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Riggo’s Rag Redskins Mailbag: Veterans vs. youth, left tackle battle, more

By Jacob Camenker

MIAMI, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 13: Adrian Peterson #26 of the Washington Football Team runs with the ball against the Miami Dolphins during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 13: Adrian Peterson #26 of the Washington Football Team runs with the ball against the Miami Dolphins during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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LANDOVER, MD – DECEMBER 15: Morgan Moses #76 of the Washington Redskins looks on prior to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at FedExField on December 15, 2019 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD – DECEMBER 15: Morgan Moses #76 of the Washington Redskins looks on prior to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at FedExField on December 15, 2019 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images) /

Keep veterans or test young talent?

Bob S.: What makes more sense… keeping higher-priced vets this year, Kerrigan, Moses, etc. and trying to eke out the best record possible and impact draft position, or trade/release these vets and go complete rebuild, giving younger gents a shot?

JC: On paper, it would always seem to be better to run things like a Madden franchise. Let the young guys play, trade the older players for assets, and try to completely rebuild for one year before being hyper-competitive the next.

In practice, that plan doesn’t always work. Some young players have a lot of upside, but they simply aren’t ready to play yet. So, they can benefit from sitting for a bit, getting their feet wet, and then setting foot on the field. That’s not to say that younger players won’t be given a chance to win jobs, as touched on in the previous slide, but any NFL team good or bad needs a few veterans to prevent younger players from seeing the field before they’re ready. Because if that happens, it can stunt the growth of each player.

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Let’s take, for example, the veterans that you’ve mentioned. A case can be made to trade Ryan Kerrigan given that the Redskins have spent first-round picks on defensive linemen in four consecutive years. But Kerrigan would also be a valuable mentor and would give the team depth on the edge for 2020.

If the Redskins were to get rid of Kerrigan, they’d be lacking depth in that area. Ryan Anderson and Nate Orchard, two players who don’t fit the 4-3 scheme well, may be in line for more snaps at the position and would compete with the likes of James Smith-Williams, Jordan Brailford, and Ryan Bee for snaps there. That’s not the worst plan, but if Montez Sweat or Chase Young were to go down, the Redskins could find themselves weak on the edge fast.

The same can be said of Morgan Moses at the right tackle position. Yes, I know Moses has regressed in each of the past two seasons and has totaled a whopping 30 penalties during those campaigns. But it’s not like the Redskins have a lot of tackle depth.

If they cut Moses, they’d have to rely on the group of Cornelius Lucas, Saahdiq Charles, Geron Christian, Timon Parris, and Paul Adams to effectively block for Dwayne Haskins. Could that pan out? Sure. But would the team take a $3.8 million dead cap hit to move on from Moses without a true replacement? That would seem like a suspect plan.

One caveat to this: If you can get enough value in exchange for either player in a trade, then you definitely consider doing it. For Kerrigan, that may be a fifth-round pick; he’s a very consistent and productive pass rusher, but given that he’s set to turn 32 before the season and is on an expiring contract, the team isn’t likely to do better than that. For Moses, any draft pick would be worth trading him for considering his decline in play and his $8.65 million cap hit for 2020.

Given that the Redskins have plenty of salary-cap space, they probably won’t get rid of any veterans unless they get strong trade offers for them or if other younger players outplay them. At this point, it’s hard to see enough guys playing Kerrigan and Moses off the roster, so I think they’ll stick around along with some other veterans as well.

That’s probably the right move, too, because as intriguing as tearing everything down might be, the Redskins simply don’t have enough depth at certain positions to offload all of their veteran players.

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