| Andrew Perna. 28th February, 2009 - 11:48 am
 The Redskins may have finished last in the competitive NFC East this past season, but they certainly puffed out their chest early on Friday morning by signing this offseason’s most coveted free agent.
The Titans weren’t willing to offer Haynesworth the type of money he wanted to stay in Tennessee, and the race reportedly came down to the Redskins and Buccaneers, although agent Chad Speck revealed to ESPN that a host of teams inquired about the defensive tackle when he officially hit the market on Thursday at midnight.
Haynesworth, who will turn 28 this June, inked a seven-year deal worth $100 million, with $41 million of that total guaranteed.
He had a career-high 8 ½ sacks, and forced three fumbles, with Tennessee last season, despite missing two games. He hasn’t played a full season since 2002, his rookie campaign, having missed a total of 22 games over the last six years.
There is no question that his presence alone with make the Redskins stronger defensively, and that the Titans will have a hard time filling his spot on the line, but we won’t know how much of impact he’ll have until we see if he’s able to answer doubts about his durability.
For a player of his caliber, missing a game or two might not seem like a huge issue, but Washington won’t be able to lose a step in a division that, even with Haynesworth, they’ll likely be projected to finish third or fourth in next season.
With that said, the Redskins only got seven sacks from their stable of five defensive tackles last season (Cornelius Griffin, Lorenzo Alexander, Ryan Boschetti, Kedric Golston, and Anthony Montgomery).
Opposing offenses will have to pay more attention to Haynesworth than they did to any one of Washington’s tackles in 2008, which should allow guys like Griffin, Alexander and Golston to be more productive. The increased focus on the middle of the line should also allow ends like Jason Taylor (assuming he’s definitely back) and Andre Carter to break through more often than they did last year.
While he did suffer a pretty serious injury, Taylor’s 3 ½ sacks were the second-lowest total of his career -- he had just 2 ½ back in 1999.
As a team, Washington ranked in the league’s top-eight in terms of total yards, rushing yards, and passing yards per game. They also ranked sixth in points per game allowed (18.5), just a step behind rivals New York and Philadelphia.
As solid as they were defensively, they tallied just 24 sacks, the third-lowest number in the entire league. Haynesworth, both individually and through his presence, won’t allow that to happen in 2009.
While we don’t know what kind of offer Tampa Bay made, it appears as though Washington’s offer far outweighed those of the other half dozen or so clubs that contract Speck about Haynesworth.
The Buccaneers did enter Friday with the most cap space of any other team, so it’s likely that their offer was in the $100 million range.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’d like to say that the Redskins overpaid a little bit to sign Haynesworth, but, he was the most coveted player on the market, even though he wasn’t officially a free agent for more than a few hours.
Grade for Redskins: A-
Haynesworth wasn’t able to get the money he wanted from the Titans, but didn’t have any difficulty getting it from the Redskins. If the reported terms of this deal are true, he could struggle through the next seven years (whether it be because of injury or ineffectiveness, with the latter unlikely) and still haul in over $40 million.
Not too bad.
Grade for Haynesworth: A+
Andrew Perna is Deputy Editor of RealGM.com and co-host of RealGM’s Radio Show. Please feel free to contact him with comments or questions via e-mail: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com |
