebacker Devin White (who is on the team’s covid-19 reserve list), is complete and dangerous, elite against the run and capable of bringing pressure at any time. The Bucs recorded 48 sacks this season, tied for fourth most in the NFL, and coordinator Todd Bowles is known for his ability to design creative blitzes and put extra heat on opposing quarterbacks. The frustrating part for Washington is that Tampa Bay’s most obvious weakness is pass defense.

There is, for what it’s worth, some precedent for a quarterback rotation with Washington. In 1973, the team had two veterans, 34-year-old Billy Kilmer and 39-year-old Sonny Jurgensen, and sometimes used them in tandem — one starter, one reliever. But that Washington team didn’t use the rotation in the playoffs, and it lost in the first round. This Washington team would prefer to avoid such a parallel.