Three questions the Redskins must answer before free agency

No. 1 – If the Redskins want to spend, are they willing to make tough decisions?

This ties into the first question: If the Redskins decide they want to spend this year, whether at quarterback or elsewhere, are they willing to make cuts to make that happen?

With $21 million, Washington isn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel for cap space. They can sign at least one starter with that money. But enter a bidding war with a team for a free agent like Adrian Amos or Demarcus Lawrence or Tyrell Williams, and $21 million becomes a lot less very quickly (although the safety market stalled last year, and could do the same this year).

That said, there is savings to claim on the roster, if the Redskins are willing to make some tough decisions. Jordan Reed, if released, would only incur $3.6 million in dead cap, freeing up a net value of over $6 million. Josh Norman’s contract allows for over $8 million in savings for a release this year, and Zach Brown’s allows for just under $6 million.

Start with those three players, and the Redskins would free up almost $20 million, on top of the $21 million they’d already have. From purely a business standpoint, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but with the way Bruce Allen has spoken about the team’s chances in 2019, signs point to the Redskins keeping their assets.

But it’s a tough decision for a reason, and that’s one thing the Redskins will need to mull over in the coming weeks, if they ultimately want to splurge in free agency, as they’ve done in the past, to try and force the issue of competitiveness. These are the questions they need to answer, and while deliberation proceeds, onlookers will watch, impatient and unconvinced.