The 5 o’clock club is published Wednesday to Saturday during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
A commitment made by Jay Gruden this offseason to improving special teams through player selection and giving ST Coach Ben Kotwica more of a voice in roster building seems to have paid off for most of the 2018 season.
While the Redskins return game hasn’t been anything special, Dustin Hopkins has been a reliable field goal kicker who has contributed to Redskin victories, kickoff coverage has seemed, to me, to be a bit above average, and Tress Way’s punting has been probably the best in the NFL, backed up by very good work from the punt coverage unit, who have contributed a lot to Way’s ability to down more than 30 punts inside the opponents’ 20 yard line without a single touchback.