Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Fletcher, inside LB market remain in limbo

The bad news is that the Redskins and London Fletcher have yet to agree on a contract as NFL free agency enters its fourth day.

The good news is that there hasn’t been much movement in the inside linebacker around the league at all.

Along with Fletcher, Curtis Lofton, Stephen Tulloch, and David Hawthorne, the other top inside linebackers who are free agents remain unsigned as of Friday morning.

Inside linebacker Dan Connor did sign a contract to go from the Panthers to the Cowboys yesterday but he is a cut below the top-tier free agents. He signed a two-year deal but we don’t know what the money looks like yet.

The players’ agents and the teams who would like to sign the players are waiting to see who blinks first. Once one deal is made, the others will have numbers to work with and other contracts will fall into place.

Fletcher’s contract is a bit more difficult to figure since he will be 37 next season, about 10 years older than the other top free agents. His deal is likely to be for a shorter term than the others but the average annual compensation is what needs to be established once the market starts to set.

The waiting game continues but it could let loose at any moment. 

 

Redskins will see if Meriweather can revive his career

The reports that Brandon Meriweather has signed with the Redskins immediately drew some snarky comments from some media types on Twitter.

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com tweeted, “Why would the Redskins sign Brandon Meriwether? Have they watched him play?”

Darin Gantt, a former Panthers beat reporter, pulled in the perception that the Redskins overpaid to get wide receiver Pierre Garçon to sign a free agent contract on Tuesday. In reference to the Meriweather acquisition Gantt tweeted, “Apparently funding Garcon contract with money saved on film.”

Snark aside, the Redskins will have a project on their hands. Meriweather's career took a precipitous drop last year after he made back-to-back Pro Bowls with the Patriots.

In fact, many say that he didn’t really deserve to make the Pro Bowl after the 2009 and 2010 seasons, that he made it based on his status as a first-round draft pick and the reputation of the Patriots’ defense.

Certainly Bill Belichick wasn’t impressed with his back-to-back Pro Bowl credentials last summer. Meriweather found himself playing with the second unit during the preseason and he found himself on the waiver wire when final cuts came down.

He did have a major distraction prior to training camp. On Feb. 27, two men were shot during a brawl outside of a house party in Apopka, Florida. The two victims, who were high school classmates of Meriweather, said that he pulled the trigger.

He denied that he was involved and he eventually was cleared of any wrongdoing. But that did not come until mid-August so by the time his off-field issues were behind him, hit on-field problems were just beginning.

The Patriots cut him at the end of training camp and the Bears, desperate for safety help, signed him. Meriweather started four of the Chicago’s first five games but he spent the rest of the season as a part-time player, when he could get off of the bench at all.

Can he turn his career around with a change of scenery? It will be up to new Redskins secondary coach Raheem Morris to see what he can get out of him.

The Redskins certainly need the help at safety. A year ago, it appeared they would be set there for a few years with LaRon Landry and Oshiomogho Atogwe but it looks like injury-plagued Landry will be allowed to walk as a free agent and Atogwe was released after a subpar 2011 season. Meriweather joins DeJon Gomes and Reed Doughty, both of whom are more suited to backup duty, at safety for the Redskins.

One thing Meriweather could bring to Washington is a badly needed ability to create turnovers. He didn’t have takeaways last year but in his three years starting with the Patriots he had 12 interceptions, which is more than all Redskins safeties combined had in that period of time. He also forced four fumbles.

Despite his ball hawking skills, it might be better to let Meriweather play in the box more like Landry did. Pass coverage is not his strong suit. Per the folks at Pro Football Focus, quarterbacks enjoyed pass ratings of 132 last year and 100 in 2010 when throwing into Meriweather’s coverage.

But the PFF crew rates him pretty well against the run. In a passing league, that is not ideal but Morris and Jim Haslett will have to figure out how to maximize his strong points while keeping opposing offenses from exploiting his weakness.

 

Report: Redskins looking at Texans G Brisiel

Mike Jones of the Washington Post reported that the Redskins “have expressed interest” in Texans guard Mike Brisiel.

Brisiel, who turned 29 yesterday, made the Texans as an undrafted free agent out of Colorado State in 2006 and he started 13 games for the AFC South champions last year. In all, he has started 47 games in five years with Houston.

It is not hard to connect the dots to find a connection between Brisiel and the Redskins. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan held the same job with the Texans from 2008-2009 when Bisiel started 21 games.

An expression of interest does not necessarily lead to a visit or a contract offer but it’s something to keep an eye on.

 

Report: Landry to visit Patriots

For the first time during the free agency period that started on Tuesday we have a report of a Redskins free agent making a visit to another team.

Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald is reporting that LaRon Landry will take a trip to see Bill Belichick and company in New England this weekend.

Landry has been a starter for the Redskins since they drafted him in the first round out of LSU in 2007. But injuries have hampered him the last two seasons and it appears that a dispute over the best course of treatment for his Achilles injury will cause the Redskins to move on from him.

In analyzing Landry’s potential with the Patriots, Rapoport writes:

I’m told he’s healthy now. If the Patriots are looking for an in-the-box safety, this would be the guy. Still not quite sure about the fit alongside Patrick Chung, and it seems a stellar coverage player might be a better call. Perhaps a converted corner.

I wouldn’t be so sure that Landry is healthy. From what I have heard he can pass a physical but the Redskins are very doubtful about his Achilles being able to withstand the rigors of an NFL season without giving out again.

 

RT's 5: It's still very early

Rich Tandler’s 5 thoughts possibly related to the Washington Redskins and other matters.

5. We have not yet completed two days of free agency. Signings will go on at a pretty good clip until a couple of weeks before the April 26 draft. Of the top 100 free agents per our friends at Pro Football Talk 70 are still unsigned as of this morning. All of this is saying that it is very early in the free agency process. There is no need to panic that as of right now the Redskins have DeJon Gomes and Reed Doughty starting at safety. There is plenty of time and there are a lot of players who can fit the team’s needs still out there.

4. The bad news is that London Fletcher is still unsigned; that is something that the Redskins and their fans would like to get done earlier in free agency. The good news is that the market at inside linebacker has yet to be set. The other top players at the position out there—Stephen Tulloch, David Hawthorne, Curtis Lofton—haven’t yet signed. Once one signs, the market price will be established and the Redskins and Fletcher’s camp will be able to see who has the more realistic compensation figure. That could well expedite a deal but it also could lead Fletcher out of town.

3. Twitter is a funny medium. Last night someone with a fake Adam Schefter account tweeted that the league had further penalized the Redskins for manipulating the salary cap, that draft picks had been taken away and that the RG3 trade was in jeopardy. I saw it when a friend retweeted it. I quickly figured out that the account was phony and let him know so he could delete the tweet. But it quickly spread out of control. Several nationally known NFL media types with tens of thousands of followers had seen the fake and retweeted it. They also figured it out shortly afterwards and deleted the messages. But the genie was out of the bottle and many Redskins fans had panic attacks before the whole thing was buttoned down. So, if you caught the fake bad news that was retweeted by a respected national writer and didn’t catch the correction, rest easy. It was a fake, the Redskins’ draft picks are all there and the green light is on for #RG3toDC.

2. I’ve had doing an article on whether or not Griffin will start Week 1 on my to-do list since the trade so I’m not going go into it very deeply here. But I would like to address the notion that RG3 will ride the bench at the start of the season because Mike Shanahan has never started a rookie QB in Week 1. In Denver he kept Jay Cutler on the bench for 11 games as a rookie after drafting him in 2006. But Cutler was the 11^th pick and Shanahan had Jake Plummer, who had taken the Broncos to the AFC title game the previous season, to play until the rookie was ready. In this situation, Griffin will be the second overall pick and the alternatives are not strong. That doesn’t mean that RG3 will automatically start the first game but comparing this situation to the one in 2006 is not apples to apples.

1. I frequently get asked if the Redskins are going to address right tackle or strong safety with their third round pick in the draft, which will be their first after taking Griffin in the first round. The simple answer is that they can’t. At that point you have to go with the best player available. Although a third-round tackle could theoretically start as a rookie, he has to be a true top 100 talent. If you go in determined to take a tackle in the third, you could easily wind up with a fourth- or fifth-round talent. Then you are right back where you started from without a starting tackle. 

You can reach Rich by email at RTandlerCSN@comcast.net and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler. 

 

Restructure candidates are few

With the Redskins' cap space getting tight, one good way to create more if by restructuring existing contracts. 

A simple restructure usually involves take a player's salary for the coming season and paying it to him up front. You then call that salary a signing bonus and you can prorate the cap charges for it over the rest of the player's contract. 

If you want to do that, you have to go where the money is. Here are the Redskins who currently have salaries over $1 million:

1. Trent Williams $11 million
2. DeAngelo Hall $6 million
3. Chris Cooley $3.8 million
4. Barry Cofield $3.75 million
5. Josh Wilson $3.4 million
6. Jammal Brown $3.25 million
7. Santana Moss $3.15 million
8. Stephen Bowen $2.9 million
9. Jabar Gaffney $2.65 million
10. Chris Chester $2.5 million
11. John Beck $1 million

Note: Fred Davis' salary is $5.4 million but that is under the franchise tag. The team could create more cap space by signing him to a long-term deal but that is a separate discussion.

Williams and Hall are the obvious candidates to be restructured. Redoing Hall's contract would save about $3.5 million or so and they could save around $8 million by restructuring Williams.

But not so fast on Williams. He faces a year's suspension if he violates the NFL's substance abuse policy again. The Redskins can recover any salary due to him if he is suspended but signing bonus is protected by the CBA. The organization seems to be confident that Williams will be able to steer clear of future problems but perhaps not to the point where they're willing to bet $11 million in him.

Of the rest, Beck and Gaffney can't restructure since they are in the last year of their contracts. The others might offer minimal savings but every little bit can help.

The downside to restructuring is that it pushes money back into later years and the Redskins have come to prefer more of a pay as you go approach. It also increases the cap consequences of releasing a player should his performance decline. 

How are the Redskins doing it?

Despite an $18 million salary cap penalty being slapped on the Redskins this year, the first 24 hours of free agency seems to be business as usual for the team.

They have signed two wide receivers with Pierre Garçon getting a deal with $8 million per year and Joshua Morgan and they are negotiating with a third. Defensive end Adam Carriker is back in the fold and the team still has money set aside for linebacker London Fletcher, who still is in negotiation with the team. They will need some money to pay Robert Griffin III and the rest of their draft class. And, according to John Keim of the Examiner, Giants cornerback Aaron Ross is schedule to visit Redskins Park on Friday.

How is all of this fitting into salary cap room that stood at right around $15 million when free agency started? By using account techniques like the one used for Morgan’s contract that was described on Pro Football Talk.

I won’t get into the weeds with the details, please click and read the PFT story if you’re interested. But the important point is that the Redskins signed Morgan to a five-year contract that will void after two years. That allows the Redskins to reduce what would have been a $2.75 million annual cap charge for his $5.5 million signing bonus down to $1.1 million.

It’s all perfectly legal (well, pending any NFL action two years from now). And although it does push cap consequences into future years, the salary cap will take a big jump in 2014 when the new, more lucrative TV deals kick in. 

 

Carriker, Redskins find middle ground in deal

The Redskins’ re-signing of Adam Carriker was sort of buried under the wide receiver signings but the move deserves some discussion on its own.

Carriker has been the Redskins’ starting left defensive end ever since the team got him from the Rams for a swap of draft picks. He has not done much that would be considered spectacular but a defensive end in a 3-4 scheme is not supposed to make highlight reel plays.

Although he was a bust with the Rams after they took him with the 13^th overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft, he proved to be a good fit in the Redskins’ scheme. But after the season ended and Carriker became a free agent there was no guarantee that he would be back.

Jarvis Jenkins, who was drafted in the second round a year ago and missed the whole season due to a torn ACL, is likely to be the starter at Carriker’s spot.

The quandary was, how should Carriker be compensated? Should he be paid as the starter he was the last two years or as the rotational player he is likely to be in 2012? Keep in mind that a rotational DE can get nearly as many snaps as the starter as they get moved in and out to stay fresh.

They reached a nice middle ground. It has been reported that Carriker signed for four years and $20 million with $7 million guaranteed. In terms of annual compensation and guarantees it is shy of Stephen Bowen’s five-year, $27.5 million deal with $12.5 million guaranteed. Bowen signed that deal as a free agent last year.

But Carriker’s deal is considerably better than what most reserves get, which is generally in not much more than the veteran minimum. The Redskins showed that if he does end up being a rotational player they expect he will play better than most in the role.

There is one unusual quirk to the contract. Usually teams can terminate player contracts but a player can do nothing to get out of one on his end. But according to John Keim of the Examiner, Carriker will be able to buy his way out of the deal after one year for a payment of $1 million.

So a year from now if Carriker thinks he can find a good situation and make at least $1 million more there than he does in Washington, he will be able to pursue that opportunity. 

 

Redskins bring in the kids on offense

The Redskins are likely to start an offense next season that has no players over the age of 30.

Here is a projected starting lineup with ages as of opening day:

• WR Pierre Garçon, 26
• WR Leonard Hankerson, 23
• TE Fred Davis, 26
• RB Roy Helu, 24
• FB Darrel Young, 25
• QB Robert Griffin III, 22
• LT Trent Williams, 24
• LG Kory Lichtensteiger, 27
• C Will Montgomery, 29
• RG Chris Chester, 29
• RT Willie Smith, 25

Average age=25.5 years

It is possible that Jabar Gaffney, 31, could start at wide receiver and Jammal Brown, 30, will start at right tackle. Still, that would be one of the youngest units that the team has fielded in quite some time. 

 

How should the Redskins proceed?

Today was supposed to start the second part of the Redskins’ plan. After completing the trade that will land them their franchise quarterback, presumably Robert Griffin III, they were going to be aggressive in free agency to help build a team around him.

That was before the NFL owners and NFLPA decided to come down on the Redskins (and Cowboys) and decided to put a severe crimp in their plans by docking them $36 million in salary cap space over the next two years.

We haven’t heard the end of that, as there could be an appeal or legal action to reduce or remove the penalties. But that could take some time and free agency will start today at 4 p.m. regardless.

So how should the Redskins proceed?

Before any penalties, the Redskins were about $37 million under the cap. If they take half of the hit to their cap this year, they still will have $19 million. While that is not a large amount of money to spend, it is more than many NFL teams have.

What will this do to the team’s reported plans to make a big push to sign wide receiver Vincent Jackson? We will find out starting at about 4 p.m.

Even if the Redskins do end up getting docked salary cap dollars they could sign Jackson to a big deal. That could be accomplished by backloading the contract and having some guaranteed money paid out in future years after the penalty is gone and the new, more lucrative TV deals kick in for the 2014 season.

But that is exactly the kind of contract the Redskins gave to Albert Haynesworth, the kind of deal that Allen dislikes so much that he restructured it in 2010, leading to this whole cap mess.

The wiser course of action might be to go with a more low budget operation and see how the case unfolds. If the penalty gets overturned they would have more cap money to use next year.

There are some key decisions to be made in the next few days that will have long-term effects on the franchise. Redskins fans should hope that the decisions are made with cool heads and with eyes focused on the future.