Washington Football Team: Five restricted free agents to consider

Ross Dwelley, Tight End, San Francisco 49ers

I’ll be honest. I don’t know how good Dwelley can be. He’s a decent receiver, but not a real deep threat. And he is good enough blocker to have blown up Aaron Donald in a game this past season.

But Dwelley doesn’t really offer the main thing Washington needs to complement starter Logan Thomas. Washington needs a better stretch tight end, and if I thought Robert Tonyan were a reasonable option here, I would have chosen him.

But Green Bay does not have another tight end to replace Tonyan, and based on the rapport he established with Aaron Rodgers in 2020, I assume Green Bay is not letting Tonyan walk. On the other hand, San Francisco is already paying their starter, George Kittle, a lot of money. I can’t see them fighting too hard to keep Dwelley.

I know that sounds like faint praise, but as much as I question Dwelley’s ultimate upside, I am fairly certain he is better than any other tight end currently on the Washington roster (any other tight end who was not a college quarterback, that is.) You can’t always hit home runs with RFAs. Sometimes, getting a good singles hitter can pay off big time.

Charvarius Ward, Cornerback, Kansas City Chiefs

Everyone fell in love with Chiefs rookie L’Jarius Sneed this year… and correspondingly fell out of love with former UDFA Ward. Ward showed steady improvement through his first few seasons, earning a starting spot on a Super Bowl-winning team in 2019. He did regress some in 2020, but as near as I can tell, he didn’t play all that badly.

Maybe best of all, Washington should have an excellent read on how valuable he could be, since fellow cornerback Kendall Fuller played with Ward for several seasons in KC.

Kansas City has the difficult cap situation that accompanies any successful team. Their salary structure is very top-heavy and they will have to jettison some decent players and look for bargains wherever possible. Ward may not make a lot of sense if Washington re-signs Ronald Darby. But if they don’t, he could be a solid addition in the secondary.

That’s it for today. As teams decide about tenders in the coming month, the RFA picture will grow clearer. With so much fluidity in the process, every NFL team needs contingency plans on top of contingency plans.

And RFAs – the mangoes of NFL free agency (I’m offering an alternative vegetarian metaphor here) – should be part of those plans. They are a pain in the ass to eat, but sometimes you get the perfect bite of mango, and it’s glorious.