Bly Week

This guy reallllllllly annoyed me at UNC. He'd look good in burgundy & gold.

It's really flying now and the worst part is we may have to wait until June for all this to materialize.

Dre Bly wants to play in Washington. The Redskins want Dre Bly. The Broncos want the Redskins first round pick. The Redskins want some midround picks. Shawn Springs wants to play in Denver, Denver may covet Ladell Betts. Joe Gibbs says Ladell is staying, Denver won't help offset Shawn's big cap number.

There is a deal in here somewhere.

The Redskins were more than 8 million dollars under the cap before signing Ade Jimoh (won't be a large deal for him) and can create another 4 million by releasing John Hall and Renaldo Wynn. John is done, it's his turn now to wait by the phone for the Redskins kicker to get injured. Renaldo is a backup now, only had 14 tackles for the 2006 season and his position is the main target in the draft.

How the hell did the Redskins get from right at the cap at the end of the 2006 season to potentially 12 million dollars under? Jon Jansen and Randy Thomas got extensions that lowered their 2007 cap number and Mark Brunell, Clinton Portis and Santana Moss all reworked their deals (this is the first time I have heard about Clinton and Santana).

The rub here is that with this much cap room and the team in good shape roster-wise, any potential cap hit incurred by cutting or dealing Shawn Springs is reduced.

I still stick by my position that Shawn is better kept as a high-priced part-time starter than cut outright, even if the Redskins salary cap can handle it. With regard to a trade, I don't fully comprehend the rules of trading when it comes to salary cap numbers, but it seems overly restrictive to hit a team for the traded-away player's cap number and the traded-for player's cap number. There must be something in there I am missing. I'll have to raise my hand at the next Mark Maske chat and see if he can answer that question.

Dre Bly is a former Pro Bowler, started all 16 games last season and made 3 interceptions, which is exactly as many as Carlos Rogers, Shawn, Kenny Wright and Mike Rumph combined for in 2006. Detroit, Dre's former team, was a dreadful 28th overall defense in 2006 (as measured in opponents' yards per game), and only rises to 25th in passing defense (as measured in opponents' passing yards per game). However, temper that with the usual dreck about a first-year coach whose specialty is the defensive line and yada yada I'm really tired today.

On the matter of trading the pick, I was at first adamant about the Redskins trading it for a package of lower-round picks, but then I realized the Redskins don't draft well, so why would I want to see the team stocked with draft picks that are likely to be wasted anyway? Unless there is a major shift in the team's philosophy or someone is brought from the outside to man the draft, the Redskins are better keeping the number 6 overall pick and taking a defensive lineman, since all the free agency thus far has been at linebacker and cornerback. The Redskins neglected the line to date because they still think they will have the 6th overall pick.

The core of any deal with Denver will be that pick for Dre Bly. Any other players or picks will be secondary. The Redskins can deal that pick safely, but only if they have a Plan B for bolstering the defensive line.

Hogs Haven has the broad coverage, Tandler's has the trademath.


All unlinked references in this piece are from this Jason La Canfora Washington Post story.



Dre Bly as a hated Tarheel from here.