The Redskins targeted their defensive line as the most costly need on their roster heading into free agency 2011, and already, I am not sure that I follow the team’s thought process at that point. Let’s also put this out there: they spent more than $30 million dollars in guaranteed or practically guaranteed money at this position alone. That puts their expendatures at this position more or less on par with their expendatures on the DL in 2009, which included signing Albert Haynesworth and extending Andre Carter. So the Redskins have not been shy about trying to address mistakes made in the the past by throwing money at younger players aimed to solve problems on the defensive front. Let’s take a look at what the Redskins actually bought with this money.
Incumbent defensive linemen: NT Anthony Bryant, DE Adam Carriker, DE Vonnie Holliday, DE Darrion Scott, and the team could still bring back DE Kedric Golston
Defensive Lineman added via the draft: DE Jarvis Jenkins, NT Chris Neild
Summary of the above: Carriker and Jarvis Jenkins are the only locks for roster spots, but if you pencil in Holliday and Bryant as well, you likely won’t have to erase anything you’ve written. That leaves three available roster spots.
Redskins signings: New York Giants DT Barry Cofield signs for 6 years, $36 million, with $12.5 million guaranteed. Dallas Cowboys DE Stephen Bowen signs for 5 years, $27.5 million, with $12.5 million guaranteed
The Redskins bought on Barry Cofield before the market had time to set, and that actually ended up being a huge boon for the team. The valued asset in the free agent market has turned out to be youth, which, relatively speaking, applies to both Cofield and Bowen. A vast majority of the 3-4/4-3 interior line market is comprised of thirty somethings. Names like Cullen Jenkins, Shaun Ellis, Aubrayo Franklin, Jacques Cesaire, Shaun Smith, Kelly Gregg, Albert Haynesworth, and Anthony Adams all feature a “3” in their age value. The Redskins were reportedly interested in two of those players: Cullen Jenkins and Aubrayo Franklin. They ended up going young and then young again instead.
The Cofield contract appears to be a bargain by as much as the Bowen contract looks to be an overpay. Check out those guaranteed money figures, and divide them by the length of the contract. Cofield is costing just $2 mil/year in prorated bonus money. Bowen is costing $2.5 million in prorated bonus money. Cofield is a four year starter and former super bowl champion. Bowen, uh, had a nice year stepping in for Marcus Spears in 2010. Their resumes couldn’t be more different: Cofield is young and highly accomplished, while Bowen has flashed great potential on film, but hasn’t consistently emerged as a starter.
Bowen probably shouldn’t have been in Cullen Jenkins’ ballpark in terms of guaranteed dollars or annual salary, and his deal with the Redskins actually exceeded not only Jenkins deal, but that of the far more valuable Ray Edwards as well. Bowen’s role on this team will be very specific: he’s a 5 technique DE in the team’s first and second down packages. He’s getting paid way more than a player in this role should. Furthermore, I think Adam Carriker is a superior player, and he is in the last year of his contract, and I can’t see this deal doing anything to make Carriker easier to retain at the end of the year.
The Cofield conundrum is that the Redskins admittedly don’t know where they are going to play him in a 30 front. Cofield is scheme versatile enough to believe he’ll find a place, but with the premium that 30 teams put on nose tackles, and the number of ends this team has (including Bowen), there’s a big difference in quality of this contract in terms of whether Cofield can or can not solve the nose tackle problem at a level higher than Anthony Bryant can. Not knowing where someone will play in a 30 front is a better alternative to pretending to know and being unwilling to try different things to improve the defense, but it’s clearly inferior to signing a player with a clear idea of where he will line up.
The biggest difference between the Albert Haynesworth signing by the Redskins in 2009 and the Julius Peppers signing by the Bears in 2010 is that the Bears knew exactly how Peppers would fit their defense on the day he was acquired, which really increased the team’s chance for success. For the Redskins, Greg Blache requested a talented DT to fill a hole his defense had in 2008 (in his estimation), so Vinny Cerrato went out and bought the highest rated DT on the market. Blache’ defensive line was improved on the interior, but only by as much as he inteneded to improve it, not by as much as Cerrato intended (by not doing anything to upgrade a lacking offense).
Something similar could be at play here for the Redskins. Cofield and Bowen make the Redskins defensive line better in 2011 than it was in 2010. Problem is, if we get to midseason and Adam Carriker and Anthony Bryant are still the two best combinations of scheme and talent on the defensive line, the fact that Cofield and Bowen are making the Redskins a marginally better defense on 70% of the snaps will not outweigh the fact that the Redskins’ rebuilding project isn’t progressing. These signings are only a success if the Redskins get both a starting nose tackle of the future and a defensive end out of the money they spent.
Cofield looks like a nice bargain signing, a potential leader for years on the defensive line. Bowen looks like an expensive poach-job from a suddenly lacking Cowboys front three. The only thing that matters is that for all $30 million of first year money spent on this do, that the Redskins defense is better for it. That is the goal and the intention, but it’s not obviously clear that the Redskins have succeeded in improving at the first level of the defense despite the expensive investment it made in 27 year old NFC East players this week.
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