Gearing up for the 2014 season, players going to new teams often look for bigger roles but sometimes it doesn’t happen that way and you’re overlooked for the bigger fish. In this case, it happens to be Desean Jackson.
Andre Roberts was a newly signed receiver to the Redskins and was looking forward to playing a huge role for them until the unthinkable happened… Desean Jackson was signed. Suddenly Roberts saw his role decrease as it did in Arizona and even though he’s a team player, he finds the situation very “frustrating”.
“It was definitely frustrating,” he said. “I felt great coming into [2013] and I was hoping I could better my stats and help the offense more. But I wasn’t able to do that. Being a competitor and a receiver who wants the ball every play — you obviously can’t get the ball every play — but I have that mentality. Whenever there’s a pass play I want the ball in my hands and I think I can do something special with it. When you don’t get the opportunity, it was definitely really frustrating for me.”
“Well, I envisioned one thing and then we signed DeSean Jackson,” Roberts said on ESPN 980’s “Inside the Locker Room” Thursday. “So I haven’t really thought too much.”
“That’s how the league is, that’s how the league works,” Roberts said. “Going into my situation, I wanted to be the No. 2 receiver. But I still don’t how it’s going to work out. Obviously, when you look at how much money is being made each guy, you’d think that’s going to be [the] No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.”
While he’s accepted his role in Washington, he acknowledges he might be doing more returns for them and he’s pretty happy about that.
“I think I’ll be returning,” Roberts said. “What I want to do is punt return and kick return, if I have that choice. Anytime I feel like I can get my hands on the ball, I want to do it. … If I can get back there and returns some kicks and return some punts for this team, I’m going to be pretty happy.”
Im sure that situation would be frustrating for anyone. If anything Roberts should view these opportunities as a way to improve his game and outwork all the receivers; OTAs, Camp and Preseason should all be a platform for him. Roberts can work hard to become a receiver all teams want. Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.