Washington trades William Jackson III

November 2, 2022

by Steve Thomas

Washington made a major trade at yesterday’s trade deadline, sending cornerback William Jackson III and a conditional 2025 seventh round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for a conditional 2025 sixth round pick.  This is as much of a salary dump of a highly-paid player as you will ever see in the NFL.  Jackson, who signed a 3 year contract with the Redskins the Washington Football Team the Commanders Washington prior to the 2021 season, never lived up to the expectations brought on by his high salary cap numbers.  The trade will save Washington significant net cap space, including approximately $3M in 2022 and $6.75M in 2023.

The simple fact of the matter is that Jackson did not perform on the field at a level expected of a player with a salary cap figure of more than $13M.  Jackson came to Washington with a reputation as a press-man specialist, and Washington’s coaching staff didn’t always use him in that capacity, instead frequently leaving him in their zone scheme, particularly last season.  However, it didn’t often go well even when Jackson was in press-man situations against even mediocre wide receiver talent.  Jackson was routinely out of place and burned, and had a series of costly penalties assessed against him earlier this year.  It became evident several weeks ago that the team was probably going to part ways with him one way or the other, and for his part, Jackson made it known that he wanted out of DC.  This is therefore a good move for both parties.

The future of the cornerback group seems to be Benjamin St-Juste, the 2021 third round draft pick.  Burdened with the high salary cap figures of both Jackson and Kendall Fuller, the team had no choice but to play St-Juste in the slot last year and part of this season, which wasn’t a great fit for St-Juste’s size and talents.  However, Jackson’s injury – whether real or imagined by the team – allowed St-Juste to take over Jackson’s role as the #1 corner.  The team will almost assuredly need to look to the draft again next season, as Fuller hasn’t exactly been a success, either, in comparison to his contract, and the group behind him is mostly unheralded.  For now, though, Washington has improved by subtraction in that a salary cap anchor is gone.

Best of luck to Jackson as he begins his Steelers career, but Washington did the right thing in making this trade even if they got as close to nothing as is possible in a trade.

What are your thoughts?