Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Redskins will try get cap case support at league meetings

Apparently the Redskins will try to schmooze their way out of their salary cap penalty before going nuclear.

According to Pro Football Talk, the Redskins are going to try their kinder, gentler approach at the league meetings starting in a few days. Per Mike Florio:

A source with knowledge of the situation says that the Redskins, via a strategy devised by G.M. Bruce Allen, currently plan to plead their case among the NFL’s movers and shakers at the league meetings in Florida next week, hopeful that some momentum can be built toward reversing the outcome.

So over jumbo shrimp cocktails and fine wines it’s going to be Allen saying to other teams' executives, “Hi, how are the wife and kids? Great! Hey, about that $36 million . . .”

It is likely to be a tough sell. The NFL usually doesn’t reverse itself if you ask it to nicely. It usually takes more than that.

But at least Allen, Dan Snyder, and company will be able to say that they tried to get it done with persuasion before they do what many expect them to do and unleash their battalion of high-priced lawyers to execute their nuclear option. 

 

Plenty of competition at wide receiver

Although there is plenty of time for more additions and subtractions can be made from the Redskins receiver corps, the pause button seems to have been hit for the time being so let’s take a look at who stands where.

The one sure starter right now is Pierre Garçon. By virtue of his $8 million per year contract he will be given every opportunity to establish himself as the top receiver on the team if not a true No. 1 receiver. 

It also seems like Jabar Gaffney, last year’s leading receiver, will keep his starting job. Although at age 31 his presence would run counter to the youth movement that is afoot in Ashburn, his experience and ability to work the field in Kyle Shanahan’s offense will be of great help while a rookie quarterback, presumably Robert Griffin III, gets his feet under him.

After that the picture isn’t quite as clear. It would appear that Leonard Hankerson will get the first shot at having a substantial role assuming he is recovered from the hip injury that ended his 2011 season before it really got started. Hankerson has said that he will be ready for training camp but athletes frequently are more optimistic about recovering from injuries than medical reality would indicate. It’s wait and see on him until we get closer to camp.

Free agent acquisition Joshua Morgan is also recovering from a season-ending injury. He broke his ankle in the fifth game of the season. Morgan’s contract, which calls for him to make $12 million over two years, shows that he is expected to make a substantial contribution as well. He provides some insurance in case Hankerson is not ready to go.

We’ve covered five receivers and we’re just getting to Santana Moss, the mainstay of the team’s wide receiving corps since he came to Washington in 2005. He has played in 104 games for the Redskins and he has started 104. Will he be a starter in 2012? Will he be on the team at all? Even if you factor in that he missed four games with a broken hand, 2012 was his least productive season since he was a Jet in 2002. It might be tempting to write him off as he will be 33 before the season starts but it may be too soon to do that.

We wrote earlier this week here that Anthony Armstrong could benefit greatly from the presence of Griffin, who has uncanny accuracy on the deep ball. If he can average nearly 20 yards per catch like he did in 2010 they will find a way to get him onto the field.

It’s not a make or break year for Niles Paul but the second-year player should make some strides in OTA’s and in training camp to solidify his spot on the roster. He only caught two passes last year but he only was targeted five times in 162 snaps. His blocking got him on the field on offense and he needs to continue to improve upon his strength while working on his weak areas. 

Is this the end of the line for Terrence Austin? With the additions of Garçon and Morgan, somebody has to go. The 2010 seventh-round pick has shown flashes of ability here and there but never with any consistency. 

Brandon Banks didn’t work much as a receiver in training camp due to a knee injury and he made the team as a return specialist. There may not be a roster spot for such a player in 2012 so Banks might have to find a way to get some snaps at wide receiver or face getting cut.

Aldrick Robinson was on the roster for one game after spending most of the year on the practice squad. He has speed but his game needs refinement. 

So we have nine wide receivers for probably six spots. With Garçon, Gaffney, Morgan, and Hankerson safe, that leaves five fighting for two jobs. And more could potentially be added later in free agency or in the draft.

Mike Shanahan always talks about liking competition. At this position there will be plenty of it. 

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

 

Thumbs up or down on rule change proposals

While the NFL world was going nuts on Wednesday between the announcement of the penalties in the bounty case, the Tebow trade to the Jets (and cancellation and new trade) and the pro day for Robert Griffin III, there was a conference call about some rule changes being proposed by the NFL Competition Committee. And while all the goings on yesterday were interesting and important, they might not have the lasting impact on the game that the rule changes would.

Here are the proposed changes, courtesy of our friends at Pro Football Talk, and comments.

1. Replay reviews done in the booth, not by on-field official--This would prevent the need for the ref to go under the hood, something that creates delays without improving the accuracy of the call. Thumbs up

2. Make the horse collar tackle for quarterbacks in the pocket a penalty--If your response here was something like, “It’s not already?” I’m with you. While adding another layer of protection to the quarterback is generally to be opposed, this change would just make the same action a penalty in all instances, against any player. Thumbs up

3. Changing overtime so that the postseason rule will be used in the regular season as well, and no regular-season games will be ended on a field goal on the first possession of overtime--This is a great idea if you’d like to see more tie games. It was a bad idea for the postseason but at least we’re not going to have any ties then. With OT limited to 15 minutes in the regular season, the rule will result in more ties. Thumbs down

4. Adding a loss of down to the penalty for kicking a loose ball, as is the case in college football--No opinion here, sounds like a solution without a problem.

5. Blowing the play dead when there are too many men on the field--Some think that the Giants accidentally found some big loophole in the rules when they had too many men on the field late in the Super Bowl in that time ran off the clock while New England tried a play against 12 men. Another solution to no real problem. Thumbs down

6. Expanding the defenseless player rule to protect defensive players on crackback blocks, making it illegal to hit them in the head or neck area--All for protection for defenseless player. Thumbs up

7. Automatically reviewing turnovers via instant replay, just as scoring plays are automatically reviewed--If reviews are done in the booth, thumbs up. If the ref has to go under the hood every time we will have games pushing three and a half hours and that’s a thumbs down.

There were some proposed changes to the bylaws, we will cover those in a later post.

What do you think of any or all of these changes? Let us know in the comments!

New PFT mock has Colts taking . . .

Somebody had to do it. 

Our friends at Pro Football Talk have done their latest mock draft. And the guy at the top isn’t the same guy who has been there in virtually every mock draft this year.

Yes, they sent Robert Griffin III to the Colts with the first pick. “In an upset, the Colts opt for the most gifted quarterback in the draft.”

The Redskins, of course, “settle” for Andrew Luck, who is called my many the best and most pro-ready quarterback of the past 25 years or so.

Hey, don’t complain here. There’s a comment section on PFT.

 

NFL paid heavy price to penalize Redskins, Cowboys

The NFL was able to “strong-arm” the NFL Players Association into to agreeing to salary cap penalties on the Redskins and Cowboys, according to a report by Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports.

As the league calculated the 2012 salary cap, a strict interpretation of the complex revenue sharing rules would have made the salary cap somewhere between $113 million and $117  million. That would have been a precipitous drop from the $120 million it was last year. The league agreed to raise the cap to $120.6 million if the NFLPA would agree to a $46 million reduction in the caps for Dallas ($10 million) and Washington ($36 million). The penalties are for supposed overspending in the uncapped year of 2010.

The money reduced from the salary caps of those two teams would be spread among other NFL teams, a total of $1.6 million per team.

I’m not a math major but if the cap was to be a maximum of $117 million before the “adjustment”, how did the $1.6 million get it all the way up $120.6 million? It should have been a maximum of $118.6 million, right? Or, if you use the lower figure, it should be $113 million plus the $1.6 million from the reductions for a total of $114.6 million.

That means that the salary cap was anywhere from $2 million to $6 million higher per team than they should have been after the cap penalties 

So, to get this done, the owners (or whoever made this decision; that is murky at the present time) agreed to establish salary caps for the 32 teams that were an aggregate $64 million to $192 million over what the CBA said that they needed to. 

That is very costly punishment and it hardly seems to be a smart business decision. 

 

Shanahan and RG3 hit it off

It's 58 seconds, no words, just the start of a beautiful friendship.

If you can't see the video on your device, go here.

RG3's biggest memory at Baylor was off the field (sort of)

By Kellie Cowan
CSNwashington.com 

WACO, TX -- Robert Griffin will likely never forget his pro day at Baylor: the bright lights of cameras from over 150 media members shining on him, ESPN on site to televise the day live, numerous media outlets on hand ready to go live from Waco, Texas.  But it probably won't be Griffin's most lasting memory created inside the Allison Indoor Football Practice Facility.  

That's because two years ago - before the Heisman, before leading Baylor to its first bowl win in 19 years, before the Redskins traded away years' worth of first-round picks just to have the chance to draft him - Griffin was a promising young quarterback at a lesser-known Big 12 program making his comeback from an ACL tear.  Still mostly a secret to those outside of Waco, Griffin was on the precipice of stardom, but late one night in October, after routing Kansas and picking up the Bears' sixth win of the season - a win that meant Baylor would end the school's 15-year bowl drought - Griffin wasn't thinking about his football future.  

He was thinking about his future with then-girlfriend Rebecca Liddicoat. Win or lose, Griffin had picked this night as the night he would propose to her.

"He did it the proper way. We're a traditional family," Griffin's mother, Jacqueline, said at Wednesday's pro day.  "He asked her mother and father for her hand in marriage."

There was nothing traditional, however, about this proposal, primarily thanks to the unique location.

"Actually, he had proposed to her in here," Mrs. Griffin said before pointing to the middle of the indoor practice center. "Right there in the middle of the BU."

No, the artificial-turf-covered field was not the location originally chosen by Griffin.

"It wasn't initially supposed to be in here." his mother said.  "He had shown me a tree that they used to go and sit under and talk, but it stormed that night."

Panicked, Griffin called his mother for help. He needed an alternative.

"He was like, 'Mom, you got to come up with a backup plan for me.'  And you know that military kicks in because we always got to have a backup plan." his mother said, laughing.  

Jacqueline Griffin, with her husband, two daughters and her grandchild in tow, drove through campus scanning for a Plan B.  When she saw that the lights to the indoor practice field happened to be on that night, she had an idea.  

Recruits were taking a tour of Baylor's impressive football facilities that night.  Mrs. Griffin found head coach Art Briles and called in a favor.

"I told him I need to use the facility, but I couldn't tell him what it was for." she said.

Briles agreed to the strange request, given she was finished by the time the recruits returned from touring another part of campus.

"I ran around here like a little chicken with my head cut off putting everything together." Mrs. Griffin recalled.

Griffin and Liddicoat arrived soon after to find the complex completely dark and, presumably to Liddicoat, empty.  

"When he got in the building, he said, 'Rebecca, wait a minute.  I got to use the bathroom.' My husband was in the bathroom with the ring. It was a team effort." Mrs. Griffin said, again laughing.

As Griffin walked Liddicoat out onto the field, a teammate of his began playing a guitar from an unseen staircase overlooking the field and Griffin began to sing a song he wrote for her.  When the two reached the center of the field, it was illuminated by eight artificial candles (she "didn't want to burn the building down," Mrs. Griffin said), which revealed Griffin's family joined by Liddicoat's mother, father and two sisters, standing in a circle.  

Griffin got down on one knee.

"She was crying -- we all were crying -- and we hurried up, got cleaned up, and by the time we did all that, they [the facility staff] came back and said, 'Mrs. Griffin, we got to cut the lights off.'" Griffin's mother said.  "I said we were finished and they said, 'What were you all doing in here?' "

Video: RG3 aces his pro day

If you can't see the video embedded below, go here to watch it.

RT's 5: It's not the crime, it's the coverup

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

5. Let’s see, which of the several topics that came up in yesterday’s crazy day around the NFL should we hit on first? How about the bounty scandal? Roger Goodell did not smack the Saints hard because the guys threw a few bucks into a pot to reward big plays. That happened all around the league every week (although it won’t any more). They were punished because the Saints doled out cash awards for injuring opposing players and knocking them out of the game. And, most importantly, Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, and others are going to find themselves watching games on TV this year because they repeatedly lied to Goodell and the other investigators when they tried to look into the bounty affair. As we know well in Washington it’s not the crime that gets you into big trouble, it’s the coverup. 

4. The second time was a charm for the Jets as they managed to trade for Tim Tebow after one failed attempt to do so earlier in the day. The draft picks were settled on the first try but, oops, there was a little matter of $5 million that the Jets brain trust did not realize they would have to pay if they wanted to bring Tebowmania to the Big Apple. Many hours of embarrassing delay followed and Tebow was nearly dealt to the Jaguars. Finally, the two parties agreed to do what could have been done within minutes of the financial snag being discovered--they split the difference. Tebow was introduced to the New York media by way of a conference call that took place near midnight. A fitting end to a bizarre day.

3. The London Fletcher standoff continues. The Lions’ five-year deal with middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch was agreed to on Tuesday afternoon but that has not triggered the signing of the other top inside linebackers like Fletcher, Curtis Lofton, and David Hawthorne. We don’t have the details on Tulloch’s deal yet but you can be sure that the Redskins and Fletcher’s agent do. At this point, the lack of movement is not doing any harm. But it will come to a point where alternatives for both sides will start to disappear. 

2. The Redskins don’t appear to be in any hurry to get running back Tim Hightower back into the fold, either. This one could take a while as they assess how his knee is recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in October. They could wait until after the draft to see if they land a younger, cheaper, and healthier prospect there. Hightower does bring a lot more to the table than a possible fifth-round pick in terms of leadership and pass blocking ability. They will have to decide if younger and cheaper is the way to go here.

1. Back to the bounty punishments, there has long been a strong contingent of Redskins Nation that would occasionally express frustration that Gregg Williams was not promoted to head coach when Joe Gibbs resigned after the 2007 season. We haven’t heard much from that group since the ugly affair in New Orleans has started to come to light. While we don’t know how things would have unfolded if he had stayed in Washington, the bounty system and, especially, the coverup reveal some character issues with Williams. Perhaps he did not do it for the right reasons, but Dan Snyder made the right call in January of 2008 when he decided that the organization should move on from Williams.

Days until: Start of offseason workouts, 25; NFL draft, 35; first Sunday of NFL season 171

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

 

Why Luck won't sign with the Colts early

Sometime soon we’ll talk about why, despite the stellar pro day performance of Robert Griffin III, the Colts are very likely to pick Andrew Luck with the first pick in the draft. But for right now, let’s talk about why that matter will not be finally settled until draft day or sometime very close to it.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is from fans who want to know if Luck is going to sign with the Colts anytime soon. They would like to see Luck get locked in to Indy so the path is completely clear for RG3 to hold up the No. 1 Redskins jersey in Radio City Music Hall on April 26.

And unfortunately for those folks the answer is that negotiating a contract with the first pick prior to the draft is a thing of the past. It used to be that teams would want to talk contract with a player who was the potential first overall selection to gauge his “signability”.   A possible lengthy holdout during training camp could be avoided by getting the guy you wanted to sign on the line. 

The new CBA ratified last summer ended the signability factor. Salaries and most terms are pretty well set. Last year, top overall pick Cam Newton signed a four-year $22 million contract that was mostly dictated by the CBA. A few items, such as the amount paid up front as a signing bonus. But those are minor matters and chances are the player will be in camp on time.

So now there actually is a disincentive to sign a player prior to the draft. Teams can take every available minute to evaluate the decision that will shape the future of the franchise for years to come. And, although nobody likes to think about it, waiting avoids a situation where your just-signed prospect could suffer some sort of fluke injury. 

Since there are no advantages to signing your guy early and some potential downside to doing so, don’t look for Luck to be putting a pen to a contract with the Colts anytime soon.

Rich Tandler blogs about the Redskins at www.RealRedskins.com. You can reach him by email at RTandlerCSN@comcast.net and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler.