[sportscurmudgeon]

Snyder is target for criticism because he seems to find ways to do things wrong. Let's see how you can explain all of this - and I'm not going back into history to talk about Mark Carrier and Jeff George and Cousin Brucie here...

In January, the report was that Samuels and his agent proposed a restructuring deal that called for Samuels to get a $13M signing bonus over a five year deal with a sixth year option. The report was that the Redskins rejected that offer categorically. Remember, Danny Boy does the "big time negotiations" as witnessed by the breathless threads here about reports that Danny Boy and Samuel's agent were having dinner and that Danny Boy would surely make things OK. Well Danny Boy showed yet again that he may be a marketing whiz but doesn't know his ass from a goalpost in football. The market for offensive tackles went way beyond Samuel's proposal and the agent would not even begin to talk about the offer he had proposed only a couple of weeks prior. So the Skins had to cough up almost $16M to get Samuels and the deal is six full years - no option to get out after five. Who put the team in that bind? The person who categorically rejected the offer in January. I don't think that was the equipment manager...

Let's talk about the brilliant moves surrounding the Coles' situation. First of all, the cap hit would have been less if Danny Boy had not given Coles a $13M signing bonus when Coles was asking for a $10M signing bonus three years ago. You can't hang that one on Gibbs or Spurrier or Schottenheimer or anyone else; that was Danny Boy. Now fast forward to this year when Coles says he wants out of Washington. The instant the team decided to honor that request, it became absolutely imperative for the team to enlist Coles' help in making his departure as cap friendly as possible. Somehow, everything went the other way. Coles was going to go before the March deadline making the 2005 hit a bit less burdensome but then he felt as if the Skins "reneged" on whatever understanding there was. "Reneged" is a tough word and that is exactly the word used by Coles' agent. "Reneged" translates into "you didn't hold up your end of the deal so now I'm going to be an even bigger pain in your ass". Who did that? Who gave the impression of reneging - even if no real reneging actually happened? And remember, we don't know if Coles is a weasel or Danny boy is a weasel here - or if they both are... But just remember that LaVar Arrington also thinks the team "reneged" on an understanding he had with them and that is now in arbitration. Interesting...

Now negotiations with Santana Moss and his agent will begin and Danny Boy is not in a position of strength here. Moss is dirt cheap this year but he is a free agent at the end of the year. So, if they want to lock him up it will take a nice signing bonus and a multi-year deal to make that happen. They can structure the deal so it is cap friendly for this year but they are going to have to commit to Santana Moss for a long time even without seeing him perform here. Or they run the risk of him being a free agent next year and walking - meaning they get one-year of a replacement for Coles as part of their trade. That's not a lot more than you would have gotten by releasing Coles in February so look for the Skins not to take that chance. Moss will get a fat deal here and it will probably be announced pretty soon.