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Simulating the Washington Redskins’ entire 2019 offseason

By Jacob Camenker

PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 03: Josh Norman #24 of the Washington Redskins walks off the field after the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on December 3, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles defeated the Redskins 28-13. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 03: Josh Norman #24 of the Washington Redskins walks off the field after the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on December 3, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles defeated the Redskins 28-13. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 03: Josh Norman #24 of the Washington Redskins walks off the field after the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on December 3, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles defeated the Redskins 28-13. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 03: Josh Norman #24 of the Washington Redskins walks off the field after the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on December 3, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles defeated the Redskins 28-13. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

Roster cuts

Cuts were brutal this year. The team has a lot of big-money veterans that they will have to make a decision on. That won’t be easy at all, as a couple of them are big-name players that may not be easy to replace.

The biggest player to make a decision on will be Josh Norman. In 2019, Norman will carry a cap hit of $14.5 million. Entering his age-31 season, Norman has declined a bit in the years past, and it’s unclear if Washington will want to keep paying him at that rate. While the team doesn’t have a great replacement option at the moment, we elected to part with him and pick up the $8.5 million in cap saving that comes from cutting Norman.

On the other side of the ball, the Redskins are facing a similar dilemma with Jordan Reed. Reed is set to have a $9.7 million cap number, but he has ended the last two seasons on IR and has failed to stay healthy for a full 16-game slate during his NFL career. It’s going to be hard to justify keeping him at that number.

That said, ESPN’s John Keim recently pointed out that Gruden said, “tight ends who can win against man and zone are hard to find.” That could indicate that the team isn’t yet willing to move on from Reed. For that reason, we decided to keep Reed on the roster and instead part ways with backup TE Vernon Davis (who was set for a $6.4 million cap hit as a backup). It will be interesting to see what their decision is at this position, but it seems that Davis will be gone, at the very least.

The other notable cuts were Mason Foster and Zach Brown. The two inside linebackers have had their share of struggles this season both on and off the field. Foster is still a solid two-down player, but he can’t cover anymore. Meanwhile, Brown has just been inconsistent and he implied that his time with Washington might be ending soon. With Reuben Foster likely to play at some point in 2019, the team doesn’t have as much incentive to hold onto both, so parting with them and saving money makes sense.

After making the roster cuts, we turned to the rest of the roster and targeted the players we wanted to re-sign.

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