Team Needs After Week One of Free Agency

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March 25, 2020

by Steve Thomas

The Redskins have successfully navigated week one of free agency.  As a side note, before I get into this, I’d like to pass a quick “kudos” to sports media’s resident toolbag, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, for predicting doom and gloom with the start of free agency and for claiming that it was going to be the league’s biggest mistake since playing two weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and other dire nonsensical proclamations.  Surprise, surprise: free agency went off without a hitch – just a few logistical modifications were required – and has been a much-needed distraction for the sporting world.  Florio and his nonsense makes all of sports media look bad.

Anyhow, the Redskins acquired the following players thusfar in free agency:

Offensive line

Running backs

Tight ends

Defensive line

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Quarterbacks

  • Kyle Allen – 1 yr / $675K (via trade with Panthers)

The following players were either released or traded:

Corners

Safeties

That list doesn’t include many big-name players, and noticeably doesn’t include Amari Cooper, who reportedly turned down a 9 figure offer from the Redskins to return to the Dallas Cowboys.  Based on these efforts so far, it appears clear that Ron Rivera’s plan isn’t complete.   It’s a good start, but is still a major work in progress.  In that spirit, I’d like to take a quick look at the status of the roster and where the team might go from here.

Remaining Critical Needs

Corners

This position group has become a full-blown crisis.  Quinton Dunbar’s unhappiness, which led to his trade on Monday, put the team in a bind at a position which already had major needs.  Dunbar’s departure leaves a huge hole to fill at the #1 corner spot.  It’s not impossible to think that returnee Kendall Fuller could try and play on the outside, but he’s best in the slot.  That leaves just Fabian Moreau as a realistic starting boundary corner.

The team will almost certainly add another new corner next season one way or the other, and maybe through both the draft and free agency.  The free agents left on the market right now aren’t great starting options; the best of the bunch is probably Logan Ryan, or if they get desperate enough, perhaps Trumaine Johnson or Xavier Rhodes.  Redskins’ refugee Bashaud Breeland is also available but he’s not a solution to the #1 spot either.

The Redskins have historically drafted alot of corners as compared to other teams (don’t make me publish the data here; just trust me), so given the circumstances, I think it’s almost inevitable that they draft a corner, even if it isn’t Jeff Okudah.

Tight ends, wide receivers, and running backs

I threw all three of these positions together because what the team is lacking in the worst way is a ball-handling playmaker.  The Redskins have enough running backs to fill out the roster, the young group of receivers have significant promise, and Logan Thomas at least has the potential to become a starter, but the team needs someone who scares a defense when he has the ball, regardless of the specific position.

At this point, all of the “name” receivers and tight ends have been signed.   The Redskins could improve their team speed by taking a flyer on somebody like Taylor Gabriel or Tavon Austin, perhaps, but at this point in the free agency process, the sure-fire starter / playermaker options are basically gone.   I’d be surprised if the team signed another running back now that both McKissic and Barber are on the roster, and the high-end tight end market has dried up.  Expect the Redskins to look for playmakers in the draft.

Offensive line

Along the offensive line, the huge open question remains what to do with Trent Williams.  The Redskins have agreed to allow him to seek a trade, but thusfar that hasn’t happened.  Williams’ agent unhelpfully complained publicly this week that the Redskins have not cooperated in his efforts to find Williams a new team.  If Williams truly is done with the Redskins, the team’s biggest hole on the roster instantly becomes left tackle, and really, at this point, who thinks he’s coming back?  The problem is that free agency isn’t going to yield anything but a temporary, one year stopgap such as Donald Penn or Jason Peters at most.  The team may end up going this route, and it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the team is out of options, but the problem with Penn and Peters is that they are 36 and 38 years old, respectively, and it’s pretty silly to count on starters that old without solid backups behind them.  This hole ideally should be filled in the draft unless, against all odds, the team is convinced that Williams will return and stay for a couple more years.  The arrival of tackle Cornelius Lucas bolsters the depth on the right side and possibly puts Morgan Moses’ role in danger.

In terms of guards, be prepared for the Wes Schweitzer era.  Teams don’t pay a guy $13.5M over 3 years and let him have a dead cap hit that is larger than his salary cap hit just to put him on the bench in favor of a second year player.  As a result, the Redskins are pretty set for this season at guard and center, so I don’t expect them to do more than possibly draft a late round prospect.

Things have gotten better

Linebackers

If you haven’t noticed, the Redskins spent a large amount of free agency capital on linebackers – they didn’t find the next Ray Lewis, but they’ve essentially remade the position group with a combination of veteran leadership on (hopefully) short contracts, a stopgap, and a young player with potential.  Davis is very old by football standards, so it remains to be how much he can contribute either as a starter or as a rotational player.  The wild card in this group is Reuben Foster, who is still recovering for his knee injury suffered on the first day of OTAs last year.  Throw in Foster’s off the field problems, and it’s easy to see why Rivera may not be thrilled with him.  Either way, unless a player falls to them in the draft that they just can’t pass up, I don’t expect the team to make any more moves with the linebacker group.

Safeties

The addition of Sean Davis was initially a sign to Nicholson that competition had arrived; now, Davis is the apparent starter at free safety.  It seems likely that Nicholson’s inconsistency on the field and problems off the field spelled the end of his time in Washington.  Davis has all of the athletic measurables and looks the part, but his film shows way, way too many missed tackles, and he’s going to have to improve on that aspect of his game if he expects to stick around.  Either way, I don’t expect more additions in free agency, but this is another position group on which the Redskins might spend a draft pick if a player is available on their board who makes sense.

In pretty good shape

Quarterback

It’s isn’t entirely clear yet, frankly, whether the new Redskins leadership is fully onboard the Dwayne Haskins train.  Rivera has repeatedly indicated that he wants competition across the roster, including quarterback.  Unfortunately, with Alex Smith being a longshot at best to be ready to play next season, bringing in a quarterback wasn’t just a luxury – it was a requirement.  Enter Kyle Allen.  His acquisition ends the speculation that Washington was going to bring in either Cam Newton or Jameis Winston.  Allen has some talent, performed reasonably well for most of the 2019 season, an is on a one year, non-guaranteed minimum salary deal.  With his knowledge of Rivera’s system, the truth is that he might be an ideal backup, even if he isn’t true starter-level competition at the position.

The Redskins might spend a low, back of the draft pick on a developmental quarterback, or sign an undrafted free agent, but other than that, the team is done with this position group.

Defensive line

Yes, yes, Chase Young – I’ve been told that he’s a generational talent a time or two – but the truth is that the defensive line as a whole is in the best shape of any group on the team, by far, and objectively speaking the Redskins pass rush is in pretty decent shape.   The transition to the 4 – 3 will actually leave one of last year’s starters on the defensive front without a starting role, most likely either Daron Payne or Jonathan Allen.  On the outside, Montez Sweat is locked in on one edge and, for now at least, Ryan Kerrigan is locked in on the other, with Nate Orchard, Jordan Brailford, and possibly Ryan Anderson in reserve.  The pass rush was good last season, in no small part because of the front 3: Redskins were 10th in the NFL is sacks last year, 13th in quarterback hits, and 5th in quarterback pressures, despite being 24th in blitz percentage, so there’s no cause for alarm in this regard.  The Redskins could go into the season as is and be competitive.  Brantley is a depth signing.  Rivera and company might very well draft Young just because he’s the top remaining player on their draft board, and you couldn’t blame them for it, but they don’t really need to add to this group via free agency.  Whether or not they pass on Young to trade out of number two is another story for another column.

Specialists

Dustin Hopkins, Tress Way, and Nick Sundberg are all signed to big contracts for 2020, although Hopkins and Sundberg will be free agents after the season, and especially with the new coaching staff in place, it’s not impossible to think that the team might bring some competition in to training camp for both.

As you can see, free agency has already provided some significant benefits to the team.  The huge questions marks right now are offensive tackle, quarterback, and the loosely-defined “playmaker”.  Neither a long-term answer at tackle or playmaker are likely to be found in free agency, so expect the draft to lean heavily in in that direction.