After a busy week of signing players, San Francisco general manager Scott McLoughan declared their spending spree over. And, to emphasize a point, he said the Niners weren’t turning into the Redskins.
But, these days, even the Redskins aren’t spending like, well, the Redskins.
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Their only moves, so far, have been to resign their own free agents Rock Cartwright and Todd Collins. Free agent wideout D.J. Hackettis scheduled to visit today. He reportedly also has interest from Tampa Bay and Carolina.
“One club that didn’t underpay [in the past] is the Redskins,” one agent said. “It’s a shock to our system. But from a business standpoint, I can’t fault them. If there’s someone else not bidding, why overpay for someone? They were guilty of doing that for years.”
Some speculate that the Redskins could be saving up for a possible uncapped year in 2010. If they sign free agents next year — when the cap could be $123 million — then they could backload deals for the uncapped years in exchange for a lower initial one-year cap number.
Also, simple math dictated inactivity: the Redskins had less money available under the cap than the great majority of teams. And the draft is rich in areas where they need help.
“They knew they couldn’t spend top money,” one NFC executive said. “They were smart to let it die down and see what was left.”
One NFL source said the Redskins pursued free agent linebacker Lance Briggs, though the Redskins deny much interest in him.
“As much as [owner Dan Snyder] is about splash, I think he’s come to the point where he sees a big splash as just throwing money out the window,” one NFC general manager said.
“His smartest move is doing nothing until he finds out who his staff wants. And what if this turns out to be a Cam Cameron situation? Then you’re looking at Bill Cowher and then [next year] he’ll need to go out and make a splash.”
