Tackle Jansen was cut by Washington in May
The bitterness left, he said, when the plane landed in Michigan and he had an offer from Detroit three hours after getting cut. Jon Jansen liked the situation then; he loves it now. He’s home; he likes the atmosphere in the organization and he’s helping tutor a young right tackle.
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Not that he still isn’t disappointed about getting cut in late May, rather than in the winter time. Or by the fact that he still hasn’t talked to offensive line coach Joe Bugel since getting cut.
“But for the most part I’ve been able to let that go and move on,” Jansen said by phone, “and realize I’m fortunate to still have a great job. I love the organization. It couldn’t be a better situation.”
And, as he prepares to face his former team this week, he admits it will be odd. That is, if he plays. Jansen, playing behind 2008 first-round pick Gosder Cherilus at right tackle, was inactive for Detroit’s opener and played only on field goals last week. Cherilus has struggled, but is expected to continue starting.
Regardless, it’ll still be different for Jansen seeing a team he spent 10 seasons with. He has stayed in contact with center Casey Rabach and long snapper Ethan Albright. Jansen has kept tabs on the entire team.
“It’ll be interesting to see, not my reception of them, but their reception of me,” Jansen said, “just to see how that all works out and how it all plays out. Some people I want to see and some I don’t. It’s up to me to handle that situation, not them.”
He remains firm in his wish that they had cut him in the winter. The Redskins have said they wanted to see how his legs responded to offseason work and could not do that until minicamp and the organized team activity sessions. They also flew him in from Michigan to deliver the news, a somewhat rare occurrence. Still, the timing irked Jansen.
“I’m disappointed how everything went down,” he said. “There was no reason to wait until almost the first of June to make that decision. But I don’t get worked up about it because of how it turned out. I can’t say I’m that upset. … I would never say anything bad about my time in Washington, but my time was up and I wasn’t upset to move on.”
Jansen has not talked to Redskins line coach Joe Bugel since Jim Zorn told him he was cut, another disappointment.
“I’d like to have a conversation with him behind closed doors, to iron it out,” he said. “Maybe at some point we will.”
But his ties to the area are gone; Jansen settled on the sale of his home in Purcellville on Friday. Now he can raise his two daughters — a third is due in January — near his family. And he’s not ready to retire.
“I’d still like to play another three or four years,” he said. “I still think I have a lot of good football in me.”
