Category: 2021 Offseason

Report: Washington could be involved in Deshaun Watson sweepstakes ‘in a big way’

Several teams are jockeying for position in a Deshaun Watson trade, and a new report shows that Washington could be on the shortlist.

While a handful of teams in the NFL are jockeying for position in a potential blockbuster trade that would land the electric QB Deshaun Watson on a team other than the Houston Texans, one sleeper candidate is the Washington Football Team.

According to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, an NFL executive tells him that Washington could potentially be involved in the Watson sweepstakes “in a big way.”

And for as bad as the NFC East was this year, there’s an improving team with $35.4 million in cap space and tons of intriguing young players who could make a move: the Washington Football Team.

“I think they will be involved in the QB sweepstakes in a big way,” an NFC exec said. “They know they are close.”

Some of the top teams who are thought to be in play for Watson — arguably a top-5 QB in the NFL who many believe has taken his final snap in Houston — are the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, and Chicago Bears. In order to land Watson in a trade, it will undoubtedly take a load of assets, which could include starting-caliber players and multiple draft picks.

We will see if Washington ends up making any offers for Watson, but at the very least, they need to call and see what it would take. With as good as Washington’s defense is, mixed with the young talent and budding success across the entire roster, landing a top QB like Watson could push them over the edge into real Super Bowl contention.

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Series of positive COVID-19 tests force Washington team facilities to close

A small get-together with coaches and staff members after the season led to a series of positive COVID-19 test in Washington’s facilities.

The Washington Football Team facility has been closed, and likely will remain that way for the rest of the week after a series of COVID-19 cases among coaches and staff members have popped up.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the positive results are stemming from a small get-together outside the facility that took place after the season ended.

A report from Matthew Paras, with The Washington Times, says that coach Ron Rivera, who has been battling cancer for the past year, is fine.

This is the first major COVID-19 scare that the team has had this season, with only two other positve cases on the year, which is the lowest number in the NFL. Both cases came from players who were either not in season or not on the active roster at the time.

7 players who could be released by Washington this offseason

These players may have gotten playing time for Washington in 2020, but it wouldn’t surprise us to see them get cut this offseason.

A lot of the news and ideas that we’ve covered so far this offseason have had to do with players that we would like to see Washington bring in via free agency or the NFL Draft but rarely do we touch on players who might be shown the door.

Every year, there are always some departures that might catch us by surprise, based on caliber or timing. For instance, last year it was both, with veteran RB Adrian Peterson being shown the door during training camp right before the season. A few months before, it was Josh Norman who was cut, and the offseason before that, Semaje Perine.

So who might get the ax this offseason? Will it be someone who takes us by surprise, or rather a long time coming? Here are 7 people who we think might be on their way out.

Washington expected to hire Marty Hurney to be next General Manager

Washington moved quickly to hire Marty Hurney once they got him in for an interview, naming him to be the team’s next GM on Tuesday.

The Washington Football Team took a little over a week to schedule their first interview with former Carolina Panthers GM Marty Hurney, but once they finally got him in the building, so to say, things moved quickly.

It was reported on Tuesday that the team is expected to hire Hurney to be the next general manager in Washington, which comes just a day after a report broke that they were interviewing him for the position. According to the report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Hurney was the team’s top target, and a deal was expected to be done as soon as this week.

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Hurney’s hiring is not a surprise, especially when considering the connection with head coach Ron Rivera. The two worked together during their time in Carolina, and once Hurney was relieved of his duties with the Panthers earlier this season, it wasn’t hard to draw out his next steps.

Hurney has actually held a position in Washington’s front office before, where he was in public relations back in 1988-89. More notably, Hurney has been with the Panther’s organization since 1998, acting as GM in two separate stints, from 2002-2012, and again from 2017-2020.

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The hiring of a GM in Washington is not expected to change much, with Rivera still at the head of a coach-centric operation that has him overseeing personnel decisions. However, Hurney may have oversight of some salary cap decisions, as well as other things.

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Former Panthers GM Marty Hurney to interview in Washington; top candidate for job

Washington is bringing in former Panthers GM Marty Hurney to interview for their top spot, and he is reportedly the No. 1 candidate.

The Washington Football Team is adding another applicant to the interview circuit for their General Manager spot, meeting with former Carolina Panthers GM Marty Hurney this week.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Hurney is the top candidate for the open spot, and he could be given the job as early as this week if all goes right.

Hurney has been a known name for the Washington position for a while now, especially since he was let go by the Panthers earlier this year. Ron Rivera is said to have a good relationship with him, and it would continue the trend of bringing guys from Carolina in to Washington.

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2021 NFL draft: Ranking Washington’s position group needs ahead of April

Washington has a great young core, and they can build on that by focusing on these positions of need in the coming 2021 NFL Draft.

There are a number of ways that Washington can and should look to improve their roster this coming offseason, but one of the most entertaining modes is through the NFL Draft.

Not only does the draft give us a weekend-long event that we all get to look forward to in the middle of the offseason like an oasis in a dry desert, but it also allows us to spend the ensuing months studying it and delving through mocks, looking to see which players might be suiting up for our favorite squads in the years to come.

For Washington, a young core is already in place, and while there are some great spots for free-agent additions, nothing quite hits like a young prospect who can produce right off the bat. Here is our ranking of the biggest position needs for Washington to fill in the draft this year.

2020 Awards: Who was the MVP, DPOY and ROY for Washington this year?

Most Valuable Player? Rookie of the Year? Most Improved? We hand out 2020 awards for the year after a surprisingly successful season.

Now that we’ve had a full week to recover from the end of Washington’s 2020 season, it feels like a good time to look back and decipher what we really saw. A team that was given approximately a zero percent chance to succeed found a way to sneak into the playoffs, and they made it a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round.

It was anything but predictable, and definitely frustrating at times, but all in all, it can definitely be called a success. Dealing with a new coaching staff and the ever-present threat of the coronavirus pandemic, Washington got back on the right track and started to build a strong culture. Here are our season awards for the year.

Report: Ryan Kerrigan has had ‘no talks’ about re-signing with Washington in 2021

Ahead of free agency, it seems clear that Ryan Kerrigan is going to sign somewhere other than Washington to finish his career.

Now that the 2020 season is over in Washington, decisions are going to be made when it comes to free agents that are having their contracts end in a matter of months. There are a number of these players that are likely to re-sign with Washington, like RG Brandon Scherff, and a few others who are pretty much headed out the door.

One of those players, unfortunately for fans, is DE Ryan Kerrigan, a franchise legend who has been one of the best players on the team since being drafted in D.C. in 2011, and a fan-favorite through and through. Kerrigan is set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and he said on Friday that there have been no talks about returning to Washington in 2021 thus far.

At this point, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Kerrigan will be playing for another team when the 2021 season rolls around, but this all but confirms it. With a young and talented roster in D.C., Kerrigan was playing a small role this past season, and he’s been very open about wanting to be a starter still. That can’t happen in Washington, so he’s going to need to find a new team to land on.

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No ‘random-[expletive] bird:’ Jason Wright rules out one category of potential mascots for Washington

With a veiled shot at the Philadelphia Eagles, Jason Wright ruled out a ‘random-[expletive] bird’ as Washington’s next potential mascot.

The front office in Washington is well into its search for a new general manager for the franchise, but as the 2021 offseason gets underway, team president Jason Wright is still neck-deep in the search for a new mascot and team name in D.C.

The first year going by the ‘Washington Football Team’ was a success, with Ron Rivera and his group of guys making it to the playoffs for the first time since 2015, but that doesn’t mean that things are going to stay the same. They might, of course — leadership has been open and honest about the fact that they may choose to keep WFT around, or maybe chance to the Washington Football Club — but Wright is still doing his due diligence and weighing every option when it comes to finding a new name.

When talking about the subject in an interview with 106.7 The Fan earlier this week, Wright did take a small step towards finding a name, simply by ruling a category of options out and wonderfully taking a small shot at a fellow NFC East team in the process.

“The other thing that we heard clearly is that something random would land poorly. We need something that’s connected to the history of the club or to the area or to something else that is meaningful to the fanbase already, meaningful to the area, etc,” Wright said, via NBC Sports Washington. “So picking some random-[expletive] bird mascot doesn’t feel like the right approach, at least from what we’ve seen so far.”

Oh, you mean like an Eagle…?

All shade aside, Wright also reiterated something that has already been made clear, but that will yet again lay a lot of fears to rest in the Washington fanbase; the colors are not changing.

“A few things are starting to become clear,” Wright said. “No. 1: Burgundy and gold should never change, period. That is a core aspect of the identity of this team and we know it is important from all this research as well to make sure we don’t feel like an expansion club and we’re tied to the history. We have to keep the burgundy and gold as a centerpiece to all of this.”

There still isn’t a timeline that has been put into place for announcing a new name or mascot, but Wright has said before that such things may not come until before the 2020 season.

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Washington GM Tracker: A list of executives interviewing for top job in D.C.

Washington is on the hunt for a new general manager, so here is an up-to-date list tracking those who have or will be interviewed for the position.

After coming off of an offseason in 2020 where the Washington Football Team completely upended their coaching staff and brought in a whole host of new blood into the team headquarters, things are much quieter this time around in D.C. However, Washington is in search of a new executive that can fill the place of General Manager, helping to take some of the front-office work off of Ron Rivera’s plate and help further the success starting to form in Washington.

There are a number of candidates that have already emerged, and the coming and days and weeks will surely bring more. At the moment, here is a list of people who either have or will be interviewed for the GM spot in Washington.