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Second-year New Orleans Saints cornerback Keith Washington II has worked out an injury settlement with the team, per his representatives with Icon Sports Consulting. This means that he will be released from the injured reserve list with a buyout equivalent to the estimated weeks he would have missed during the regular season, allowing him to try out for other NFL teams once he has recovered from this undisclosed injury (NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reports that wide receiver Jalen McCleskey will probably receive his own injury settlement).
It also means that, for now, his time in New Orleans is up. There is a waiting period until players who take injury settlements can re-sign with the same team (typically six weeks plus the agreed estimate). For example, if Washington’s agents and the Saints concurred that he would be out until Week 5, he wouldn’t be eligible to re-up with New Orleans until Week 11. In the meantime, other teams could court him.
In the past, this was used to keep teams from circumventing injured reserve rules. Now that players can return after just three weeks of inactivity, it works more as a tool to manage long-term but not season-ending injuries. If an injured player was just brought in for training camp and was considered a longshot to make the team, signing them to an injury settlement frees up the training staff to focus on other members of the team when they are sidelined by injury in-season.
The downside is that the player taking a settlement — Washington, in this case — must seek treatment on their own without the support of a team medical staff. And they could also end up taking a deal lower than what they’re worth; the team could argue his recovery timeline is only 6 weeks, for example, while a second opinion sought by his agent predicts a 10-week recovery, resulting in an 8-week settlement.
Each case is handled differently. And the long and short of it here for the Saints and Washington is that his time in New Orleans is likely over. He signed with the team as an undrafted rookie out of West Virginia last summer and spent the year on the practice squad. While the Saints may have liked his potential, they apparently don’t see him as critical piece to their 2021 plans. Maybe he returns in a few months, but he’ll probably find work elsewhere first.
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