Jacory Croskey-Merritt Camp Update — August 23: Another scratch, still zero targets

Jacory Croskey-Merritt sat out Saturday's 17 to 13 loss in Detroit, one of 15 players Washington held out, per the team's announcement — his second straight game watching in street clothes, which is starter treatment and also means the question this file has been asking still has no live answer. The receiving experiment the team site documented in early August, the deliberate diet of pass-catching snaps for a back who caught nine balls as a rookie, has produced no preseason target yet, because he has not played a preseason snap.

The room shifted around him at the margins. Jerome Ford went to injured reserve, veteran Craig Reynolds was signed Tuesday, per Adam La Rose at Pro Football Rumors, and the two rookies kept auditioning below him — Kaytron Allen ground out 30 yards on 10 carries in a game where the whole team rushed for 35, per the CBS Sports box score, a night Dan Quinn summed up as "a lot to be desired run game-wise" in the postgame transcript published by Commanders On SI. None of it touches Croskey-Merritt's hold on the top job; Rachaad White, the passing-down incumbent his receiving project is aimed at, sat right alongside him.

Back in June our preview said the catches were the whole swing factor for a back whose rookie value leaned on touchdown rate, and the club has been running that exact experiment in practice — nothing this week tested it in either direction.

The calendar now forces the issue. Wednesday's joint practice with Baltimore is where the starters get their real work, per Zach Selby's team-site takeaways, and Friday's finale is the last preseason game before Sunday's cutdown. Watch whether Croskey-Merritt plays at all Friday, and whether any two-minute or passing-down reps go his way against the Ravens. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._