State of the Redskins Address

Since the State of the Union address was this past week, and I got a request to do an article on the Redskins, I figured I'd put one together on a Friday instead of going out and having a social life. 

Washington is an extremely interesting and exciting team.  Their Zone Blocking scheme was run to perfection last year with Alfred Morris and Robert Griffin III, but just how safe is this team from potential cap issues?  Due to the penalty levied on the club by commissioner Roger Goodell, the Redskins are currently over the salary cap by just over $3 million.  Let's take a look at their free agents first to get an idea of who they're in danger of losing and who they HAVE to make room for.

QB
Rex Grossman

RB
Darrel Young

WR
Brandon Banks

TE
Chris Cooley
Logan Paulson
Fred Davis

OT
Jordan Black
Tyler Polumbus

OG
Kory Lichtensteiger

C
Nick Sundberg

DT/DE
Chris Baker
Kentwan Balmer
Kendrick Golston

LB
Rob Jackson
Bryan Kehl
Chris Wilson

CB
Cedric Griffin

S
Tanard Jackson
Madieu Williams

P
Sav Rocca

Together, that's 97 starts walking out the door.  I'd say the biggest ones close to leaving are Kory Lichtensteiger, Tyler Polumbus, Fred Davis, Madieu Williams, and Rob Jackson.  So how do the Redskins keep those guys?

1) Cut DeAngelo Hall.

Hall is due to make $7,500,000 this year base with a $500,000 workout bonus.  Josh Wilson played well last season and they have some young guys who can step in.  There's also a wealth of CB help in the draft this year with possibly 3 CBs going in the 1st round.  Unfortunately, the Redskins traded away their 1st rounder to get RGIII, so they'll have to wait until the second round to grab one.  It's a risk to start a rookie at CB, but with the vet talent Washington has, it can be done.

This leaves Washington with roughly $5 million.  They'll be able to get their rookies under contract, but what about the 5 guys up there?  None of them are STARS, so they won't command a huge contract.  What other cap wiggling can the Redskins do?

2) Cut Santana Moss

Santana is due a base salary of $4,150,00 with a signing bonus of $1,667,000 and a roster bonus of $350,000.  Cutting him will save the Redskins an additional $4,500,000. 

Now the Redskins are left with $9,000,000 in cap room.  What else can they do?

3) Restructure Trent Williams

As it stands right now, he's counted as about $8,000,000 against the cap.  If the redskins can get him to a 5 year, $50,000,000 deal with $15,000,000 guaranteed, they can cut his base salary down to $2,000,000, pay him the $500,000 he's owed from guaranteed money along with $3,000,000 in new signing bonus money.  His cap hit would be about $5,500,000, a savings of $2,500,000.

I got Washington into the green by $11,500,000...what would you guys do as GM??