John Keim, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Thoughts on latest Redskins moves

A little this and a lot of that:

  • A few days ago I thought the Washington Redskins would do something with defensive linemen Stephen Bowen and Barry Cofield. Before signing defensive end Ricky Jean Francois I figured that would mean pay cuts and much lower cap figures. But after they signed Francois, it became clear that one had to go.

  • I’m a little surprised by Cofield’s release, but I was told there’s an injury issue so if that’s the case it makes sense to release him, see what happens with his health and possibly re-sign him later (like when they cut DeAngelo Hall two years ago). I was told the door was not closed on a possible return.

  • Cofield can still help, if healthy, as a versatile backup who can play end or nose tackle. But keep in mind that new general manager Scot McCloughan wants bigger bodies. Though Cofield was a little larger than his listed weight of 305 pounds, he was still a small nose tackle.

  • Durability was a big concern with coach Jay Gruden last year. It’s safe to say there was definite frustration with the number of players who missed time, especially those who had re-occurring injuries (Phillip Thomas, Jordan Reed, etc). Cofield had missed only one game in his first eight seasons so I don’t put him in the same category as some others. But he’ll be 31 later this month. If he played hurt last year and is dealing with some other injury, I’d definitely wait until the spring to see what happens with him.

  • Bowen was more limited with his play. He was fine down the stretch, but really didn’t show a lot of quickness so he would not have helped in the pass game and would have been just a backup end. At season’s end, though, Bowen was told he was part of their plans. But a change in defensive coaches and an $8.02 million cap hit have a way of changing things.

  • Bowen and Cofield’s release saves the Redskins a combined $9.62 million. Before the Francois signing, the Redskins had $16.7 million in available cap space. I don’t have Francois’ contract breakdown yet to know the initial impact on the cap.

  • McCloughan said at his opening news conference he would not want to spend big on free agents ages 30 or over (see: Hatcher, Jason). The same rule must apply to others as well. Hence, Friday's moves. I thought this group was too old last year and would need a lot of changes this offseason. So here we go. I’m not sure Francois is a sure-fire starter -- the Colts did not view him that way, that’s for sure. But he’s younger and can provide versatility.

  • The Redskins also re-signed offensive tackle Tom Compton. I do not have the numbers for his new deal yet, but I would imagine they’d make another move at this right tackle. Compton is a good guy to have because he can play both tackle spots. Also, Morgan Moses will lose a lot of his offseason development while recovering from his Lisfranc injury. Teammates viewed him as having a long way to go, so I would still put him in that project role for now.

  • There will be more moves, as there should be. I always thought there’d be up to 25 or so new faces this season. This is the purge that often takes place in the first year of a new coach’s regime. But the Redskins saved the bigger rebuilding for Year 2 under Jay Gruden. (The same was true when Mike Shanahan was here; they made bigger moves in the second year.)

  • I don’t know what the next moves are. I know Chris Chester’s name always gets mentioned because he’s in the last year of his contract and will count $4.8 million against the cap, which is a tough number to justify. It could still happen, but as of late Friday afternoon there had been no movement toward lowering that cap number.

  • Again, McCloughan likes bigger players so I could see making a move: Chester is only 303 pounds and just turned 32. Only one of the five linemen McCloughan drafted in San Francisco weighed less than 315 pounds. You’ll hear a lot about San Francisco guard Mike Iupati. (McCloughan was gone before the 49ers drafted him in 2010.) He will be costly and he will have choices. Doug Free is another name because of his ties to new line coach Bill Callahan. But my guess is there will be a lot of flying parts as they make over the roster. Also, Jay Gruden likes more of a power run game. Callahan is well-versed in both power and zone schemes, though they used more of the latter last season in Dallas.

  • It would be nice if the Redskins actually developed their own linemen for a change, something that has not been done in Washington for a long, long time. Rather than spend to replace Chester, if he’s not around, they could plug in last year’s third-rounder, Spencer Long. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

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