Washington 2021 Roster and Salary Cap Update, Part 1
January 18, 2021
by Steve Thomas
UPDATE: I mistakenly left out a reference to Taylor Heinicke in the quarterback section, so I’ve updated the column to add him.
Now that Washington’s 2020 season has come to an end, it seems like a good time to take an initial look at the team’s 2021 roster and salary cap status. We’ll do this in two parts, starting with the offense, in order to avoid having to publish one insanely long column. Generally speaking, Washington is in pretty good shape from a salary cap perspective heading into the 2021 season. One important point to note is that the 2021 league year does not start until March. Therefore, the data and information that I’ll review here is a look at next season, not where Washington technically stands right at the present moment in the 2020 league year. For this reason, I’ve chosen not to make note of the future contracts, which are player contracts for practice squad-level players that technically don’t become effective until the new league year starts but allows them to be present in and use team facilities in the meantime. I’ve instead simply treated them as regular contracts.
One additional item to note is that in the offseason, teams follow what is called the “Rule of 51”, which allows teams to only count their top 51 contracts for purposes of the offseason salary cap. The reason for this rule is that without it, no team could have a 90 man offseason roster because every team would be over the cap. That rule won’t technically become effective until the new league year begins. Right now, Washington has 65 players under contract for 2021, which include those players remaining from the 2020 season plus the practice squad (i.e., the futures contract guys). I’ve ignored the Rule of 51 for this column because the team is nowhere near the 2021 cap limit at the moment. I will change over our salary cap page on the website to the Rule of 51 at some point in the future.
The ongoing China Virus pandemic has had a major and serious impact on NFL revenues, which drives the salary cap. Both parties have therefore agreed that the 2021 salary cap will be no lower than $175M, which is $23.2M less than 2020’s $198.2M, with the additional losses to be absorbed in future years. It’s not impossible to think that the 2021 number will end up being higher than $175M, but for these purposes, I’m going to assume the worst and use $175M. Also, Washington has about $17M in rollover space from 2020, so at this time, the team has approximately $192M in available space for next year.
What I’m going to do here is review each position group one by one, detailing the highlights and lowlights of each, as well as the important contracts. As I said above, I’ll do the offense here and then tackle the defense and special teams next week.
Offensive Summary
As a whole, Washington’s offense currently encumbers approximately $73.8M in total salary cap space (without regard to the Rule of 51), with 32 players under contract at the moment. The only player who Washington could not cut at a savings this offseason is center Chase Roullier, so they are in an extremely flexible cap position on this side of the ball right now.
Quarterbacks
This position group is obviously a crisis situation. The only quarterback currently on the roster is Alex Smith, who we all respect and who is one of the only Redskins Washington quarterbacks of the last quarter century who seems to have a knack for consistently winning games. He comes with a $24.4M cap hit, but with only $10.8M in total dead money, which means he can be released at a cost savings should the team elect to go that route. Incidentally, a player retirement is treated essentially like a release, so if Smith chooses to retire, the team will still be impacted by his dead money. Kyle Allen is unsigned, but he’s an Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA), which means that if Washington submits a 1 year tender offer to him, then he does not have any right to negotiate with any other team. This means that if Ron Rivera and company want him back, he’ll be back or he won’t be in the NFL. Steven Montez is in the same situation. Smith’s contract is 12.7% of the team’s available cap space. Playoff hero Taylor Heinicke is a restricted free agent, which means that if Washington submits a tender offer to him, they will at a minimum have a right of first refusal on contract offers he receives from other teams.
Washington obviously has to make moves here, which could mean drafting a quarterback in April, rolling with Smith, Allen, Montez, and/or Heinicke or either signing a free agent or making a trade. Some fans appear to be pining away for both Detroit’s Matthew Stafford and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan. Washington would only make one of those moves if Smith retires, because they couldn’t absorb that much cap space for both; more accurately, they “could”, technically, but would be crazy to do so. The almost 33 year old Stafford has 2 real years left on his contract (2023 is just a voidable year – speak up if you want me to explain what this means) and a 2021 cap hit of $33M. It seems pretty unlikely that Detroit would be willing to trade Stafford for anything less than an insane haul of draft picks and/or players, so he isn’t a realistic option. As far as Ryan goes: holy Christ, stop. Ryan will be 36 years old in May, with cap hits of about $41M in both 2021 and 2022, and $36M in 2023, when he’ll be 38. That’s stupid money for an old player and Washington would be wise to avoid that at all costs, particularly at a time of salary cap uncertainty, even assuming they could get Ryan for any sort of reasonable trade value, which they won’t.
The top free agent on the market may end up being Dallas’ Dak Prescott if the Cowboys choose to let him walk. If he becomes available, my vote would be to make a strong effort bring him to DC (which would mean Smith would need to be cut). However, it doesn’t appear too likely that our favorite drunken, socially inappropriate uncle, Jurrah Jones, would willingly let him walk out of Texas and head straight to his team’s biggest rival. Prescott would demand an enormous contract, so Washington would have to have some sort of reasonable limit in mind.
The other interesting name is Deshaun Watson, who is currently throwing a hissy fit down in Houston. It’s possible that Houston’s management gets tired enough of him that they put him on the market. If I were them, though, there would be no circumstances under which I’d actually trade him this year no matter how mad he gets considering that he’s one of the best young passers in the league and is signed through 2024. Also, if I were Washington’s non-existent general manager there’d be no way I’d surrender the Mount Everest-sized bundle of draft picks it would take to get him, either. Plus, like Ryan, his cap hit is over $40M for 2022 and 2023.
Running Backs
Four of the six players in this position group are in the final year of their contract. Only Antonio Gibson and Bryce Love are signed beyond the 2021 season, both on their rookie deals through 2023 and 2022, respectively. Gibson has a $1.1M cap hit, with Love at $968K. The other two players who were a regular part of the 2020 rotation, J.D. McKissic and Peyton Barber, are both entering the final year of two year deals, both with cap hits of approximately $1.6M. Washington also has practice squad players Javon Leake and Jonathan Williams on one year deals. It was clear through this group’s performance last year that something needs to be done to improve their performance in 2021, so look for Washington to either draft a running back or sign a free agent. Barber, in particular, did not perform at the level this team needs, averaging just 2.7 yards per carry. McKissic’s highest and best use is as a third down back, and Gibson is more of a general “weapon” than a true inside runner. Look for Washington to try and find an improvement on Barber. In total, Washington has allocated just under $7M towards the running back group, which is approximately 3.5% of the total salary cap, so the team can afford to spend some money here.
Wide Receivers
Washington has 9 receivers signed for a total of almost $7.6M in cap space for 2021, which is just under 4% of the team’s available camp space. There are no big-money players in this group, with only Terry McLaurin having a cap hit of more than $1M, and he is on his rookie deal at $1.1M. All other players are on minimum salary deals. 2020’s late-season starter Cam Sims is an ERFA, so he’s technically not signed yet but can’t go anywhere else unless the team lets him do so. Others under contract include third year players Kelvin Harmon and Steven Sims, Jr., 2020 fourth round pick Antonio Gandy-Golden, second year undrafted free agent Isaiah Wright, plus practice squad players Jeff Badet, Tony Brown, Trevor Davis, and Emanuel Hall. Of the group under contract, only McLaurin is a proven starter, which is a major problem for the 2021 season. I expect Cam Sims to return, but this position group still needs major help. Washington needs to hope Harmon can live up to the flashes of potential he showed in 2019 before his injury. We didn’t learn much about Gandy-Golden last year except that he’s going to need time to develop. This was somehow a surprise to a segment of the fanbase, but it shouldn’t have been considering that Gandy-Golden came from Liberty University. As a whole, Washington’s receiver group is one of the weakest in the entire NFL and needs major help, so look for Washington to add multiple assets here both through the draft and in free agency.
Tight Ends
In total, Washington has 6 tight ends on the roster for a total cap hit of $7.8M, which is 4% of available cap space. Last year’s revelation, Logan Thomas, is only signed through 2021 and has a cap hit of $3.6M. All other the other remaining tight ends are minimum salary practice squad types. Thaddeus Moss is the highest profile of the bunch, but he spent nearly the whole 2020 season on injured reserve and therefore has no experience. He does have potential if we can take the expectations that come with his last name out of it. I wrote a film study on Moss that you can read by clicking here. Moss isn’t very big by NFL tight end standards, but may just be that violent run blocking tight end that Washington has been missing for years, so assuming health, I expect him to be able to carve a role in the rotation. None of the rest of the players in this group, including Marcus Baugh, Dylan Cantrell, Temarrick Hemingway, and Tyrone Swoopes, have proven anything, although Baugh did get a little bit of playing time. Since Thomas became a key weapon in Washington’s offense, if Moss can contribute in the manner I suggest, Rivera might choose to not invest resources to add to this position group.
Tackles
Washington has a total of 6 true tackles on the roster for a total combined cap hit of $15.6M, which constitutes about 8% of available cap space. Morgan Moses, who was a third round pick in 2014, takes up the biggest cap hit by far, $9.65M. He is signed through 2020, but only has $1.9M in dead money, so the team could elect to move on from him at any time if they chose to do so, although I don’t expect that to happen this season. The other 2020 starting tackle, Cornelius Lucas, is only signed through 2021 and comes with a $2.1M cap hit. The two young-ish draft picks, Geron Christian and Saahdiq Charles, are both on their rookies deals, with Charles signed through 2023 and Christian’s deal expiring at the end of the season. Rick Leonard and Davis Steinmetz are both practice squad-level talents, although Steinmetz has been around since 2018. I anticipate that the team will want to give Charles, who spent most of 2020 on injured reserve, a shot at winning the starting left tackle job before committing additional resources to this group. This may not be the wisest idea, because objectively, the offensive line as a whole was bad last season and needs help.
Centers and Guards
Washington has major, serious problems at the guard position. With Brandon Scherff having played 2020 under the franchise tag and not under contract for 2021 (yet), the big name in this group is now Chase Roullier, who just signed a $40.5M contract extension through the 2024 season and has a $4.56M cap hit in 2021. Wes Schweitzer, who is signed through 2022, takes up the most space as a result of his $5M cap hit. Schweitzer’s total dead money is just $2M though, which means that he can be cut at a savings should the team choose to do so. 2020 rookie draft pick Keith Ismael and 2019 draft pick Wes Martin are also on the roster on cheap rookie deals. As a whole, this position group has $11.4M in salary cap obligations for the 2021 season, which constitutes approximately 5.9% of the salary cap. In total, the offensive line currently uses $27M in total cap space, which is about 14% (again, without regard to the Rule of 51).
That’s it for the offense. I’ll be back next week to review Washington’s defensive roster and salary cap situation.