The Redskins didn't play a perfect game, but came up with enough plays to beat the Eagles and put a wrinkle in their playoff plans. (Randolph Smith/The Washington Post)

The Redskins didn't play a perfect game, but came up with enough plays to beat the Eagles and put a wrinkle in their playoff plans. (Randolph Smith/The Washington Post)

Washington Redskins defensive backs coach Raheem Morris receives the text messages at random times, often late at night.

Morris’s phone will buzz after he has left team headquarters for the night, and often it’s rookie cornerback Bashaud Breeland with a question about a receiver or a concept of the team’s pass coverages. Many times those text messages are sent from the film study room, where Breeland spends his nights alone.

“He’s weird,” Morris laughed. “He goes home and comes back a lot. He’ll go home and circle back, and he’ll send me a text saying, ‘I’m about to look at this.’ And I’ll say, ‘No, look at this,’ or whatever the case may be. But he shows up all times of the day. He may come back at 9 when we’re about to leave, or he might stay longer with [veteran safety] Ryan [Clark] in the afternoon. But he does a lot of his own personal stuff.”

On Tuesday, the Redskins had a 10 a.m. walk-through and then meetings. Around noon, Morris and nine of the 10 cornerbacks and safeties filed out of the meeting room. Most gathered their belongings from the locker room and left for the day. But 15 minutes later, Breeland had yet to be seen.

“Oh, he’s still in the meeting room,” a teammate said when asked about the cornerback’s whereabouts.

The Post Sports Live crew discusses Redskins head coach Jay Gruden's first season and whether winning the team's final two games would help improve his status. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

“This is just how he is,” explained Clark, who at 35 and with 14 years of experience is the elder statesman of the secondary and defense. “From Week 1, I would go into the meeting room early, and he was a guy in there copying things that [Morris] or [defensive coordinator Jim Haslett] had put on the board. He was watching film on different receivers he had to cover, meeting with Aubrey Pleasant, who’s our quality control guy, to get more film. When you have a guy who’s willing to do that from a young age coupled with his talent, I think that’s what you’ve seen: his constant progression.”

Indeed, Breeland’s rookie season has featured a steady rise from fourth-round pick and fifth cornerback on the depth chart to starter to one of the most impactful players on the defense, with two interceptions and 13 pass deflections (both team highs) to go with 57 tackles and two forced fumbles.

Breeland says his success has not surprised him.

“Not at all,” he said. “I feel like I do a good job of preparing, doing film study and practicing throughout the week, so everything that happens in the game, it really comes natural to me. Coming in, I knew it was going to be hard as a junior coming out to get on the field. So I wanted to do the little things.”

No one else in the Redskins organization saw this coming, however.

“We were very smart,” Coach Jay Gruden deadpanned before breaking out into laughter. “No, if we knew he was that good, we wouldn’t have drafted him in the fourth. We would’ve drafted him in the second,” which was Washington’s first available draft pick.

Breeland authored a strong body of work at Clemson, and many projected that with one final year of experience, he would rank among the top cornerbacks in the 2015 draft, a likely first-rounder. But the 22-year-old Breeland elected to forego his senior season, citing a need to provide for his family, most notably his now-17-month-old daughter, Jaelle.

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The league’s talent evaluators liked Breeland, but at the NFL Scouting Combine and his pro day, he clocked 40-yard dash times of 4.5, 4.57 and 4.7 — nowhere near elite cornerback speed — lowering his stock. (Breeland later confessed he didn’t know how to run the 40 like a sprinter, and speed has not been an issue this season.)

Six cornerbacks were drafted ahead of Breeland. Washington’s coaches saw him as a project to develop either as an eventual nickelback or safety, but injuries to veterans during the preseason helped him climb the depth chart. When top cornerback DeAngelo Hall tore his left Achilles’ tendon in Week 3, Breeland found himself thrust into a leading role. He forced a touchdown-saving fumble in that game and had a near interception.

Week 8 against the Cowboys represented the rookie’s breakthrough. He limited Pro Bowl wide receiver Dez Bryant to three catches for 30 yards and broke up Tony Romo’s fourth-down attempt to Bryant in overtime, sealing a Redskins victory.

“When we played Dallas, he came in here and watched D-Hall play [Bryant] the last three times,” Morris said. “Watched all of D-Hall’s game and how patient he was, and that helped him out in the game big-time, and since then he has taken that approach with all of his opponents.”

Breeland doesn’t let the successes faze him, and the failures only fuel him.

When the Redskins faced the Giants in Week 15, Odell Beckham Jr. had a field day with 12 catches for 143 yards and three touchdowns. While matched up with Breeland, Beckham had three catches (the longest of which went for 16 yards) and no touchdowns on six targets. But Breeland drew two pass interference calls (one the league office later acknowledged as a mistake) and a defensive holding penalty.

After the game, Breeland was frustrated by the calls and by a pass breakup he believed he should have instead intercepted. But his confidence remained high.

The following week, Breeland again asked to cover the opposing No. 1 receiver and did just fine, holding Jeremy Maclin to four catches for 62 yards and no touchdowns. And then, with the game on the line, Breeland picked off a pass from Mark Sanchez intended for Maclin.

“As a fourth-rounder, I was just hoping he would make the team,” Morris chuckled. “We thought he might transition into safety because of [his range and physical play]. But I think that’s kind of out the window now.”