Chris Baker To Sign Three Year Deal With Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Washington Redskins have lost one of their most important defensive players in free agency. Chris Baker has left the team and will join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The bleeding just keeps continuing for the Washington Redskins. After losing Pierre Garcon to the 49ers on Wednesday, the team lost two players to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday. The first, DeSean Jackson, had widely been considered a candidate to sign elsewhere, so that was not a huge surprise. However, the departure of stud defensive end Chris Baker will greatly hurt them, as he inked a deal with the Bucs as well.

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Baker has long been the best interior lineman on the Redskins team. Playing the 3-4 defensive end position, Baker was one of the few players who saw success last season on the defensive unit. He put up 4.5 sacks and generally was able to collapse the pocket. The team was interested in keeping the lifelong Redskin, but they must have ultimately decided that he was too much money.

However, on the surface, it does not appear to be that egregious of a deal. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted out information about the deal:

A $6-$7 million per year deal for one of the better 3-4 ends in the league seems like a more than reasonable contract. If the Redskins were not willing to pay that, then there may in fact be something wrong in the front office. By comparison, the team dished out $5 million annually to Terrell McClain, a one year wonder at nose tackle, earlier in the day. If they wanted to spend heavily on defense, why not retain Baker for a reasonable price?

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This departure may be the most concerning one of the Redskins offseason thus far. Garcon and Baker were the two biggest free agents that the Redskins had to prioritize re-signing this offseason. They were not able to retain either, and that is a huge black mark against the organization. Daniel Snyder needs to do something to fix the Redskins quickly. Otherwise, they will continue to fall further and further out of potential contender status.

UPDATE: According to Fox Sports, Chris Baker signed a 3 year, $15.75 million deal. That is a bargain for Baker’s services, and it makes me wonder why the Redskins did not try harder to retain him.