Despite Montae Nicholson having one more season on his rookie contract, the Redskins will waive the fourth-year safety, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.
Nicholson worked as a full-time starter for last season’s Redskins team, being a first-stringer in 13 games. His departure will create more than $2MM in cap space for Washington, which also cut veteran cornerback Kayvon Webster (Twitter link via ESPN’s Adam Schefter). The latter is a vested veteran and will go straight to free agency, while Nicholson will hit the waiver wire.
As it turns out, this was part of an interesting position-specific purge. The Redskins cut three other defensive backs as well, dropping cornerbacks Coty Sensabaugh, Dee Delaney and Breon Borders.
In his full-time role, however, Nicholson did not fare especially well. Pro Football Focus graded the former fourth-round pick as its third-worst safety in 2019. PFF also graded Nicholson as one of the league’s worst safeties in 2018. The Michigan State alum did intercept two passes in his third season and, due to his experience, profiles as an interesting waiver claim for a team in need of safety help.
Both Sensabaugh, 31, and Webster, 29, played in just two games with Washington last season. They joined the team as late-season injury replacements.
December 24th, 2019 at 2:24pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg
The Redskins are going to be pretty shorthanded in Week 17 as they seek to officially eliminate the Cowboys from the playoffs. After already shutting down starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins, the team is now placing cornerbacks Quinton Dunbar and Danny Johnson on inured reserve. In corresponding roster moves, they signed Dee Delaney and added Breon Borders off the Jaguars’ practice squad.
Dunbar had missed the last two weeks with a hamstring injury. He’ll finish the year with four interceptions and eight passes defended in 11 games, all starts. This is the second straight campaign that he’ll finish the year on IR, as a shin issue limited him to only seven games last season. Back in January of 2018, he inked a three-year extension worth $10.25MM. The 2015 UDFA from Florida has one more year left on his deal.
Johnson is a 2018 UDFA from FCS school Southern. He signed with Washington and made the 53 as a rookie, appearing in 14 games while playing a limited role. He started this season on the reserve/PUP list, and was activated a couple of weeks ago. He immediately slid into the starting lineup, starting each of the past two games.
Delaney is a 2018 UDFA from Miami, who has bounced around and appeared in two games for Jacksonville as a rookie. Borders is a 2017 UDFA from Duke who has spent the past few years going on and off various teams’ practice squads. With veteran Josh Norman still in the doghouse, it’s possible both see the field in Week 17.
Delaney was a rookie undrafted free agent this past year who first signed with the Jaguars. He bounced between Jacksonville’s practice squad and active roster, before he was ultimately cut and scooped up by the Dolphins, who stashed him on their practice squad. Delaney played his college ball at Miami, so it makes sense why two of the Florida NFL teams were interested.