Official Redskins Free Agency Thread 2013 Part II

[Defensewins]

Originally Posted by CultBrennan59

Winfield is a better CB/DB than what we have now. He's just a great defender. If we sign him it gives us flexibility in the draft if we can't get one of our top targeted DBs. Also it can help us possibly trade a guy like josh Wilson. Or cut DHall. Or just have a lot of talented DBs.

Yes sir, that is huge. This way we have a better chance of drafting BPA starter talent at any position. Much better than reaching for need and increasing the chance of drafting a bust. The wildcard risk in this move is Winfield's age/health to $ cost. Like any move it is a gamble.
Winfield is a player, CB position would go from below average weakness to above average strength.

At Safety: Draft a safety. Tanard comes back from suspension for cheap (?), Brandon Meriweather comes back from injury (?), Jordan Bernstein and Dejon Gomes step up/mature (?), ok depth with Doughty and Pugh.
With deeper CB position it increases flexibility to occasionally play DHall at safety in dime or nickle.

We pay for our rookies and Winfield by reworking a Trent Williams, Garcon, Josh Wilson deal. Not by cutting.
Next year our cap will have a windfall with the removal of the penalty.

[ethat001]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

We pay for our rookies and Winfield by reworking a Trent Williams, Garcon, Josh Wilson deal. Not by cutting.
Next year our cap will have a windfall with the removal of the penalty.

Therein lies the beauty of Shanahan / Bruce. They certainly could have made a ton of magic cap room this year, simply by restructuring a ton of deals like Cerrato used to do. They still can if necessary. But at least we're not rushing to win the offseason out of the gates with seemingly unlimited cap space -- leaving restructured dead space for years to come.

Takes a ton of patience to avoid doing that, reassuring everyone the sky isn't falling on the O-line or secondary, and taking guys like Trueblood and Pashos instead of the highest paid FA out there. Cerrato would have spent a couple of draft picks and $50 million dollars last year when Merriweather / Jackson went out of the picture last year. I remember when we threw away a 3rd rounder for TJ Duckett because Portis hurt his shoulder the week before the season opener, then went on to run for 132 yards -- all season.. Talk about irrational paranoia.

Glad to see we have a hard-nosed front office who doesn't panic and seems to always look ahead.