Johnathan Hankins entered this offseason as one of the top interior defensive linemen on the free agent market, and a supposed target of the Redskins.
The Ohio State product, who was cut earlier this year by the Colts, commanded a cadre of suitors for his services as the new league year opened. But Hankins’ market collapsed as teams signed and drafted defensive tackles to shore up deficiencies on their defensive lines.
As the demand for his talents waned, Johnathan Hankins became one of this year’s forgotten men. That, in part, resulted from overplaying his hand during free agency, but Hankins still remains a young defensive tackle on an ascendant career arc. The Washington Redskins should not – as they cannot — rule out signing Hankins as a late-camp addition, even as they continue to rebuild their defensive line.
That’s because you can never have too many good defensive linemen; on a team with no proven talent in that positional unit, Hankins would be a perfect candidate to aid in the emergence of a line that consistently has been one of the league’s worst.
Hankins is a young and effective defensive tackle
Hankins, who stands at 6-foot-3 and weighs 325 pounds, represents the prototypical one-gap, space-eating defensive tackle that can consistently stuff the run. He became a Redskins free agent target before this year’s draft, to improve a defense repeatedly gashed by running backs over the past two seasons.
The former Ohio State product, however, was seeking a deal that averaged $8 million a year, per Mark Tyler of Hogs Haven. He left Redskins Park without a contract after the team was only interested in a one-year commitment. The Redskins’ courtship of Hankins then cooled after the team drafted University of Alabama defensive tackle Daron Payne, who was picked to satisfy the role the organization earmarked Hankins to fill. Earlier interest expressed by other teams vanished quickly after they acquired players and/or draft picks to meet their defensive tackle needs.
While Hankins’ sustained stay on the league’s unemployment rolls may have resulted from an overestimation of his market value, Hankins’ current availability is still baffling. At 26 years old, he has yet to reach the prime of a career that has already yielded valuable production at one of the league’s most coveted positions. The league’s commentariat is equally stumped, offering little, if any, answers to Hankins’ conundrum and why the league apparently has little use for a talent like him.
Hankins has produced during his brief career
The New York Giants drafted Hankins in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, and quickly installed him as a starter after incumbent Linval Joseph left the team in 2014. Although Hankins served as a competent replacement for Joseph, Hankins was the odd man out when his rookie deal expired in 2016.
That was because the Giants had struck two blockbuster deals that year with Damon Harrison and Olivier Vernon, both of whom contributed to a defensive unit that had witnessed a complete reversal of fortune from the year before. During that offseason, New York was faced with paying out another rich, long term contract either to Hankins or Jason Pierre-Paul.
The team offered Pierre-Paul a lucrative four-year deal worth $62 million, with $40 million in guarantees, and thus let Hankins test free agency. Hankins then signed a three-year, $27 million deal with the Colts. Despite being ranked by Pro Football Focus as the 20th best interior lineman last year, per Sean Wagner-McGough of CBS Sports, which was one spot of ahead of Leonard Williams, the Colts released him because his forte as a run-stopping defensive tackle somehow didn’t fit the new Colts’ upfield rushing system.
You can never have too many good defensive linemen
Nick Foles’ magical 2018 postseason dominated the storylines chronicling the Eagles championship season last year. But Philly’s improbable run to the Super Bowl could not have happened without one of the league’s best defensive lines.
The line’s impact on the Eagles Super Bowl season didn’t simply result from All-Pros like defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. It was aided by a battery of other effective contributors who kept stars like Cox fresh and allowed the Eagles’ defense to send continued waves of rested linemen against opposing offenses.
The conceptual basis of this personnel philosophy is the time-tested convention that a team can never have too many good defensive linemen, with a particular emphasis on “good.” Players such as rookie Derek Barnett, role player Beau Allen, and veteran Chris Long all played a part in shaping one of the league’s best units at the defensive point of attack. The ability of these Eagles defensive linemen to effectively rotate in for starters made their defensive line a focal point offensive coordinators had to prepare for.
For their part, the Redskins have done well to add young, premiere talent such as Payne and Johnathan Allen to their defensive line. But Payne is an unproven rookie and Allen is coming back from a season-ending injury he suffered early on in his first year. Matt Ioannidis showed promise last year at defensive tackle, but the unit’s two veterans, Ziggy Hood and Stacy McGee, are nothing more than journeyman players. The defensive line rounds out with another rookie in Tim Settle and an unproven talent in Anthony Lanier.
Were the team to sign Hankins, he, at 26, would represent the line’s only veteran who has provided consistent production at his position. This only underscores the stark reality that, despite the optimism generated by the additions of Payne and Allen, the Redskins defensive line consists of either first or second year players with little, if any, track record or veterans that belong second or perhaps third on a depth chart.
Signing Hankins now is Nearly guilt free
As training camp approaches, Hankins has but few good employment options for the upcoming year, much less ones that would yield a contract on terms he was pursuing earlier this offseason. That’s because most teams have little cap space to accommodate those contract demands at this juncture of free agency. The only realistic deal Hankins would agree to now is a one-year, prove-it contract he could use as a stepping stone to a larger one in 2019.
Why shouldn’t the Redskins take advantage of this? Do they believe that adding Hankins would disrupt chemistry established in that unit or steepen the learning curve for their recent draft choices? Whatever the case may be, and for as much hope that the team holds out for its developing draft picks, there is an equal amount of, if not more, questions than answers surrounding those young players.
Hankins, to be sure, isn’t a transcendent talent that would dramatically upgrade the team’s defensive line. But he would bring stability to a group short on experience and veteran talent, and supply it with a productive known commodity they have not had for years. While it’s uncertain precisely why the club has ceased its pursuit of Hankins, there’s very little downside in considering signing him now.
And if the Redskins believe they’re satisfied with their defensive linemen now, they should always remember that you can’t have enough good ones.
Next: Redskins Training Camp Profile: WR Josh Doctson
That worked well for Philadelphia in 2017. And it would certainly do the same for Washington, who can start by considering whether Hankins would be a fit now.