Reading the tea leaves on Washington Football Team’s latest roster moves

New Guys: The most interesting pick-up

Kevin Pamphile is the most intriguing pick-up. He may simply be an offset for the release of Vujnovich. But I suspect there is more to be gleaned from this move.

For one thing, if Washington was getting the 2016 Kevin Pamphile – when he started for Tampa Bay – he would step onto the field as the starting left guard. And he would become the team’s second-best offensive lineman behind right guard Brendan Scherff.

Pamphile was a quality lineman as recently as two years ago. That’s why Tennessee lured him away from Tampa.

But Pamphile played just three games for the Titans during his two-year stay there. The reason he was available this late into the year is that no one is certain whether he can overcome his injuries and return to his form of 2016. He is still young enough to be a true asset for years to come if he can.

It is possible to view this pick-up as a simple low-risk roll of the dice on a player who might pay off. But I think this is the move that hints at some desperation. I’m not so sure WFT would roll these particular dice if they were confident in the two Wes-es (Martin and Schweitzer) or the other interior lineman behind them (Pierschbacher, Liedke, and Ismael).

I certainly do not mean to suggest that they are all performing below par. The coaches may be very pleased with one or two of them. But as a whole, I’m not sure you bring in a player like Pamphile if you have a lot of confidence in your current linemen.

And here’s the even bigger takeaway from the Pamphile signing. I have more confidence in this one. A lot of fans were pushing the idea of signing veteran stalwart Jason Peters to play left tackle this season. Recently, there was some talk about snapping up the recently-released Brian Winters to bolster the interior line.

Neither signing happened. Peters re-upped with the Eagles to replace injured guard Brandon Brooks, while Winters had barely left the Jets campus when Buffalo came calling with a new offer.

The fact is, any player of proven value –like Peters or Winters – is going to wait for an offer from a playoff contender, which is what Philly and Buffalo are. In order to sign such a player, a rebuilding franchise like Washington will have to overpay.

Judging by the moves WFT has made in the Ron Rivera era, that is not going to happen. At least not yet. There is little upside in adding a good player at an elevated price when your team is still looking up at .500. There may come a time in the not-too-distant-future when Rivera decides to splurge on a piece or two that can put Washington over the top.

But 2020 is not that time. Most of these moves are for bargain players with decent upsides. They all have questions, which is why they go for bargain prices. If coaching, scheme, and good fortune come together so that enough of them hit their potential, then you are looking at significant improvement in 2020, and beyond. If not, you take whatever modest gains this year offers, and regroup for 2021.

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The release of Guice is most notable for the speed with which it happened. WFT could have waited and suspended the running back until a more complete investigation was completed. There was a very good article in the Wall Street Journal last year in which Andrew Beaton walked through how the Kansas City Chiefs responded to similar situations.

We can speculate about whether franchise’s reaction would have been different were the previous executives still in charge – the administration that drafted Guice and which has now been accused of having a very permissive attitude in the area inappropriate sexual behavior. We can speculate whether this move would have happened had those allegations never been made public. And we can speculate on whether WFT would have jettisoned the talented player if reliable backs like Adrian Peterson and Peyton Barber – and promising younger players like Antonio Gibson, Bryce Love and JD McKissic were not on the roster.

What we cannot speculate on is how decisively Coach Rivera acted. Whatever the motivation, he sent a very clear message to his team, and to the public at large. Things are different in Washington. And that is almost certainly a good thing.