5 biggest free agent mistakes for the Redskins in the past five seasons

2017: DLs Stacy McGee and Terrell McClain

It was too hard to pick just one of these guys, so I’m cheating here and picking them both.

In the 2017 offseason, the Redskins were desperate for some help on the defensive line. There were plenty of quality players on the open market that they could’ve targeted — this was the summer of Johnathan Hankins — and instead, the team ended up signing McGee and McClain. And the results were poor.

McGee ended up lasting two seasons with the team. While he was solid against the run in a rotational role, he never showed much as a pass rusher, which was to be expected from a player who only had 3.0 sacks in four seasons in the Raiders’ 4-3 defense. Giving him a $25 million deal over five years was a foolish move, and they ended up cutting him to create cap space this offseason after he only appeared in eight games and logged 9 tackles in 2018.

Meanwhile, McClain’s tenure was even worse. He lasted just one year after agreeing to a four year, $21 million contract (the same deal the aforementioned Paea signed) with the Redskins. He was a positional tweener in the 3-4 defense as he wasn’t big enough to play the nose tackle position but wasn’t quick enough to have an impact as an end. McClain had 20 tackles and 2.0 sacks with the Redskins, but he was wildly inconsistent and only started two games.

Essentially, in 2017, the Redskins tried to patch up their weakness, the defensive line, by signing two average players to lesser deals to make the unit deeper. Instead, they ended up overpaying for marginal talent that didn’t last. While they were targeting the right position this year, they certainly missed on the execution. Thankfully, this didn’t hurt them long-term, as they were able to add Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne in the 2017 and 2018 drafts.