Dancing Somewhere Else Next Year

Wrong again

A very short chapter in Redskins history has been completed, the Redskins cut defensive end Jason Taylor yesterday. He was here for a total of one seasons.

I thought this was a pretty good deal at the time, something needed to happen with two defensive ends, starter Phillip Daniels and backup Alex Buzbee, both going down on the same day, and Bill Parcells having put Jason on the trading block days earlier. Jason it seems was unhappy about the Dolphins heading into yet another year of rebuilding, Bill Parcells or no Jason was 33 last summer, starting to contemplate the NFL sunset and what he would do afterwards and wanted to win.

Bill Parcells, newly hired as Dolphins general manager, on the other hand was a bit miffed (op. cit.) about all the time Jason spent on Dancing with the Starts and in trying to break in Entourage style to Hollywood.

So it seemed like a good deal, Washington's second rounder in the upcoming 2009 draft and a sixth rounder in the 2010 draft was the cost.

But it never really worked out. As a number of people said and wrote, Washington already had a speed edge rusher in Andre Carter and trading Phillip Daniels for Jason Taylor was trading run stoppage for pass rush. Already tragically unable to stop the run lo these last few years, the team acquired a guy they already had and ignored what they really needed. To make matters worse they asked him to switch sides in deference to Andre Carter.

Then Jason sprained his knee in the preseason debacle against Carolina, that would have been only a minor setback, but then after getting kicked in the calf in game three against the Cardinals, Jason had pain overnight and then emergency surgery to relieve acute compartment syndrome, a buildup of pressure in a group of muscles in the arm or leg. The initial recovery time for the twenty minute surgery was projected at one week to seven months, Jason wound up missing two games but was nearly invisible for the rest of the season, totaling a whopping 29 tackles and 3.5 sacks for the year, down from 58 tackles and 11 sacks for the Dolphins in 2007, continuing a three season decline.

After the season Jason was unsure about whether to return and openly questioned himself as to whether he was worth eight million dollars to the Redskins in 2009. After a period of reflection Jason decided he was back in the game and was going to return and be ready for the season.

=====

The team though I think had other plans and I question how this whole thing looks. Apparently the show stopper was a workout clause the team wanted to add to Jason's contract that would have mandated Jason attend 75 percent of offseason workouts, beginning this month and going right up to the start of training camp. In exchange for attending these workouts the team was going to add a 500 thousand dollar workout bonus to Jason's contract.

Jason said no, he did not want to spend any more time away from his family than necessary, after spending the entire 2008 season in Washington by himself, his family makes their home in Miami, he wanted to be with his wife and three daughters.

Have a look at the mechanics of this situation.

Seventy-five percent of the workouts is 39 sessions. Fourteen of them would have been mandatory, between organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamps. That leaves 25 workouts to attend in thirteen weeks. To hear Vinny Cerrato describe it, Jason could have come in Tuesday, worked out Wednesday and Thursday and flown home Thursday afternoon. Seems reasonable to me, why would Jason not agree to this?

Then look at the flip side. After Jason agreed to honor his original contract with no changes and the team agreeing to that notion, the team now suddenly is asking Jason to come to town every week for the whole summer.

Me? I do not see a problem with that and was a bit disappointed when former coach Joe Gibbs agreed to let players work out on their own after the 2006 season, I would like to see year round gym rat football players that need to be shooed away from the facilities and not entitled pros that think February through July is their time.

Understanding that I know only what I have read in the last 18 hours, it seems a bit hypocritical for the team to let players cruise as recently as 2007, specifically Sean Taylor, Shawn Springs, Clinton Portis, Brandon Lloyd and Santana Moss, then suddenly decide Jason cannot be a part of this team because he is not willing to train here in the offseason.

My theory? Both parties were unhappy and not communicating all that well and this was the thing that the team could use to get rid of Jason.

Think about it, if Jason gets twelve sacks in 2008 no one gives a shit where he trains. Even if you say you are worried about his injuries and Jason rehabbing from them, look at his career. He has taken excellent care of his body over his whole career and as a football fan I have no reason to question his training regimen.

This smells like the team ginning up a bullshit excuse to bury a mistake.



Jim Zorn and Jason Taylor from Jason's introductory press conference in July: Getty Images from here.