A Good Move

Getting the left side in order

The Redskins made a trade today...AND I DON'T HATE IT!!!!!!!! The Redskin Report first broke it and Jason LaCanfora confirms it, the Redskins have traded a conditional pick, a 5th in 2008 (next year's draft) or a 4th in 2009 to the New York Jets for veteran offensive guard Pete Kendall, then signed Pete to a two-year deal. The Redskins are already without their 4th next year after the TJ Duckett deal last season.

This is a great move but first the background.

Mike Pucillo was signed by the Redskins in March 2006 as a backup guard and center. In 2006 Mike appeared in 12 games and started none. In the 2006 depth chart Mike was listed as backup center but got most of his action as an extra tight end in the modern versio of Heavy Jumbo. The Redskins re-signed him for 2007 to retain depth and with Todd Wade out with a shoulder injury Mike played with the starters last week. It was Mike and undrafted rookie free agent Stephon Heyer that botched their assignments, allowing Brett Keisel van Oelhoffen to get his cheap and free shot at Jason Campbell's knees (which by the way no matter how many times you say football is brutal was an illegal hit and it's not satisfactory to say well it happens so stfu kthx).

Todd Wade was signed by the Redskins five days before the 2006 season opener and appeared in two games, starting one in place of right tackle Jon Jansen. The Redskins re-signed him and hoped to move him to left guard to replace the departed Derrick Dockery. Todd is a natural tackle and has had a tough time adjusting to the guard position.

When Derrick left the Redskins for a seven year 49 million dollar contract (16 million dollar signing bonus) with the Buffalo Bills, the Redskins did not try and find a top shelf guard to replace him, and that's good because the market for guards was thin this year.

Then we get into the politics of the line. Stephon Heyer, not Todd Wade, was pressed into service at left tackle when Chris Samuels went down for a month. As indicated above, Todd is a natural tackle, as is Stephon, but Todd is an eight-year veteran and Stephon is an undrafted rookie. The team really wanted to see Todd play that guard position but he was not progressing fast enough and then hurt his shoulder which forced Mike Pucillo to start at LG.

That's a problem because Mike is the backup center and the team can't have him too close to the top of the depth chart at LG in case center Casey Rabach gets hurt because Mike would have to move to center forcing Todd or Taylor Whitley to start at left guard.

So this is a good move. Pete Kendall has been a starter every one of his 12 seasons and had a great 2006 with the Jets. He had a falling out with the team, no doubt one that we will be hearing a lot about now that Pete is a Redskin.

The Jets had asked Pete to take a paycut and restructure his contract downward by one million dollars back in January, and he did (TimesSelect), and according to the scuttlebutt, the team had promised to give it back in his next contract and then reneged. Then the Jets started fucking with him. When the Jets reported to camp, Pete was the only veteran assigned (TimesSelect) to the satellite dorm for rookies.

They tried to devalue him, therefore giving him and his agent less leverage in negotiations, by removing him from the top of the depth chart and making him a reserve and even made him play center (TimesSelect) in practice on 12 August, a position the team already understood Pete could not play well.

So let's look at the value exchanged.

The Redskins gave up a late round pick and only one at that, unlike the TJ Duckett deal. As we know the Redskins don't really value picks lower than second round so they will not miss this pick. They get a starter that will stopgap them for at least two seasons by which point this offensive line will be older than dirt so I hope there is a plan in there to rejuvenate it.

The Jets gave up a starter and who knows what happened there but by giving Pete way this season they may have helped their locker room but they hurt their offensive line. Thomas Jones and oft-injured Chad Pennington are probably unhappy. The general consensus I've heard so far on The Red Zone and The Afternoon Blitz on Sirius NFL Radio (and I consider Bruce Murray, Carl Banks, Adam Schein and Jim Miller to be pretty good football minds) is that potential replacements Adrian Jones and Jacob Bender are not ready for prime time, and the guard position will suffer in 2007.

But the Jets are laughing all the way to the draft. The Redskins gave up a fourth rounder for a player they didn't want when they probably could have gotten Pete for a 5th or 6th rounder (the Dolphins got their likely starter Trent Green for a 6th rounder!), or even for nothing if they had waited until Pete was cut (which was likely but not a certainty).

Overall this was a good transaction for both teams. It hurts the Jets now and helps them in the longer term. For the Redskins it gives them the patch they needed at left guard, though it also highlights the Redskins' problem of an aging offensive line. Pete is 34, bringing the average age of the Redskins offensive line to 30 years and 10 months.



Pete Kendall: Ed Betz / AP from here.