Official: Garrett Gilbert will start for Washington against Eagles

The Washington Football Team will officially be starting Garrett Gilbert at quarterback against the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday night. Neither Taylor Heinicke nor Kyle Allen were able to be activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list ahead of the 4:00 PM Eastern deadline.

Considering Ryan Fitzpatrick began the 2021 season as WFT’s original starter, Gilbert is really their fourth string quarterback. And he only joined Washington’s roster when they signed him late last week after Heinicke went on the COVID list.

Gilbert does have some level of familiarity with Ron Rivera and his coaching staff considering they overlapped in Carolina back in 2017 and 2018. Gilbert also does have some playing experience; he started for the Dallas Cowboys last year in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Gilbert’s career regular season passing stats: 23/44 (52.% completion), 283 yards (6.4 average), 1 TD, 1 INT, and a 70.5 passer rating. He’s also rushed six times for 25 yards.

There’s really no good reason for the Eagles to NOT be able to beat Washington with Gilbert under center. Then again, there wasn’t good reason for them to lose to Joe Webb back in 2010. You may recall that was also a game that took place on a Tuesday night.

The Eagles will very much be hoping to avoid “The Garrett Gilbert game” becoming a thing. Based on how Jonathan Gannon’s defense has handled lesser quarterbacks this season, one would think the Birds will be able to take care of business.

We’ll soon see if that’s the case with the action starting at 7:00 PM ET.

UPDATE: The other COVID absences.