Washington’s Curtis Samuel leaves practice after aggravating injured groin, status for Week 1 in question

The Washington Football Team made what appeared to be one of the most underrated additions this offseason in former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Curtis Samuel, but they have not seen much of him up to this point. Samuel has been dealing with a groin injury that caused him to miss all of training camp, and he has aggravated the injury, putting his availability for Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers in doubt.

Samuel practiced for the first time with his new team on Monday, but left practice early on Wednesday after tweaking his groin. You can see from his last rep that something was wrong:

Samuel was officially listed as a nonparticipant in practice on Wednesday. Despite having Samuel miss so much practice time with his new team, Washington head coach Ron Rivera sounded confident last week that Samuel would be able to suit up on Sunday when the Chargers come to town.

“He wasn’t feeling as well as we hoped,” Rivera said on Wednesday, via Kim Jones of the NFL Network. “If Curtis plays, great. If not, great.”

Rivera followed up that comment by saying he has faith in Washington’s other playmakers — such as Adam Humphries in the slot and rookie Dyami Brown, who may be set to receive extra snaps on Sunday. 

Samuel racked up more than 1,000 all-purpose yards last season for the first time in his career to go along with five touchdowns. The versatile weapon signed a three year, $34.5 million deal with Washington this offseason, but it may be another week before he’s ready to make his debut.

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