It was running backs coach Randy Jordan's turn on Friday to answer a question that is on the mind of many.
The question: How will Antonio Gibson help the Washington Football Team as a rookie?
At Memphis last year, Gibson caught 38 passes and ran the ball 33 times, and he capped those 71 touches off with touchdowns on 12 occasions.
The intrigue about how he'll use, and how the staff will use, that skillset in 2020 is climbing by the day, especially since OTAs and minicamps were cancelled earlier this offseason and training camp has been bereft of coverage thanks to the pandemic. That means no outsider has really seen where Gibson has lined up so far with the Burgundy and Gold.
Jordan, though, kept things simple - at first - when discussing the fascinating third-rounder.
"He's an athlete," Jordan said, with some emphasis, in a Zoom call with reporters. "That's what he is."
The assistant, one of the few holdovers from last year's group, later expanded on that initial statement.
"I see a guy that can catch," Jordan said. "I see a guy that can make a guy miss. I see a guy that has the size to run between the tackles. I see a guy that can attack the perimeter like they've done in Carolina with [Christian] McCaffrey. I see a guy that can give you mismatches in the passing game."
That's it, huh?
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Not everyone believes giving Gibson that much to do in his first chance as a pro is the best idea. That argument basically goes that a Swiss Army Knife-type option may never find a place where he truly fits in and ends up being better in theory than on Sundays.
The other side of that, of course, is that someone like Gibson makes the entire offense far more unpredictable, which is a staple of the top units in today's game. If someone as big as him and as fast as him can get the ball in multiple ways, defenses will feel helpless.
Jordan, not surprisingly, is subscribing to the second line of thinking.
"I'm really excited about his development and the opportunity to work with him," he said.
Jordan's Zoom session also provided clarity on how Gibson's early days with Washington have been going. According to Jordan, Gibson is "splitting his time" between running back and receiver drills and meetings. He then laughed as he told the following story about the 22-year-old.
"I give him this formation and he starts telling me what the F is doing, or the receiver is doing," Jordan explained. "I say, 'Yo, yo, yo, let's back this up. You're the halfback, OK?' And he says, 'Oh coach, I'm sorry, I thought I was at the F this time.'"
Despite that slip-up, Jordan still described Gibson as largely "dialed in" in terms of what he needs to do at both spots.
As is typical in these kinds of pressers, Jordan was quizzed on the status of every guy on his particular portion of the depth chart, which feels more crowded than ever heading into August. It was Gibson, though, who was at the center of the most inquiries.
With the way Jordan talked about him, don't be stunned if he's at the center of a lot of highlights and scoring plays this season, too.
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What does RBs coach Randy Jordan see in Antonio Gibson? The answer is both simple and vast originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
