Adam Archuleta’s season-long headache is about to end. His Redskins career could soon follow.
For the eighth straight game, the NFL’s highest-paid safety will play only on special teams. Since the Nov. 5 Dallas game, Archuleta has worked strictly with the scout team during practices — and that he has yet to receive an explanation for why his role changed so drastically.
He called this season “extremely bizarre” and consistently has said he’d like to elaborate but isn’t yet ready to do so.
In one scenario if released this offseason, Archuleta would count approximately $4 million against the 2007 salary cap and a little more than $7 million in ’08. But several factors could change that, depending on whether or not the Redskins pick up certain roster bonuses.
“I don’t know if an explanation matters anymore,” said Archuleta, who signed a seven-year, $35-million deal last offseason after being wooed by assistant head coach/defense Gregg Williams in particular. “What’s done is done. I know what’s going on. I know what it all stems from. I don’t like getting lied to. I don’t mind bad news or negativity if someone says to my face what my flaws are or what I’m doing wrong.”
He said he was speaking about being lied to in general terms.
“It’s hard to say I’ve been lied to because I haven’t been talked to,” Archuleta said.
However, Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said safeties coach Steve Jackson did talk to Archuleta after the benching.
“He was told and normally what happens is the position coach has discussions and says, ‘This is what we’re planning on doing,’” Gibbs said. “I’ve had long discussions with Adam also, not particularly after what was done. But I’ve had a sit down talk with him and about what I thought would be smart for us to do in the future.”
Archuleta’s strength is playing in the box, a role the Redskins said he would fill. But he ended up playing more in coverage, which is his weakness. It showed as he struggled on deep passes, leading to his benching.
The topic could arise in his exit interview with the coaching staff, held after the season. Or not.
“I’m sure when they feel it’s necessary to tell me what’s going on, then they can get a hold of me,” Archuleta said. “There will be a time where I’ll say what I need to say and then we’ll just go about it that way. Of course, I’ve had plenty of time, about two months exactly or five months, to think about my situation.
“I’ve been a player my whole life, and a very good player, so these situations haven’t applied to me.”
Week 17 Notes
» Rock Cartwright needs 73 more yards to break Brian Mitchell’s franchise record for most kickoff return yards in a season. Mitchell set the record with 1,478 yards in 1994, when the Redskins finished 3-13.
Cartwright, though, looks at Ladell Betts’ recent rushing success and wonders, what if?
“But my opportunity isn’t gonna come here,” Cartwright said. “It’s not gonna come this year and I don’t know if it’ll come next year. I’m accepting what I have to do, which is be a special teams guy. That’s not something I want to accept. I think I could be a No. 2 back. But you never know. I’m still living the dream.”
» Defensive end Phillip Daniels, who has a cap number of more than $3 million next year, said he’d be willing to renegotiate his contract.
“If they want to restructure, that’s fine,” he said Daniels, who turns 34 in March and has one sack in the last nine games. “I’ll do anything to help the team out. … I came here before free agency started with one purpose: to win a Super Bowl. If I leave without one, I’ll let the organization down. I feel if they let me go without winning one, they’ll let me down.”
» Joe Gibbs, when asked if the team deserved to come back and prove it could do better, said, “If you told me, we’d do this again, I’m not signing up. This has been one of the toughest five months of my life. I’m not signing up for any more of these [types of seasons].”
