Hogs Haven
With the offseason upon us, and continued team building very much at the forefront of my mind, it’s just about the right time to start thinking about how Washington can get back on the compensatory draft pick horse. By and large, during the Dan Snyder era, Washington was atrocious at grooming talent who would be picked up by other teams as comp pick generators, and too often, they found themselves in the position of signing overpriced free agents who negated any comp pick capital they may have found themselves with.
If you are unfamiliar with the compensatory pick process in the NFL, I’d highly recommend checking out this resource at Overthecap.com.
Last season, with the front office turnover and “recalibration” well underway, it was clear the team was going to sign far too many free agents to generate any comp picks even though, in the absence of those signings, the signings elsewhere of Curtis Samuel, Jacoby Brissett, Kendall Fuller, Kam Curl, Cody Barton, and Antonio Gibson could have done so.
There are - at least - two questions this offseason on this topic: 1) Will Washington be more measured in the number of new free agents that it brings aboard? 2) Which of the pending free agents will be allowed to walk, and what’s their compensation likely to look like if they do? This article will be focused primarily on the second question, and which touch on the first, briefly, in the conclusion.
This offseason there are an astonishing 31 potential players who could leave in free agency (though several of them have recently been signed to reserve/future contracts). Only a few of those players, however, are of a sufficient caliber that they are likely to generate comp pick capital for the team.
Last year, the lowest contract amount to result in a comp pick qualifying free agent was $2.35M. We’ll assume around a 10% increase in the salary cap this year, and a corresponding 10% increase in the comp pick floor, setting the minimum contract value around $2.5M.
So who would command that sort of contract in free agency if they walked this offseason?
Before he came to Washington, Bobby Wagner had already crafted a Hall of Fame career. This season, he showed that, even at 34, he still had fuel in the tank. He served as an invaluable field general on the defense and mentor in the locker room, and played well enough on the field to get a Pro Bowl nod.
It’s still unclear whether Wagner might retire this offseason, whether he wants to be back in Washington, or whether Washington wants him back in a starting-level role. If Wagner does want to keep playing I would expect his next contract will be in the range of this year’s contract, which was $6.5M, and would likely generate a 6th round compensatory pick.
Like Jacoby Brissett demonstrated last year, the market for solid QB2s in the NFL is dependable and...
