Washington Football Team: Five restricted free agents to consider

Washington Football Team’s free-agent situation

The Washington Football Team has a handful of UFAs – and for updated rundowns of these things, check this out.

Most of them will not be back. Of the big decisions, Brandon Scherff probably will return with a healthy contract. Kevin Pierre-Louis may well depart. And Ronald Darby is 50/50 (sorry – I know that’s a cop-out, but that’s the best I can do before I have my coffee.)

Washington also has a couple of ERFAs who they will hold onto – Kyle Allen and Cam Sims.

Washington Commanders

Among RFAs, I’m a big Danny Johnson fan and hope they find a way to keep him. But I’m not losing sleep over it. If he can get a better deal somewhere else, I’ll be happy for DJ. As for Robert Foster… I have no feelings whatsoever.

If Washington is looking around the league for RFAs they might try and poach from another team, I have some suggestions. These are some little tricks I’ve gathered in my many years as an armchair GM.

Look at good teams. This is generally true across the board, but it is even more important with RFAs. Good teams have more good players than bad teams, and that means they have to pay more good players. It is harder for them to hold onto a developmental player no matter how much upside they may see.

Look at teams with a lot of pending free agents, or with difficult salary caps positions. They are also less able to hold onto everyone they may want.

Finally, look for positional gluts. This is my favorite. Teams may be overinvested in a particular position, and therefore less likely to fight for an RFA at that spot.

I will not bother giving you the single best RFA Washington could acquire this off-season. I’ve already written about him. He is good enough to have been included in my general free agency breakdown. That’s Denver linebacker Alexander Johnson. He would be the perfect Mike playing behind Washington’s stout defensive line.

But Denver would be foolish not to place a first-round tender on Johnson (which means Washington would give up a 1st-round pick should they successfully sign him.) Furthermore, Denver would be even more foolish not to match whatever offer Johnson receives, meaning he would stay in Denver.

But here are five more reasonable RFAs for the Washington Football Team to consider.