Simulating the Washington Football Team’s entire 2021 offseason

Re-Signing Players

While roster cuts may not be as interesting this year for Washington, their pending free agents are interesting. Notably, they have three starters set to hit the open market and they’ll have to make decisions about each of them.

Brandon Scherff is the biggest name of the bunch. The first-team All-Pro for 2020 is due for a big contract extension and will be important for Washington to retain. After all, continuity on the offensive line is important the right side of their blocking unit with Chase Roullier, Scherff, and Morgan Moses was strong. They’ll want to reprise that in 2021.

Scherff was a tough negotiator in the simulation and he wouldn’t accept anything less than a contract that paid him $15 million per year. That made him the highest-paid guard in the league, but it was worth it since he still has plenty left in the tank even though he’ll turn 30 this offseason. Scherff’s deal will run four years and was just 30 percent guaranteed, so if he continues to struggle with injuries, there will be outs in the contract for Washington.

The other major starter we retained was Ronald Darby. After signing a one-year, “prove it” deal, Darby proved to be a great outside corner and perfectly complemented Kendall Fuller as the top-two options for Washington. Fuller and Darby played at similarly high levels, so we gave Darby a deal that matches up with Fuller’s deal.

Darby agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal (35 percent guaranteed). That means that both he and Fuller will be locked in at $10 million annually for the next three seasons. That’ll give Washington a nice cornerback duo and help to strengthen a secondary that pairs up well with the team’s top-tier defensive line.

Those were the two big-money re-signings we made, but they weren’t the only important ones. At quarterback, Kyle Allen returned on an exclusive rights free agent deal while Taylor Heinicke agreed to a one-year, $3 million deal with incentives should he win a starting job.

That may seem like a low-ball offer after Heinicke’s success in the postseason, but he has just two starts under his belt. He probably won’t do any better than that and has expressed a desire to return to Washington. So, a mutually beneficial, incentive-based deal seemed like the way to go.

Finally, we made one depth re-signing. David Sharpe agreed to a one-year deal to return as a backup tackle. Sharpe’s deal will be worth up to $2 million and provides the team with more continuity up front. His deal doesn’t have many guarantees (30 percent), so bringing him back to compete for a backup role seems sensible.

These re-signings helped create continuity for the team and retain depth, but there were some key departures as well.