Wake Forest land transfer WR Casey Washington

In Wake’s crusade to never again have the depth issues that’s plagued them the last 3 years, the Deacs landed more of a want than a need here, getting Illinois transfer WR Casey Washington into the fold.

Put a small little thread on Twitter of a few of his catches

From these plays + piecing together Illinois camp notes + high school film: he seems to be a very good fit for the offense. Pretty good speed, body control, and awareness of where he is on the field, and he is aggressive getting to the ball. The stats are quietly concerning through 2 years but with a little context they aren’t so bad:

Washington had 21 catches for 238 yards through 12 games at Illinois. Illinois has had quietly, or loudly if you watched Big Ten football, one of the worst passing games in the country and it has less to do with the receivers than it does the QB. In 2020 Jaquarii Roberson had the same amount of catches as the top 4 Illini receivers. Put a different way, Roberson had less than 30 fewer catches than Illinois’ QBs had COMBINED. According to PFF they had 19 drops as a team, Clemson had 22, UNC had 18, so it’s not like they were some atrocious corps, the QB play just wasn’t good.

Now that’s not saying he’s going to come in and be a starter. I’d love for him to prove me wrong, but I think there’s value in bringing in guys like this. Wake has had a horrid injury streak and just not had guys who can produce when the starters go down. Bringing in a guy like Washington, who on paper slots to challenge Nolan Groulx at the Z receiver behind Taylor Morin, allows the level to be raised and if/when Morin needs snaps off the staff feels better about giving him 15-20 snaps off a game(which when you’re running 75-80 plays a game is need), and helps preserve your starters. It also allows your younger guys like Jahmal Banks, Christian Greene, Dez Williams, and commit Horatio Fields to have more time to get acclimated vs being thrown into the deep end.

In an offseason where it seemed more like Wake needed solid pieces instead of outright stars, they’ve done just that with the additions of Washington, RB Christian Turner, and CB Isaiah Wingfield.

We’ll keep you update here at BSD.

Go Deacs.