Here's what Tress Way is: A punter for the Redskins, one who's very good at his job and one who very occasionally throws a pass on a trick play. As in twice in his career.
Here's what Tress Way isn't: A quarterback for the Redskins.
Punter. Not passer. But someone needs to tell Stephen A. Smith that.
On ESPN's First Take on Tuesday morning, Smith ran through the list of signal callers the 'Skins used in 2018. Problem is, he or whoever does his research for him, well, did not do very good research for him.
"When you look at the Redskins last year, they had five different quarterbacks," he said, which is 1 million percent wrong.
"Alex Smith, Josh Johnson, Colt McCoy, they even got Mr. Butt Fumble himself, Mark Sanchez, OK? And some guy named Tress Way actually started one game," he continued, which — again — is 1 million percent wrong.
This man @stephenasmith at it again saying Tress Way started a game at QB for the Skins 😂 C’monnnn man. If you’d dig a little deeper than the boxscore, you’d see Tress Way is a damn Punter pic.twitter.com/6YM5GVxNRa
— Joe Wright (@JoeeWrightt) March 12, 2019
The video immediately hit Twitter and soon got to Way. His response? A simple quote tweet with his career passer rating.
118.8 https://t.co/g2BUWieTCf
— Tress Way (@Tress_Way) March 12, 2019
Way then had a chance to talk more about the botch while on with the Redskins Talk podcast. In short, he's loving the entire thing, but he also wants a bit more appreciation for his efforts under center.
"Listen, here’s the deal," he said. "When you have a career QBR of 118.8, I don’t think you are ‘some guy.’ There needs to be some sort of respect in there. Guys, it’s been a busy morning — Kyler Murray reached out to me, he wants to pick my brain on what it’s like. You know, the blitz packages and really that NFL game experience of being a quarterback. What a turnaround."
Way, who's planning on using his newfound status as dual-threat punter/QB in his next contract negotiation, takes his throws very seriously.
"Going out there as a punter, if I throw an incomplete pass, something happens, it’s going to be like, ‘Oh that’s cute, he gave it a shot. Whatever.’ But when I complete that pass and I get the first down? I mean, you get things like this. Stephen A. thinks you’re a starting quarterback, you just continue to move up."
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