Washington Redskins: The moral hazard in retaining Su’a Cravens

The winding road of Su’a Cravens short tenure with the Washington Redskins took a recent turn for the positive when the league reinstated the former second-round pick earlier this week.

Cravens return to the Redskins follows both a promising but tumultuous start to his career, where flashes of his unique dime-backer talent were marred by injury, personal adversity, and erratic behavior.

Cravens’ ledger of serial transgressions last season would normally warrant a quick trip to the waiver wire for any other player returning to active duty. The team was indeed pondering that possibility when it placed him on the reserve / left squad list early last year. But the fact that the team hasn’t pulled the plug on him yet reflects the complicated array of factors that bear on his future with the club.

Cravens’ assets are obvious. He represents a three-down, safety-linebacker hybrid who can fill positions in various spots on the field. On a unit that continues to struggle stopping the run and locking down running backs and tight ends in coverage, Cravens offers the versatility to shore up deficiencies in a defense that continues to yield yardage and time of possession in spades.

Retaining Cravens also serves some institutional purposes. He was picked 53rd overall just two years ago and is playing for a bargain $1.2 million cap number this season. While these considerations should ideally merit little, if any, significance in evaluating his or any player’s standing on a team, they also represent an ample reservoir of political capital Cravens has built with the Redskins.