Now that the superbowl is over, and the 2016-2017 season is officially behind us, we can begin to look forward to the offseason. The Washington Redskins were titled the offseason champions for about the first 16 seasons of Dan Snyder’s ownership tenure. Since then Scot McCloughan has taken over and the Redskins have changed course a bit. There was a sprinkling of superstar brought in with the Josh Norman signing, but the Redskins have been building from within and building through the draft.
In this new blog series titled 4 down territory we will go quick hitters on 4 things I would like to see the Redskins do BEFORE the start of free agency.
First down – No surprise here, SIGN KIRK COUSINS TO A LONG TERM DEAL. I don’t even want to see a Franchise Tag placed on Kirk (Not Kurt Bruce, not Kurt). Kirk wants to be here in DC. Bruce, Jay, and hopefully Scot want Kirk here so let’s just make it happen! The Redskins have over 60 million dollars in cap space, what’s the 22-24 million that it will take to sign Kirk? He is clearly deserving, end of story, period, no ifs ands or buts. UPDATE: Kory Lichtenstiger decided to make his retirement official today so the redskins actually have about 65 million in cap space.
Second down – Allow Scot McCloughan to speak to the media. Actually, don’t allow Scot to speak to the media. It was reported by the Washington post that Bruce Allen won’t let Scot McCloughan talk to media because his job is to focus on talent evaluation. What’s wrong with that? As long as Scot is ok with that why should we care? Scot is a great talent evaluator, so let him be the talent evaluator! Let Bruce do the political talking, after all that’s probably what he’s best suited for.
Third down – Decide to keep Pierre Garcon or Desean Jackson for continuity of the offense. In my opinion it’s a no brainer, you have to keep Pierre. He is a vital part of this offense and shows up to play down in and down out. He is a known quantity and is consistent at it. Not to even mention all the great things he does off the field and in the community. The Redskins lost their offensive coordinator this offseason but the best way to overcome that is to keep continuity of the offense. After all, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
Fourth down – Prioritize which positions on defense need immediate upgrade and which players can still be stop gap solutions for some positions. With 65 million in cap space the Redskins can add some serious player upgrades on defense, but they need to prioritize which positions are worth spending high dollar on and which positions can be upgraded in later rounds of the draft or some cheaper options in free agency. In my opinion it goes, ILB, DL, S.
Defeating the Curse 