Redskins don’t trade Trent Williams, stand pat at the 2019 NFL trade deadline

LANDOVER, MD - NOVEMBER 16: Washington Redskins Owner Dan Snyder (R) speaks with General Manager Bruce Allen before a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at FedExField on November 16, 2014 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - NOVEMBER 16: Washington Redskins Owner Dan Snyder (R) speaks with General Manager Bruce Allen before a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at FedExField on November 16, 2014 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /
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The Washington Redskins elected not to make any moves at the 2019 NFL trade deadline. This will continue the Trent Williams saga.

Heading into the 2019 NFL trade deadline, there was some hope that the Washington Redskins would start to look toward the future. The team is at the halfway point in the season with a record of 1-7. Their only win was a one-point victory over the lowly Miami Dolphins.

With the team not looking like a contender now, they should have started preparing for a rebuild. They could have achieved that by offloading some of their veterans to acquire draft capital in hopes of filling some of their biggest needs in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Instead, the team decided to stay pat.

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Despite rumors that the team was trying to trade Josh Norman and was at least fielding offers on left tackle Trent Williams, who still hasn’t ended his holdout from the team, the Redskins did nothing. Bruce Allen elected to stand pat and even turned down an offer for Adrian Peterson that reportedly was deemed “not viable”.

This is certainly a disappointment for the Redskins. They had an opportunity to try to right the ship a bit sooner. Sure, draft picks are unproven and they don’t always mean that teams will pick successful players. Just take a look at the Cleveland Browns first-round haul of Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel in 2014 for an example of that.

But still, a team like the Redskins would have gotten more use out of future considerations than they would have out of a player like Williams. Williams has vowed never to play for the team again, and so far, the 31-year-old tackle has been true to his word. His holdout still has no end in sight so moving him, even if it was for a second-round pick and not the first-round pick the team was hoping for, may backfire.

Perhaps a team could change course in the offseason and offer a first-rounder. But at the same time, keeping Williams, for the time being, makes little sense. And only making him truly available 24 hours before the deadline didn’t end up being a great negotiating move.

Next. Five pleasant surprises halfway through the 2019 season. dark

The Redskins didn’t have a lot of guys that could have netted them draft picks, but there were a couple. And the fact that they didn’t offload them is certainly disappointing. Now, we’ll have to wait until the offseason to see if any team will trade for Williams and we’ll see what the Redskins can get for him.