By Rich Tandler
The Raiders released cornerback Stanford Routt a year after giving him a five-year, $54.5 million contract that supposedly contained $20 million guaranteed. By releasing him at this time, the Raiders have no further financial obligation to Routt after having paid him $10 million in salary and bonuses in 2011.
The finances are important here because although the Raiders didn’t think he was good enough to justify his contract that doesn’t mean he can’t play. He played nearly every snap for Oakland last year and opposing quarterbacks completed just 51 percent of their passes when throwing to Routt’s area. Routt allowed just 11 yards per receptions and defensed 10 passes.
That’s the good Routt. The bad Routt committed 17 penalties including eight for holding and seven for pass interference. The total number of penalties committed was the highest on the Raiders and the highest among NFL cornerbacks. He also allowed nine touchdown passes, the most of any cornerback.
The penalties are not a new issue. He has committed 38 in the past three seasons. To be fair, Routt’s issues with penalties may be connected to the culture in Oakland. They annually are among the league leaders in penalties committed and in 2011 they set the NFL record for both penalties and penalty yardage in a single season.
Even if the penalty issues can be cleaned up, he doesn’t appear to be a very good fit with the Redskins. He is best in press coverage and the Redskins don’t utilize scheme that the majority of the time.
In fact, the Redskins already have a cornerback who was once released by the Raiders who is best in press coverage, commits some key penalties from time to time, and both makes and gives up big plays. It can be useful to have one player like DeAngelo Hall on the team but having two could be dangerous.
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