Redskins: Quietly sensible FA signings
Sam Monson | March 17, 2015
PFF-headlines
Don’t look now, but the Washington Redskins are making shrewd free agent moves.
Gone are the days of throwing as much money as they could collect up at players like Albert Haynesworth – there was no pursuit of Ndamukong Suh, the big prize in this year’s free agency crop – and instead are a series of smart moves that can help the football team without breaking the bank, or the salary cap.
Re-signing Tom Compton and Niles Paul are moves whose merit can be debated, but the new faces arriving have a combined PFF rating of +37.4 (ok, that’s not really a legitimate number since positions can’t be cross compared, but it illustrates a point…)
In fact, none of the five players signed by Washington that plied their trade elsewhere in 2014 have a negative PFF grade that season. Every single one of them is coming off a positively graded season, with Stephen Paea and Terrance Knighton having the most impressive seasons.
That pair should team with Jason Hatcher to give Washington the formidable defensive line they have been chasing for years. They are not just talented, but will form a balanced trio of players that can cause problems for blockers. Ricky-Jean Francois didn’t enjoy the kind of season in Indianapolis that they would have been banking on when they signed him for significant money in the last free agent period, but he wasn’t poor for them either, and could rediscover his best play as a rotational body in Washington.
Chris Culliver is coming off some fine play for the 49ers and, though he has never quite eliminated the negatives from his game, he is still just 27 and represents a colossal upgrade over David Amerson, in particular, at cornerback, even concentrating solely on the negative plays.
Finally, Jeron Johnson is a defensive back coming out of the Seattle system that has produced or identified a lot of quality players recently. He played just 98 snaps last season but graded positively in them, earning his best grade, perhaps significantly, in his lone start, and the game in which he played 69 of those 98 snaps.
There is no huge splash signing among this group, but maybe that is a good thing. Washington appear to have done free agency the right way and added a series of quality signings.
Redskins: Knighton adds some steel
Michael Mountford | March 17, 2015
PFF-headlines
For much of the last decade the Washington Redskins have struggled to field a solid defensive line, making move after move to little avail. This offseason has been no different as new GM Scott McCloughan has added ends Rickey Jean-Francois and Stephen Paea, and, in one of the best moves of free agency so far, Terrance Knighton to man the nose.
As a two-gapping nose tackle, Knighton adds an element that Washington has lacked since moving to the 3-4 defense. He is a space-eating behemoth, where before they preferred the more penetrative talents of the undersized Barry Cofield. Over the past two years no Redskins defensive lineman has graded positively in run defense, but across the same span Knighton has recorded a cumulative +18.9 grade against the run.
While his primary role is to stuff the run, in 2013 Knighton also showed that he can disrupt to the opposition’s passing game. With four sacks and 34 total pressures, Knighton had a Pass Rushing Productivity score of 8.9, the eighth-highest among tackles. He finished just behind more established interior pass rushers like new teammate Jason Hatcher, and Jurrell Casey.
With the rumors going around free agency that Knighton has been dealing with weight issues, the Redskins might have gotten themselves a steal in free agency, only giving Knighton a one-year contract worth $4 million. If they get the motivated Knighton that played in Denver they will have signed one of the best nose tackles in the league.
