Washington Football Team: What last year’s free agent moves say about 2021

How might the Washington Football Team approach the 2021 free agency period? A look back at the first year under Ron Rivera may provide some insight.

At the beginning of free agency in 2020, wide receiver Amari Cooper re-signed with the Dallas Cowboys for five years and $100 million. It was reported that the Washington Football Team made an even better offer for Cooper, but he chose to stay in Dallas.

We cannot know his exact thinking, but he apparently liked his team, and probably saw their situation as being more advanced than what was happening in D.C. On the same day Cooper signed, Dallas locked up quarterback Dak Prescott with a franchise tag and gave big money to tight end Blake Jarwin.

Meanwhile, the Washington Football Team was undergoing a complete overhaul of its front office and coaching staff, and coming off a 3-13 season, had roster holes galore. You can certainly understand why Cooper may have liked the scenario in Dallas more than the one in Washington.

Of course, we all know how that played out in the 2020 season. Washington won the division. Dallas watched the playoffs from home.

With news of Golden Tate’s release by the New York Giants making headlines today, a look back at how the Washington Football Team brain trust reacted to the loss of Cooper last year may be instructive. The best thing Ron Rivera and company did on March 16 was nothing. They did not overreact. They did not panic. They knew they had a hole – several holes, actually – at wide receiver. But they also knew that teams are always dealing with holes, and sometimes your best move is to simply wait.

The cupboard was mostly bare when it came to free agent wide receivers in 2020. Two major trades were completed that sent DeAndre Hopkins from Houston to Arizona, and Stefon Diggs from Minnesota to Buffalo. With a year’s worth of perspective, we can say that both Houston and Buffalo are very happy with those deals.

But amongst free agents, there wasn’t much available after Cooper. The biggest free agent receivers who changed teams in 2020 were Robby Anderson, who signed with the Panthers for two years and $20 million, Emmanuel Sanders, who inked a three-year, $20 million deal with New Orleans, and Breshad Perriman, who got $6.5 million and one year from the Jets.

In hindsight, maybe you can argue Washington should have pursued Anderson, who put up big numbers in Carolina in 2020. But Anderson had a strange year. He had always been a deep threat in New York, but for the Panthers, he turned into a possession receiver. I imagine Carolina was happy with his 90+ catches, but they cannot have been pleased with a yards-per-catch under 12 and three touchdowns.

The venerable Sanders was okay for New Orleans. Nothing more. And at 33 years of age, Washington was wise to keep their distance.

Perriman was always fools gold. And the Jets, especially during the Adam Gase years, were certainly fools. They got 30 catches for their $6.5 million.

The other available receivers were all mostly journeymen, the likes of Phillip Dorsett and Travis Benjamin. Washington scooped up one of them – Dontrelle Inman – later in the process after injuries decimated the receiving corps. Had we known that Steven Sims Jr. would flame out, maybe we would have pushed for a dangerous slot weapon like Taylor Gabriel a little harder.

The one steal came in Las Vegas where, against all odds, Nelson Agholor turned into a reliable receiver. But I am still unconvinced. I watched him drop too many balls in Philadelphia to let one year sway my opinion

When the Washington Football Team did dip its toe into the pool, it came in the second week of free agency. A modest contract for Cody Latimer made sense to me. Latimer had been a disappointment through much of his career, but he had recently begun to flash some of the talent that made him a second-round pick in 2014.

Yeah – it made sense. Firing his gun at a poker game a few months later, did not. Latimer was eventually waived.

Like most fans, I want my team to get all the big name, great players it can. But here in D.C., we all know how that kind of spending usually goes. There is a lot of money to spend this offseason and a lot more talent at the wide receiver position. If Washington has a shot at a player like Kenny Golladay or Allen Robinson, I hope they make a competitive offer.

But I am reminded of how smart they were in 2020, and if they don’t see the right deal available, I am fine with building through the draft and searching for free agent bargains.

On opening day of free agency in 2020, when they were losing out on Cooper, the Washington Football Team did make a couple of moves. They signed Kendall Fuller and re-signed Jon Bostic. Both played crucial roles in their defensive success in 2020. They also signed a little-known guy named Wes Schweitzer to provide some offensive line depth. He ended up solidifying the left guard spot after Wes Martin proved incapable.

None were big names. All made big contributions.

I mentioned Golden Tate. He is the kind of player Washington might have pursued in earlier years. And I have no inside info on their feelings about him now. But I assume there will be no interest coming from D.C., despite Tate’s long productivity at a position of need.

Tate has always excelled with the ball in his hands. In many ways, he is the wide receiver equivalent of J.D. McKIssic. Just as McKissic could play wide receiver, Tate could be a running back. But he will be 33 years old at the start of the 2021 season, and his productivity is declining. He has always been a tough competitor, but that edgy character created trouble in New York in 2020 when he made waves as his role in the offense diminished. He may well find a good fit with a contending team that needs some receiver depth. The fit is not good in Washington.

And, as much as I would love to be able to write about the one-two punch of Golden and Gandy-Golden, I think the 2020 offseason proves that the people now running the Washington Football Team know that very well.