Daron Payne not in Washington’s future plans?

It’s been a frustrating offseason for Washington fans.

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It wouldn’t be Washington football if it didn’t involve uncertainty.

Don’t call me a hater.

Seriously, I have followed this team much closer than most fans since the 1969 season. I fell in love as a kid when the Redskins had Sonny Jurgensen throwing tight spirals to Charley Taylor and Jerry Smith while a young Larry Brown was becoming one of the fiercest runners to ever put on a helmet.

I watched all five Super Bowls in team history and cried as a 9-year-old when they lost Super Bowl VII. So don’t call me a hater.

But today’s latest development again left me frustrated. The front office/head coach Ron Rivera and his front office assistants will not extend defensive tackle Daron Payne.

This AFTER they let Tim Settle go to sign with Buffalo for a mere $9 million over two years and then released Matt Ioannidis. Wait, what?

Following the team for 50+ years, I certainly understand it is a business. Ok, so why release this information today? Why let each of your competitors know you now “have” to trade him? I wrote about this prior to the trade for Carson Wentz, regarding their desperation to obtain a quarterback.

Ok, they were determined to re-sign Jonathan Allen, and I approved of the move. So, why haven’t they been trying to trade Daron Payne earlier in this 2022 offseason, when many other teams were making trades?

If they had traded Payne earlier, could they have not kept both Ioannidis and Settle? They certainly could have.

Has there been much of a plan this offseason? Is it just me, or does it seem there are reactions rather than direction and vision? They cannot let Payne get to the 2022 season. Good grief, Kirk Cousins, Brandon Scherff AND Daron Payne? Is there a plan?

Perhaps they will trade him during this week’s NFL draft? What will they get for him? If they lose Payne, Ioannidis and Settle in a two-month span, their strongest roster spot (DT) will have been virtually annihilated.

Forgive me, but sometimes I feel as soon as Washington strengthens one weakness (QB), it manages to create two more weaknesses, which is what they have done this offseason: strengthen QB, weaken their draft possibilities and gut their defensive tackle depth.

Broncos haven’t been this bad since early years following AFL-NFL merger

The Denver Broncos have not had three consecutive losing seasons since the years immediately following the AFL-NFL merger.

Though there is a way to consider the 2019 season a success for the Denver Broncos, ultimately, the team will have a losing season for the third consecutive year. That hasn’t happened for quite a while.

You have to go all the way back to the AFL-NFL merger.

For clarification, a winning season is one in which the team finishes 8-8 or better. A losing season would be one in which the team lost more games than it won. A winning season is not necessarily one that ended with a playoff berth.

Still, the Broncos have been remarkably good in finishing at least .500. The fact that it was nearly 50 years ago that they had three straight losing seasons is incredible.

Let’s go all the way back to the last time it happened.

The time: 1970-1972

The merger between the old AFL and the NFL took place in 1970. The Broncos were a bad team in the AFL with a total record of 39-97-4 in 10 seasons. They never made the playoffs.

That run of mediocrity carried over into the team’s first few seasons in the NFL and that is as big a reason as any as to why the team had three straight losing seasons following the merger.

In 1970, the team went 5-8-1. The next season, they were 4-9-1 and in 1972 they were 5-9.

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