Washington Football Team signs linebacker David Mayo, center Tyler Larsen
Don’t look now, but the Washington Football Team has added two more former Carolina Panthers to their roster.
On Thursday, Washington announced that they had made two minor signings to improve their roster. They agreed to terms with linebacker David Mayo and center Tyler Larsen to join the 90-man roster.
These moves won’t be met with the same type of fanfare as the Curtis Samuel or William Jackson signings. It won’t even meet the level of the Ryan Fitzpatrick deal. But these two players could have roles to play on the Washington Football Team’s roster.
Mayo played with the New York Giants the last two years and he averaged 75 tackles, one pass defense, and a forced fumble per 16 games with them. He started in 15 of the 27 games he appeared in and while he’s probably best as a top backup, he can serve as a spot starter if needed.
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Mayo is just 27 years old, so he still may have some untapped potential. He played under Ron Rivera for four seasons after being drafted in the fifth round out of Texas State, so he should be familiar with Rivera’s system. Perhaps Jack Del Rio will get more out of him, but even if not, Mayo is a good and likely-cheap free-agent pickup at the linebacker spot.
As for Larsen, he has spent the last five seasons with the Panthers as a backup on the interior offensive line. He was added just to continue to build up depth along that unit. Larsen is 6-foot-4, 325 pounds and has appeared in 68 games during his career. He hasn’t started since 2018, but he has proven to be a solid backup.
Larsen will get a chance to push Keith Ismael for the backup center spot and will probably compete with Wes Martin for a roster spot. This isn’t a major signing, but it’s one that improves the team’s depth and adds an experienced player on the cheap.
We’ll soon see what Mayo and Larsen can do, but each should have a chance to make the 53-man roster if all goes well. Mayo is probably the better bet to make the team, solely because he was a decent starter for the Giants in 2019 before being relegated to backup duty in 2020, but Washington probably isn’t investing too much in these guys.
Next. Breaking down Curtis Samuel's fit with WFT. dark
As free agency goes on, expect to see some more of these bargain-bin signings for Washington. They had success with them last year and after landing a few big fish, they’ll probably look to improve their depth the rest of the offseason — unless they get a potential starter on the cheap.