Hindsight doesn’t shine a great light on the Washington Redskins letting Preston Smith slip to free agency, where he promptly linked up with the Green Bay Packers.
Since doing so, Smith has put on a clinic en route to a career-high 10.5 sacks in 12 games, with a chance for more against the Redskins this weekend.
Speaking on the matter this week, interim Redskins coach Bill Callahan noted that’s just how it goes sometimes.
“Everybody matures, gets older, stronger, has new experiences, new position coaches, system and with that I think players evolve,” Callahan said, according to NBC Sports’ Peter Hailey. “You just don’t know what can make a spark in a player’s career, whether it’s a position coach, a coordinator, a system, new place, whatever it may be.”
The Redskins couldn’t have predicted this breakout from Smith and at least took the pass rush seriously this offseason by trading back into the first round for Montez Sweat.
That sequence of events hasn’t turned out to favor the Redskins just yet. In time it could, but it’s hard to deny Smith as one of the league’s best pass rushers right now.
He’ll get a chance to show Callahan and Co. just how much he’s changed compared to last season.
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