The table had been set for the Redskins to assume the identity of an offense based on the running game. It started off well, with the team running the ball 74 times for 343 yards at 4.6 yards per carry over its first two games. But in the 14 games after that, Washington’s average dropped to just 3.4 yards per carry.

The emergence of the passing offense, thanks to the development of quarterback Kirk Cousins and health of tight end Jordan Reed and wide receiver DeSean Jackson, carried the offense and the team into the playoffs. But the decline of the run game was certainly concerning and something that Washington will have to address this offseason. Injuries to starters Shawn Lauvao and Kory Lichtensteiger along the offensive line certainly hurt the rushing attack, but aren’t the only reason for the struggles. The Redskins face many questions heading into offseason practices and training camp that they will have to answer in order to improve the running game.

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Can Matt Jones be the guy?

With Alfred Morris leaving via free agency, the keys fall into the lap of second-year running back Matt Jones. Jones split time with Morris last year, rotating in and out every couple of series. Entering training camp this year, Jones has the opportunity to be the featured back. To earn that right, he has to improve in a couple of areas.

The primary concern for Jones is ball security. He fumbled the ball five times last year, with Washington only managing to recover it once. Football coaches constantly preach two phrases; ‘high and tight,’ along with ‘five points of contact.’ Both go hand in hand. Coaches want backs to keep five points of contact on the ball: finger, palm, forearm, bicep and chest. To keep the ball in contact with all five of those body parts, it has to be held high and tight, making it hard for defenders to knock it loose. But the common theme of Jones’s fumbles is that he fails to maintain this technique.

This was his first fumble of the year. Jones fails to hold the ball high and tight against his chest, allowing his elbow too far away from his body. The Rams defender has no trouble poking at the ball and knocking it loose.

Here’s another example.

On this fumble against the Giants, Jones attempts to jump a defender. Naturally, his arm comes out to balance him as he jumps, but that takes the ball away from his body. The defender is easily able to reach in from behind and get his hand on the ball to cause a fumble.

His fumble against the Panthers came on a similar play.

Like before, Jones jumps to avoid a defender. This time, Jones manages to hold the ball closer to his body, keeping his elbow in closer, but it’s still too low. The ball isn’t secure against his chest, which allows Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly to reach in and knock the ball loose.

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Improving ball security is a must for Jones. If he can’t be trusted to hold on to the ball, he likely won’t be given the ball. Another aspect I’d like to see improved is his patience. Jones would occasionally force a cut or bounced the run outside early instead of pressing the hole and allowing the play to develop. Patience is a trait that tends to come with maturity.

Patience and tempo in the zone scheme is crucial for a running back. Here, Jones makes the correct reads. His first and second read both tell him to cut the ball back, but he does it almost instantly instead of pressing the edge and allowing the play to develop. By cutting back straight away, he doesn’t give his blockers a chance to wash out the defense and give him a clear lane to cut into. Jones has to then try and bounce the run back outside but gets caught by the back-side pursuit.

Here’s another example:

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This is a power run, with right guard Brandon Scherff pulling to the left side of the offensive line. Scherff is there to act as a lead blocker for Jones, but instead of following Scherff to the edge, Jones cuts inside. Jones picks up a solid five yards on the carry, but the edge was sealed and Scherff could have guided him to open field on the outside.

Ultimately though, what I saw from watching Jones was that he can be a solid workhorse back. The patience should come with maturity, but the ball security is an issue he has to address. If he can fix that, then he should secure his spot as the top back. He has the size and frame to withstand the pounding that comes with taking 20 or more carries a game. He generally reads the play well and can play with power or elusiveness. The traits are there, but for Jones to be successful, he’ll need improved play from the offensive line.

Improving up front

A big part of the puzzle to improving the run game is improving up front. The offensive line struggled to maintain blocks and open up lanes throughout the season. Every offensive line needs cohesion to perform at its best. The young pairing of Brandon Scherff and Morgan Moses on the right side should only get better with time. Trent Williams is one of the top left tackles in the NFL, leaving just left guard and center as questionable spots.

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The injuries to starters Lauvao and Lichtensteiger thrust Spencer Long and Josh LeRibeus into starting roles at those two positions. That disruption undoubtedly had a negative effect on the run game and was a bit part of the reason Washington’s running game dropped off after the first two games. But the unit as a whole needs to do a better job. Too often blocks were getting blown up and the running back had nowhere to go.

This is a stretch play to the right. Lichtensteiger, playing hurt, has a tough block on the one-technique defensive tackle. But Lichtensteiger gets driven into the backfield. Jones is left with nowhere to go and gets tackled for a five-yard loss.

When LeRibeus took over for the injured Lichtensteiger, he had similar struggles.

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This time Washington runs the stretch play to the left. LeRibeus has a similar type of block to the block we just saw from Lichtensteiger. LeRibeus allows the defensive tackle to get his hands inside off the snap, which gives the defender leverage to fight for position. As a result, LeRibeus begins to lunge at the defender, giving him more leverage to work with. Jones attempts to cut the run back behind LeRibeus, but the defensive tackle is easily able to work back across LeRibeus and make the tackle for a loss.

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The centers weren’t the only problem for Washington; everyone had their share of mistakes. But the center position is crucial to the run game and it stands out more when they struggle. The Redskins will also need better blocking from the tight ends. Niles Paul was their best blocking tight end, so his season-long injury was tough on the offense. But the team had enough time to find another guy to block on the edge. Jordan Reed was rightly awarded a new contract for his ability as a receiver, but he had a poor year as a blocker. The other tight ends struggled too, leaving tackle Tom Compton to enter the game as an eligible receiver. But even he couldn’t always get the job done.

Here, Compton lines up outside the left tackle. He has to block the linebacker on the edge. The linebacker gives Compton a quick step to the outside before bursting inside and past him. Compton completely misses on the block and the linebacker has a free run into the backfield to make the tackle for a loss.

There were also times the quarterback could have helped out the run game.

On this play, Washington spreads out the defense with three receivers to the right and Reed isolated to the left. That leaves just five blockers in the box against six Tampa Bay defenders. On top of that, the Buccaneers show a blitz with the slot corner. At that point, it should become a simple numbers game, Washington doesn’t have enough blockers in the box to account for all the defenders. Cousins could have noticed that and audibled to a bubble screen to the right, where he had three receivers against just two defenders.

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In general, Cousins did a good job making sure he sent the running game the right way and later on in the season, as his confidence grew, he learned to audible out of bad looks. But it’s something he can improve on that will help the run game greatly.

In training camp, the Redskins will have to make some decisions along the offensive line. Lichtensteiger and Lauvao should be back to full health, but the team might opt to go with younger, cheaper options. LeRibeus was brought back and Long is still on his rookie deal. Long could also move to center, which would open up the left guard spot for Arie Kouandjio, the Redskins’ fourth-round pick last year. Whatever decisions they make, they need to make them quickly enough to give the starters a chance to get used to each other and build up some chemistry.

Coaching and play calling

The Redskins’ coaching staff can also improve to help the running game. Jay Gruden and his staff ran a wide variety of running plays last year, which made them a jack of all trades but a master of none. Mike Shanahan and his former offensive line coach in Denver, Alex Gibbs, both preach limiting the number of running plays in the playbook, but learning to master the handful the team has. Joe Bugel, coach of the famous Redskins offensive line known as “the Hogs,” had a similar philosophy. He ran only four or five different run plays, but drilled them to perfection.

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I feel Washington could benefit from stripping back the playbook in the run game and finding just four or five key runs. Offensive coordinator Sean McVay has already said to ESPN980 that the team was going to continue to focus on the wide zone. The wide zone, or the stretch play, has been the base of the Redskins’ rushing attack since Shanahan took over in 2010. Gruden carried it over when he was hired, but started adding his own rushing plays.

With Jones expected to be the lead back, I went back and watched all of his carries from last year. The two most common run plays with Jones in the game were the wide zone and inside gap plays. If I were the Redskins, I’d look to take the inside gap plays out of the playbook.

This is an example of a typical inside gap play from the Redskins last year. Williams and Long attempt to double team one defensive tackle while LeRibeus and Scherff combine to block the other. As Jones takes the hand off, both inside linebackers are unblocked. Williams attempts to peel off his tandem block and pick up the linebacker in the hole, but Jones is forced to cut to the other side of the play. LeRibeus struggles to maintain position on the defensive tackle, forcing Scherff to stay on that block instead of moving to pick up the linebacker. As Jones reaches the line of scrimmage, a defensive back comes flying in unblocked, forcing Jones to cut into the unblocked linebacker. Jones gets tackled by the linebacker and defensive back for a minimal gain.

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Washington’s offensive line has been built as a zone-blocking unit. They don’t all have the strength and power to take on blockers head-on and drive them back. With Jones in the game, Washington ran this type of play 33 times for 96 yards at just 2.9 yards per carry.

The Redskins were clearly better when running to the edge. They ran a series of sweep plays that were incredibly effective before they lost Lauvao and Lictensteiger to injury.

The sweep plays involve pulling linemen to the edge as lead blockers for the running back. On this occasion, Lauvao, the left guard, pulls to the edge while Lichtensteiger, the center, works up to the second level to reach a linebacker. The rest of the offensive line blocks down against the run to seal off the defensive line inside. Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald manages to penetrate thanks to his speed, but because the run is designed to go the the edge, Jones is able to elude him by widening his path outside. Jones then cuts inside of Lauvao’s block before bouncing back outside of Lichtensteiger’s block on the second level. All that is left for Jones to do is sprint down the sideline for a 39-yard touchdown.

Jones ran these sweep plays 16 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns. That’s a staggering 7.9 yards per carry. They ran it seven times in the first two games with great success, but then only ran it eight times in the final 14 games. With new players along the offensive line, it makes sense that they didn’t want to run a play with so many moving parts often early on. But as the season progressed, I felt they could have gone back to it more often, given how successful it had been.

I also feel Washington would benefit from sticking to one back. Last year, they tried to split carries between Morris and Jones, but it only appeared to disrupt the rhythm of both backs. The zone scheme is all about tempo and rhythm, with each back running it slightly differently. In Denver, Alex Gibbs had to make multiple adjustments for Clinton Portis, who was so much quicker than the other backs they had. By constantly changing between two backs, the tempo and rhythm of the whole offense gets disrupted. By picking one back, be it Jones, Chris Thompson, rookie Keith Marshall or someone not currently in the picture, they would allow the whole offense to find a tempo, not just the running back himself.

Mark Bullock is The Insider’s Outsider, sharing his Redskins impressions without the benefit of access to the team. For more, click here.