Redskins Notes: Cap Space, Kling
The Redskins have lost $4.5MM in cap space after paying back a “salary cap loan” from the 2011 campaign, as Rich Tandler of CSNMidAtlantic.com explains. Once the lockout concluded in 2011, the league-wide salary cap was set at $120MM per team, a $3MM decrease from the previous capped year. Because of the discrepancy, the NFL allowed clubs to borrow cap space: up to $3MM in 2011, and up to $1.5MM in 2012. Both amounts had to be repaid by 2017, so the bill has now come due for Washington.
- The Redskins are working out offensive tackle John Kling, tweets Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. King signed with Chicago last summer after being undrafted out of Buffalo, but was waived during final cutdowns and never latched on with another team.
Redskins To Sign LB Zach Brown
The Redskins have agreed to terms with free agent linebacker Zach Brown, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). The deal is pending a physical. Brown signed a one-year deal worth a maximum value of $4.65MM, including a $500K signing bonus (Twitter link).Brown was once said to be seeking a multi-year pact in the $6MM range, but this isn’t a bad outcome for an April signing.
Brown, one of only four PFR Top 50 free agents who were unsigned going into Monday, was linked to several clubs in recent weeks. Ultimately, it’s the Redskins that are coming away with him, but the Raiders, Dolphins, Colts, and the incumbent Bills all showed varying levels of interest. The Raiders and Dolphins were said to be the two finalists for Brown, but word later leaked out that the Fins were not likely to sign him. The Colts may have backed out after adding fellow linebacker Sean Spence.
The Redskins have starting linebackers Mason Foster and restricted free agent Will Compton returning to the fold this year. Brown, it seems, will come in as an upgrade over Compton. Compton ranked as the No. 74 linebacker in the league last season, per Pro Football Focus, while Brown placed 17th.
After racking up 149 total tackles, four sacks, and two forced fumbles for the Bills last season, Brown entered March with hopes of cashing in. Ultimately, his age and lack of history as a top quality ‘backer hampered his market and limited his list of suitors.
Zach Brown To Visit Redskins
Zach Brown‘s free agent tour will continue, as the veteran linebacker will take a meeting with the Redskins on Monday, according to John Keim of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Brown, one of only four PFR Top 50 free agents who remains unsigned, has been linked to several clubs over the past month, including the Raiders, Dolphins, Colts, and Bills. At one point, Brown was thought to be choosing between Oakland and Miami, but the Fins are now not expected to sign the 27-year-old. Reportedly looking for a multi-year pact in the $6MM range, Brown has yet to find a team willing to match that ask.
Washington, meanwhile, has two starting linebackers returning in the forms of Mason Foster and restricted free agent Will Compton, but Brown would be an upgrade on the latter. Compton ranked as only the No. 74 linebacker in the league last season, per Pro Football Focus, while Brown placed 17th.
Latest On Kirk Cousins
We learned several days ago that the Redskins offered Kirk Cousins a five-year extension that would begin in 2018, after Cousins plays out the 2017 campaign under the $23.94MM franchise tag. However, we also heard that the two sides remain far apart in negotiations, as the proposed extension does not include significant guaranteed money.
Not only is the Redskins’ current offer not sufficient to tempt Cousins, but John Keim of ESPN.com is pessimistic that a long-term deal will get done at all (some sources, Keim says, are even more pessimistic). Keim believes the club has waited too long to make an offer that Cousins will accept, and that, at this point, Cousins has more incentive to wait and see how things play out in Washington with respect to the direction of the franchise, how he meshes with coach Jay Gruden as a playcaller, etc. After all, if the Redskins want to be sure that Cousins remains with the team in 2018, they would need to apply the franchise tag for a third and final time next year, which would mean paying Cousins over $34MM. If Washington does not offer an extension that includes at least that much in fully-guaranteed money, Cousins may be better off testing the open market, where he would almost certainly be the best quarterback available.
For its part, the team continues to insist that an extension will get done, and perhaps as the July deadline for a long-term pact approaches, Washington will increase its offer enough to get Cousins to eschew the prospect of free agency in 2018. But as Keim notes, the Redskins also have to be realistic and prepare for the chance that Cousins will not be around next year. Not everyone in the organization is as convinced as departed GM Scot McCloughan that 2016 sixth-rounder Nate Sudfeld is the solution, and this year’s crop of rookie signal-callers is believed to be rather weak. Nonetheless, as Keim reports, McCloughan was “studying a lot of quarterbacks” prior to his dismissal, which could have been simple due diligence, or which could have been preparation for life with Cousins.
As our Connor Byrne wrote earlier this week, Cousins has made his case for a sizable commitment since he took over as the Redskins’ starter in 2015. He started all of the Redskins’ games over the past two seasons and helped the team to a 17-14-1 record, including an NFC East title in 2015. Along the way, Cousins combined for over 9,000 yards, 54 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
Redskins Interested In T.J. Watt
- Wisconsin’s T.J. Watt, brother of Texans superstar J.J. Watt, is drawing interest from a bevy of teams and getting looks at various front seven positions. The younger Watt has lined up at outside linebacker, inside linebacker and along the defensive line in recent workouts. Watt told Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com that he has worked out for the Cowboys, Lions and Patriots in the past week. He’s scheduled to work out for the Panthers, too, and will visit the Cowboys’ and Redskins’ facilities soon.
Extra Points: Kaepernick, 49ers, Bears
After talking with general managers at the league meetings, Tom Pelissero of USA Today doesn’t sense that free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick‘s political beliefs have stopped him from landing a contract. The problem isn’t Kaepernick’s asking price, either; rather, it’s that he needs a specific type of offense to fit his style as a mobile signal-caller who has issues with accuracy and struggles when he has to stay in the pocket. Notably, the 49ers’ new head coach, Kyle Shanahan, indicated to Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle that they’re not bringing Kaepernick back because he’s not right for their scheme. “I think Colin has a certain skill set that you can put a specific offense to it that he can be very successful in,” said Shanahan. “When we first looked at it … that wasn’t necessarily the direction I wanted to go.”
More from around the NFL:
- The Bears swung and missed in attempts to reel in high-profile free agents earlier this month, but chairman George McCaskey is hardly holding that against general manager Ryan Pace. “I’ve been very impressed with [Pace] as a leader, as an evaluator of talent,” McCaskey told John Mullin of CSN Chicago. “And one of the things I’ve been most impressed by with him is the discipline he’s shown just as recently as this free agency period. He didn’t want to overpay guys. Too often, I think, you overpay guys who don’t come through for you and then you have a big hole in your salary cap and you’re behind the 8-ball. So I like the discipline he has shown, the restraint he has shown in free agency.”
- North Carolina State safety Josh Jones visited the Ravens on Thursday, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). Jones ranks 48th on the board of Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com, so he could be a candidate for Baltimore’s second-round pick (No. 47).
- “Most signs point to” the Redskins retaining safety DeAngelo Hall on a reworked contract, writes JP Finlay of CSN Mid-Atlantic. The 33-year-old is slated to take up over $5MM in cap space next season, though the Redskins would save most of that ($4.25MM) by releasing him. Hall hasn’t stayed healthy in recent years, having missed 31 of 48 regular-season games since 2014, so he wouldn’t have much leverage if the Redskins were to insist on a pay cut.
Bruce Allen To Scot McCloughan: “Nobody Wants You Here”
Redskins president Bruce Allen spoke highly of fired general manager Scot McCloughan over the weekend, but it appears their relationship was disastrous behind the scenes. McCloughan relayed details of his two-plus-year tenure in Washington to his friend, former NFL fullback Michael Robinson, who passed along that information to FOX Sports 910 in Richmond, Va., on Thursday (via Michael Phillips of the Richmond Times-Dispatch).
[RELATED: Redskins Offering Cousins 5-Year Extension]
While Allen claims he and McCloughan “had a wonderful relationship,” that wasn’t the case, according to the latter.
“(McCloughan) knew the players loved him, and he started feeling the hate from Bruce Allen right around, well, he’s been feeling it, but when they didn’t let him speak (to reporters) at the Senior Bowl, he said to him that was his last straw, and he knew that he was on his way out,” Robinson stated. “He said it was after a draft meeting, after the combine, Bruce called him up to his office and was just like, ‘Nobody likes you in this building. Nobody wants you here.’ And Scot was like, ‘Well, I guess I’m out of here.'”
After Allen hit McCloughan with the aforementioned gag order during the Senior Bowl, the GM wasn’t present at the scouting combine. The Redskins attributed McCloughan’s absence to the death of his grandmother, but speculation abounded regarding his status with the organization. And when the Redskins fired him shortly after, on March 9, a team official told the Washington Post that McCloughan, who has a history of alcohol abuse, “had multiple relapses” and “showed up in the locker room drunk on multiple occasions.” McCloughan says otherwise.
“He said, ‘Mike, I don’t have an issue right now drinking,'” Robinson revealed. “‘I haven’t touched a drink in a while. But of course they wouldn’t let me say it because they silenced me.'”
It’s possible McCloughan’s next move will be to take legal action against the Redskins, though the two sides could be working on a settlement to avoid litigation, contends Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. And whether McCloughan will land another job in the league is unknown, but it doesn’t seem a return to Seattle, where he worked from 2010-13, is going to happen.
Redskins Offering Cousins 5-Year Extension
While Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins’ future in Washington is uncertain beyond 2017, team president Bruce Allen would like to keep him in the fold for the long haul.
Asked if the Redskins view Cousins as someone capable of serving as the face of the franchise for the next half-decade or so, Allen told Albert Breer of TheMMQB: “Well, since we’ve offered him a contract around that length, I’d say yes we do. He has gotten better the last three years, and we see him getting better in the future, and that’s why we do want to sign him long-term. We like his role as our quarterback and our leader, we just have to work that out.”
The Redskins have floated a five-year extension for Cousins, reports Breer, who adds that the new deal would include the soon-to-be 29-year-old’s franchise-tagged 2017, in which he’ll make $23.94MM. The pact would then begin in 2018 and keep Cousins under Redskins control through the 2022 campaign. However, “the sides aren’t close to getting something done now,” writes Breer. That’s not surprising, as the proposal includes “roughly” $20MM per annum and a “low guarantee,” reports Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post (Twitter link via the Post’s Mike Jones). A “serious” offer would need to feature at least $40MM fully guaranteed at signing, posits Joel Corry of CBS Sports (Twitter link).
If Washington doesn’t sign Cousins by July 15, he’ll play a second straight season under the tag. Designating him as their franchise player again next year would cost the Redskins an unpalatable $34MM-plus, which undoubtedly increases the urgency to reach a long-term deal in the next three and a half months. Cousins has made his case for a sizable committment since he took over as the Redskins’ starter in 2015. He started all of the Redskins’ games over the past two seasons and helped the team to a 17-14-1 record, including an NFC East title in 2015. Along the way, Cousins combined for over 9,000 yards, 54 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
Jay Gruden Disappointed By Scot McCloughan's Dismissal
- Redskins head coach Jay Gruden was upset to hear about the dismissal of former general manager Scot McCloughan. as Liz Clarke of the Washington Post writes. “I was disappointed,” Gruden said. “I like Scot. I liked working with Scot. I think he’s a good person and a great talent evaluator. Anytime you lose someone, it’s disappointing. But at the end of the day, it’s professional football. Anyone who has been around it understands that change is going to happen.” Washington isn’t planning to hire a new GM until after the draft.
Redskins Prez Bruce Allen On McCloughan
With one month to go until the NFL Draft, the Redskins are without a general manager and they will wait until after the draft’s conclusion to fill the vacancy. After a drama-filled offseason which saw Scot McCloughan ousted for alleged issues with alcohol, team president Bruce Allen spoke publicly for the very first time this week when he sat down with Liz Clarke of The Washington Post. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from their chat:
On firing McCloughan:
I thought it was the right thing to do for where we were at the time. We wanted to give clarity to our free agents and to our staff of where we were going. For Scot, it was good timing because it allows him to be hired by anyone right now before this draft…I enjoyed working with [Scot’s father and brother] and the success we had in Oakland. Obviously that’s what I envisioned when I brought Scot to the Redskins. So, yes, I’m disappointed it didn’t work out. I hope it works out for him in the future. My responsibility is to the Redskins and the organization and the scouts and the players on this team.
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On reports that McCloughan’s dismissal was driven by the jealousy of Allen and others in the organization:
Scot and I had a wonderful relationship. I do like him as a person. And I wanted him to do great. And it just didn’t work out.
On Daniel Snyder’s decision to give an extension to coach Jay Gruden:
[Gruden] has established himself as a good leader for our team. Our players have responded well to him. His honesty and his directness and his sense of humor have taken us through some speed bumps in the season. His ability to creatively come up with new ways to attack a defense is something that we’re very fortunate to have.