Cooley, Oh!

Locking up core players? What the fuh.....?

Chris Cooley, the Redskins precocious tight end, has signed a longterm deal to stay with the team, the Redskins' standard 6 year 30 million dollar deal. He will get 14 million in guaranteed money presumably split between an initial signing bonus and a roster bonus in a season or two.

This is great news. The Redskins have come a long way since Don Warren and actively incorporate the tight end into the offense. With Jason Campbell and Chris Cooley having played together for three seasons and Jason becoming the incumbent starter this season I expect Chris Cooley will get a lot of action (*rimshot*). He went early in both fantasy leagues I'm in.

I am worried I am starting to see a trend here. The Redskins signed a current player to a longterm deal at market rates? This is not the Redskins team I know, that team talks about 'core Redskins' and then lets them go. This was discussed in detail in the Washington Post's excellent Lost Season series immediately after the disastrous 2006 campaign.

Champ Bailey. Fred Smoot. Antonio Pierce. Ryan Clark. The fans knew these guys could play and the team let them leave. It is well known among Redskins fans that owner Dan Snyder like a spoiled child tires of his toys before they wear out and is looking for the next thing.

Champ could tell, he split for greener plateaus. Loveboat Freddie, Antonio and Ryan all the same. Dan Snyder even insulted Ryan on the way out the door and now Ryan and Troy Polamalu are one of the best safety tandems in the league.

All this turnover stunts roster development as you need a top corner to replace Champ/Loveboat Freddie (Carlos Rogers a first round pick), a linebacker to replace Antonio (last season's middle linebacker, Lemar Marshall, was cut after signing big-money free agent London Fletcher) and a safety to replace Ryan (first Adam Arculeta was signed for five times what Ryan could have been retained for, then Adam was gone and now the Redskins had to spend another first round pick to get LaRon Landry).

Those two first round picks could have gone to other positions (OL, DL) if the team had cared about its free agents and the money for London could have gone to another top drawer player if they had kept Antonio.

But is the tide starting to turn? First Ladell Betts was re-signed to a deal that many including I thought was too small when he could have gone to another team for more money and competed for a full time starting gig but hey maybe I should take him at his word that he wanted to stay here for the rest of his career and that was the deal he wanted.

Many Redskins fans including I thought it was wise for the team not to match or exceed Buffalo's deal for Derrick Dockery in the offseason, 7 years 49 million dollars. That's overpaying so that was a wise roster decision. What was not wise was not planning adequately for Derrick's replacement which then translated into a frsutrating camp at left guard and then trading away another draft pick.

Now Chris Cooley. This team is finally paying its own free agents the same it pays incoming free agents that have that new player smell. Is this the start of a trend? I need to poke around and find out who's a free agent after this season.



Image: Washinton Post