Washington Football Team: Mock free agency, roster cuts, trades

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Washington Football Team QB Alex Smith. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

Projecting Washington Football Team Roster Cuts

Coming into the 2021 NFL Offseason, the Washington Football Team currently has $33 million dollars in projected cap space, per Spotrac.

That’s plenty of money to spend in an offseason like 2021 is shaping up to be. Nonetheless, this team has opportunities to gain even more money to spend and potentially build off of with a couple of roster cuts.

Washington’s first move this offseason should be to release quarterback Alex Smith.

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Smith will go down as one of the greatest comeback stories of all-time. He led a 1-5 football team to a 7-9 division title and did so after coming back from a near-death experience with his catastrophic leg injury among other trials and tribulations.

While he’s a fantastic man on and off the field, the cap number he currently commands combined with the play on the field, despite winning football games, isn’t sustainable going forward.

The once-mobile quarterback who could beat you with either his arms or his legs is now a statue in the pocket and has trouble delivering balls in tight windows and against man coverage. The veteran proved his worth and proved a ton of people wrong, but with where he’s at now, with the little to no room for error this offense gives this team, Smith shouldn’t be on this roster at that cap number going forward.

If the Football Team decides to release Alex, that’ll save this team over $14 million against the cap. That would raise their total cap number to just over $47 million this offseason.

The next few moves are roster cuts to rotational players who can be replaced in this draft.

There are five players the Football Team should look to cut this offseason, that’ll save them a combined $5.4 million dollars against the cap, per Spotrac.

These five players are:

RB Peyton Barber
RB Bryce Love
LB Josh Harvey-Clemons
CB Greg Stroman
FS Troy Apke

These five players don’t excel in any situation that’s been presented to them, whether it be due to injury or incompetence.

While the numbers for Peyton Barber, who had four touchdowns in 2020, look better than what they are, he averaged a measly 2.7 yards per carry while boasting a negative EPA average.

For Stroman, Harvey-Clemson, and Apke, all three are unreliable on the field at their position and they’re replaceable enough on special teams to be moved.

Finally, injuries have been the worst bug to fight for Love, a young man who once looked like an NFL star before an ACL injury at Stanford. He’s battled through a lot of injuries and still doesn’t look 100 percent. It’s just time for him to go.

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