Tandler's Redskins Blog Ver. 01.19.06--Arrington may stay and he may go, but it's likely that a decision will be made by March 1.
Should
LaVar Arrington wind up staying with the Redskins, there will be all kinds
of criticism of the writers who have said that there was virtually no
chance he would be back in 2006 (including at least one who said that
using words from Arrington’s own mouth). If a contract renegotiation takes
place and he stays, it will be because he changed his mind, not because
any journalist was trying to create a sensational story out of thin air.
Look
for whatever happens with Arrington to happen during the couple of weeks
after the Super Bowl. Although his $6.5 million roster bonus isn’t due
until mid June, giving the team some time to decide about him before
actually writing out a check, the entire amount will count against the cap
until he is gone. That’s a pretty substantial handicap to go into free
agent shopping with. On top of that, so many other decisions depend on
what the implications of Arrington staying, going, or renegotiating are.
Those
who think that it would be a disaster if Jason Campbell took meaningful
snaps for the Redskins in 2006 had better take a look around the league. Second-year
quarterbacks Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, rookie Kyle Orton, and
third-year QB Chris Simms all led teams with good defenses and solid
running games to division titles or, in Roethlisberger’s case, the
conference title game.
Now
that the Redskins have been eliminated from the playoffs it is now open
season on their assistant coaches. They’re all still under contract and
the team is working to extend all of them, but under NFL rules the
contracts can be broken if another team is offering them a promotion. It could
be interesting to see how such rules would work in the case of Greg
Blache. His title is Defensive Coordinator, although in reality he’s the
defensive line coach. Gregg Williams is the Assistant Head Coach—Defense. Would
an offer of a promotion to a true coordinator position be enough to free
him from his contract? It’s probably a moot point since he turned down
chances to interview last year, but it would be an interesting ruling.
I’m
torn on whether or not the Redskins should look for a new place kicker. John Hall will pull down a salary of $1.4 million in 2006 and somebody had
better be pretty much automatic for that kind of money. It’s not just the
missed 36-yarder in Seattle, it’s also the six-game hole in the season due
to a leg injury. But if you bring in an untested kicker you risk going
onto the kicker carousel again and signing a vet doesn’t save you much
money and you have the same injury risk.
Everyone
knows that the team’s two biggest priorities going in to this offseason
are a wide receiver to take some heat off of Santana Moss and a
pass-rushing defensive end. There are two ways to acquire such a player
and I would sign a free agent receiver and draft the DE. It generally takes
a couple of seasons for a wideout to develop in the NFL while an defensive
end can come firing right out of the blocks. Let’s take a stab at the
Skins signing Koren Robinson at receiver and drafting Darryl Tapp of
Virginia Tech as the end.
