Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Guard Gettis signs with Redskins

Three in the fold, six to go.

The Redskins announced via their official Twitter feed that fifth-round draft pick Adam Gettis has signed with the team. Just in case anyone had any doubts, the team posted a picture of the guard out of Iowa with a pen in his hand signing what appears to be a player contract.

Gettis is an athletic player who some scouts believe is an ideal fit in the Redskins’ zone blocking scheme. He will compete with Maurice Hurt, Erik Cook, and fellow 2012 draft pick Josh LeRibeus for reserve spots behind starters Chris Chester and Kory Lichtensteiger.

He is the third Redskins 2012 draft pick to sign a contract. The team’s two seventh-round picks, safety Josh Bernstine and cornerback Richard Crawford, signed yesterday. The Redskins have six draft picks yet to be signed.

Update: Per Aaron Wilson of Scout.com, Gettis' four-year contract averages $575,000 per year.

The press release from Redskisn PR follows after the jump:

LB Kehl signs with Redskins

 

Update: The Redskins have announced via Twitter that they have signed Kehl to a contract.

Linebacker Bryan Kehl is scheduled to visit Redskins Park today and there is talk that there is a very good chance that he will sign a contract.

Kehl is a four-year veteran who was drafted by the Giants in the fourth round in 2008. He has mostly been a special teams performer in New York and, most recently, with the Rams. Playing in 59 of a possible 64 games during his career, he has just five starts at linebacker.

The Redskins are in need of depth at inside linebacker. They re-signed London Fletcher earlier and he will start alongside Perry Riley. Lorenzo Alexander will move from outside to inside linebacker to fill one reserve role. If he does sign, Kehl could hold down the other backup spot but he may have to compete with a draft pick for the job.

 

Press release: Redskins sign Tanard Jackson

From Redskins public relations:

ASHBURN, Va. – The Washington Redskins announced today that they have signed free agent safety Tanard Jackson. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jackson (6-0, 200) spent his previous five NFL seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after being selected in the fourth round (106th overall) of the 2007 NFL Draft out of Syracuse. He has started all 56 regular season games in which he has appeared, and recorded 239 tackles, 10 interceptions, five forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and two defensive touchdowns.

Last season, Jackson started in 10 games and registered 35 tackles, two interceptions, one fumble recovery and three passes defensed, according to NFL GSIS.

Redskins, Fletcher got it done

One of the most amiable contract standoffs ever lasted exactly one month and the Redskins got done the deal that they had to get done.

London Fletcher is likely to finish his career in Washington after signing what some reports  said was a two-year contract on Friday. Fletcher announced the deal himself via his Twitter account.

For a while, it looked like the $18 million salary cap penalty the league slapped on the Redskins on the eve of free agency might cost then the services of their captain. Their flexibility in dealing with Fletcher was reduced drastically and if another team had come in with a substantial offer, the Redskins would be looking to replace Fletcher.

Fortunately, the inside linebacker market started off very slowly and when inside backers did start signing the contracts did not break the bank. If other teams contacted Fletcher it was kept very quiet and as far as we know he did not visit any other teams. 

The Redskins kept things low key as well. The only inside linebacker we know they worked out was Jonathan Goff, the former Giant who missed all of last year with a knee injury. 

Although the ink on Fletcher’s contract is barely dry, the Redskins have to start thinking about his eventual replacement. They were in a position where they had virtually no other choice but to bring Fletcher back as they had nobody ready to take the job. Had another team come in and taken him away, they would have been in a world of trouble. They will need to have his successor ready in two years when he likely will be ready to retire.

Inside linebacker in a 3-4 is complex position to learn and if the Redskins want to draft someone ready to replace Fletcher they will have to do it in this year’s draft or in 2013 at the latest. They don’t have to expend a high draft pick to fill the spot. As they did with Perry Riley, who took over the other inside linebacker spot in place of Rocky McIntosh this year, they can tab a prospect who has the athletic tools in the middle rounds and get him up to speed over the next two years.

But that’s for two weeks from today and 2013 and 2014. For now, the Redskins have perhaps their most important player back and that is cause for celebration in Redskins Nation.

 

Better than Eli, Rivers and Ben?

We all think that Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck will be good quarterbacks. But how good will they be? A couple of scouts think they could be very good, perhaps even elite.

Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press Gazette talked to a couple of NFL scouts about the quarterbacks in the upcoming draft and he was very impressed. Make that very, very impressed.

“I think there’s five of them that are better than any of them last year,” one scout told Dougherty.

So he’s saying that not only are Luck and Griffin better than the likes of Cam Newton and Andy Dalton were, but that Ryan Tannehill, Brandon Weeden, and Kirk Cousins are as well. That’s pretty high praise considering that Newton shattered all kinds of rookie QB records and Dalton took his Bengals to the playoffs.

One of the scouts went further with Luck and Griffin. He said they are better prospects than the three quarterbacks taken at the top of the 2004 draft. That group of Eli Manning (picked 1^st overall), Phillip Rivers (4), and Ben Roethlisberger (11) has combined to win four Super Bowls.

“(Luck and Griffin) are so much better (than the ’04 quarterbacks) athletically and as good or better with the regular quarterback stuff,” the scout said. ” So these guys have a chance to really be high-end players, both of them.”

It has to be noted that the opinions of scouts can vary and this represents the opinion of just two of them. But the Washington certainly is due for some “high-end” play at the quarterback position and maybe these informed opinions will turn out to be correct, at least in the case of whichever of the two QB’s the Redskins end up with.

 

Press release: Redskins sign Torrence, re-sign Golston

ASHBURN, Va. – The Washington Redskins announced today that they have re-signed unrestricted free agent defensive end Kedric Golston and signed unrestricted free agent cornerback Leigh Torrence. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Golston, 28, returns for his seventh NFL season in 2012, all with the Redskins. Last season, he played in nine games, finishing the season with 29 tackles (15 solo), three quarterback pressures, two tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and one forced fumble.

Golston (6-4, 310) was originally drafted by the Redskins in the sixth round of the 2006 NFL Draft (196^th overall). He has played in 82 regular season games with 44 starts and has compiled 250 career tackles (148 solo), seven sacks, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. In addition, he has contributed on special teams, having blocked a field goal attempt and an extra point attempt during the 2007 season.

Golston played collegiately at Georgia as part of the team that won the school’s first SEC Championship in 20 years in 2005. Despite battling an elbow injury, as a senior, he recorded 21 tackles (13 solo), 1.5 sacks and 28 quarterback pressures, which ranked second on the team. He was also named the recipient of the 2005 Leon Farmer Strength and Conditioning Award.

Torrence (5-11, 179) returns to the Redskins for his second stint after spending his previous three NFL seasons with the New Orleans Saints. In 25 games for the Redskins from 2006-08 after being signed off waivers during Week 17 of the 2006 season, he compiled 42 tackles, one sack and two passes defensed. He was waived on Nov. 8, 2008, and eventually being claimed off waivers by the Saints on Nov. 10.

Torrence, 30, has played in 73 regular season games, with one start, in his seven-year career and recorded 94 tackles (68 solo), two interceptions, 11 passes defensed and 3.5 sacks. He has also added 61 special teams tackles.

Torrence originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Stanford, signing with the Green Bay Packers on April 29, 2005. He was waived by the Packers on Sept. 3, before signing with the Atlanta Falcons a day later. Last season, he played in 13 games for the Saints and registered 17 tackles, one interception, one sack, four passes defensed and eight special teams tackles. Torrence played in 10 games for the Falcons in 2005.

Torrence played collegiately at Stanford where he was a four-year letterman in football and a two-year letterman in track. Torrence was born on Jan. 4, 1982, and attended Marist H.S. in Atlanta.

Williams gets offer but leaves without a deal

On Friday, the Redskins hosted safety Madieu Williams at the team facility. He left with a contract offer but he has not accepted it. The former Maryland Terp and 2010 season NFL Man of the Year will go on another scheduled free agent visit on Monday. There is no timetable for him to make a decision.

Williams started three of the 49ers first four games last year but did not play a defensive snap after Week 4. He did play in 15 games plus both of San Francisco’s playoff games but his contributions in the latter part of the season were exclusively on special teams.

In Minnesota in 2010, Williams started 13 games, nine of them at free safety. While he was solid against the run, opposing quarterbacks had a 114.0 QB rating when they threw at him. 

 

UFA safety Madieu Williams to visit Redskins

After a couple of weeks of apparent inactivity, the Redskins free agent market could be heating up again. According to ESPN 980, unrestricted free agent safety Madieu Williams will be visiting the Redskins today. 

Williams, 30, was drafted by the Bengals out of Maryland in the second round in 2004. He has been with Cincinnati (2004-07), the Vikings (2008-10), and the 49ers (2011) in his eight NFL seasons.

He has started 86 games in his career and has 12 interceptions. Williams could serve as a short-term solution at free safety while the Redskins either develop second-year player DeJon Gomes or find another starter in the draft or in free agency.

Update: Williams was named the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2011. He is involved in numerous chariatable organizations including the Madieu Williams Center for Global Health at the University of Maryland. He was in the Persian Gulf visiting U. S. troops when it was announced that he had eared the award. (ht/t to @P_Hazard)

Corner strong in draft, will this affect Redskins strategy?

Earlier this week, I wrote that the Redskins best course in the draft might be to look to taking a cornerback in the third or fourth round of the draft instead of trying to address the safety need. This article from NFL.com draft analyst Chad Reuter also suggests that might a wise course of action.

Reuter broke down the strengths and weaknesses in the draft and the strongest area was cornerback. “Dwight Bentley (Louisiana-Lafayette), Jamell Fleming (Oklahoma), Jayron Hosley (Virginia Tech), Josh Robinson (UCF) lead a strong contingent of top 100 cornerbacks,” he wrote.

With the Redskins first pick after they take their quarterback of the future second overall coming at the 69^th selection there seems to be a very good chance that a cornerback will be the best player available when they pick. And it certainly is possible that one or two of those top 100 talents could slip back to one of the Redskins’ fourth-round picks (102 and 109 overall).

Reuter warns that teams looking for a safety aren’t going to find much. “General managers have known most of the year that they should not rely on this year's draft class to produce a ton of playmaking safeties,” he wrote.

There are only two safeties Reuter thinks will go in the top 100. Alabama’s Mark Barron has missed the entire pre-draft workout process as he recovers from hernia surgery and Harrison Smith of Notre Dame has elevated into the second or third round thanks to a strong workout at the combine and a sheer lack of quality competition at the position. 

 

RG3 won't play Irsay's game

You have to be careful to read too much into the pre-draft process. There could many reasons why Robert Griffin III declined an invitation to do a private workout for the Colts. 

Word is that he had informed all NFL teams that he was not going to do any private workouts. He wanted as many teams as possible to show up for the Baylor pro day so that teammates such as wide receiver Kendall Wright and running back Terrence Ganaway would get a chance to get the maximum number of eyeballs on them as they did their workouts.

Even if he had not wanted to showcase his friends, there still is no reason for Griffin to do any private workouts. By all accounts, he nailed it that afternoon on Waco. If he can’t do it any better, why should he do it again?

Still, it’s hard not to think that there was not an element of RG3 attempting to steer his own future here. It’s not nearly Eli Manning refusing to play for the Chargers or John Elway threatening to play baseball rather than wearing a Colts uniform but it still was a not-so subtle message to Indy owner Jim Irsay that he wasn’t interested.

A certain former Washington columnist’s ramblings notwithstanding, it seems certain that the Colts are set on taking Andrew Luck with the top pick. Irsay, however, has to make it look like the decision has not yet been finalized. He needs to make it look like the organization is conducting due diligence so that if the decision does not work out he will be able to tell the fans, well, we did everything we could and gathered all of the information we could to make what we thought was the right decision.

But RG3 apparently has no interest in participating in Irsay’s Kabuki dance. He seems to be perfectly happy with the probability that he will go second in the draft. The difference in pay is about $1 million over four years. One would think that he could easily make up the difference in off-field opportunities in the Washington area, the seventh-largest market in the country. Indianapolis is the 34^th-largest market and its population of about 1.7 million is less than one-third of the DMV’s population.

And let’s not forget that Griffin grew up a Broncos fan and the coach of that team now coaches the Redskins. New Colts coach Chuck Pagano might turn out to be a fine coach but right now, he doesn’t even show up on the gravitas scale compared to Mike Shanahan, especially in RG3’s mind.

Nothing is done until it’s done. Until the Colts either sign Luck to a contract, which is unlikely, or turn in a card with his name on it to Roger Goodell on April 26 in Radio City Music Hall, there is a chance that they will draft Griffin. But it does appear that RG3 is doing what he can to ensure that they don’t.