Riggo's Rag
FanSided

Assessing veterans the Redskins could trade before the 2019 NFL trade deadline

By Jacob Camenker

MIAMI, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 13 Josh Norman #24 of the Washington Redskins warms up prior to the game against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 13 Josh Norman #24 of the Washington Redskins warms up prior to the game against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – OCTOBER 23: Trent Williams #71 of the Washington Redskins enters the field to take on the Philadelphia Eagles during their game at Lincoln Financial Field on October 23, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

OT Trent Williams

Why the Redskins would trade Williams: This one is the most obvious one. Williams is holding out from the Redskins. There is no indication that he wants to come back. The only reason he might consider returning before Week 10 would be to make sure he doesn’t miss out on a full season of pay and so that he can pick up another season of service time.

Williams doesn’t want to be on the Redskins. And even if he does report, he may not play. It seems useless to keep him around if he doesn’t want to be here, especially since he’s 31 years old and doesn’t fit the timeline of the Redskins, who should be rebuilding in a 2020 NFL Draft class that is loaded at the tackle position.

Who might be interested: There are a number of teams that could be interested in Williams. Most notably, the Cleveland Browns could use Williams. Their tackle play has been bad this season and Greg Robinson has been benched at left tackle. Williams would be a huge upgrade there and they have the salary cap space to absorb Williams’ contract.

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Elsewhere, teams like the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, and San Francisco 49ers could use Williams’ services. His cap hit may not be easy for all of those teams to absorb, but if any team viewed him as enough of an upgrade, they could find a way to make it work.

What Williams could fetch on the open market: Laremy Tunsil fetched a king’s ransom on the open market, but that’s partially because he’s young and Bill O’Brien isn’t really a GM. He’s a coach with GM powers. In all likelihood, Williams would go for something similar to what Duane Brown was moved for. Brown went to Seattle for second- and third-round picks in 2017. Williams may fetch a bit more because trade value has gone up in the NFL and the team won’t be willing to move him for anything less than a first-round pick.

Will the Redskins actually trade him? At this point, it seems unlikely. Bruce Allen seems hell-bent on trading him during the offseason which makes minimal sense. After all, the 2020 tackle class looks strong and once teams know where their draft picks sit, they’ll be less likely to trade a high pick for him. Especially since they wouldn’t be getting an immediate payoff from him (and this is even truer for teams hanging on the brink of contention).

The Redskins should trade Williams. But it seems that they won’t. That would be yet another mistake by Allen, but we’ll keep an eye out to see if he reverses course and makes the right move.

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