The Washington Redskins are trying to have it both ways with the Alex Smith trade: Acquire a perceived franchise quarterback while saving enough salary cap room to build a roster that can compete.
The logic is sound, but there’s plenty of risk involved.
Washington once again swung for the fences to try and stabilize its quarterback position — dealing a third-round draft pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller to the Kansas City Chiefs for Smith. The deal also means saying goodbye to Kirk Cousins, who will hit free agency in March.
The Redskins hit the reset button at quarterback, gambling that Smith, who turns 34 in May, has enough left in the tank to lead a roster that, with a few tweaks, could be a contender.
Washington also committed to the former No. 1 pick in a way the franchise wouldn’t, or couldn’t, for Cousins. Smith gets a four-year, $94 million extension with $71 million guaranteed.
But because Smith only makes $17 million next season, the Redskins will have more breathing room under the cap. The Redskins were projected to have $52 million in cap space next season, but more than half of that — $34.5 million for just one year — would have been eaten up by Cousins, if management had hit him with a third straight franchise tag.
The team’s actual cap hasn’t been set yet by the NFL, but it’s projected to be around $178 million, per Over the Cap.
Whatever the final number, $17 million is a good figure for a franchise quarterback.
Smith’s $17 million in salary this next season gives the Redskins a chance to re-sign some of the team’s 19 unrestricted free agents.
It’s Smith’s extension that could be a problem.
At $71 million guaranteed, the Redskins are essentially locked into Smith for the next three seasons. Two franchises — San Francisco and now Kansas City — have already decided that they are better off going younger than with sticking with Smith.
Smith’s salary under the extension — $23.5 million starting in 2019 — is fine. The number is large, but the NFL’s salary cap rises each season, as Cousins has routinely pointed out.
“(Contracts are) not just about dollars, it’s about percentage of the cap,” Cousins said in early January.
For next season, Smith will account for slightly more than 11 percent of the cap. Cousins took up 14 percent of the Redskins’ payroll in 2017. Even with the pay increase under the extension, Smith’s contract is likely to remain manageable, especially as the cap grows.
The big risk for the Redskins is this: Smith is going to be paid like a franchise quarterback no matter what happens on the field. If his production drops as he ages, the team will have few options.
Smith is coming off a career year in which he threw for 4,042 yards and 26 touchdowns, playing in the Chiefs’ wildly creative offense under Andy Reid with a great supporting cast of weapons.
How will Smith perform without dynamic threats such as wide receiver Tyreek Hill, running back Kareem Hunt and tight end Travis Kelce? Hill and Hunt, in particular, blow by defenders with their speed — an element missing in the Redskins offense.
Still, Redskins coach Jay Gruden has shown he can be as gifted a playcaller as Reid, and the two run similar West Coast offenses. It will be interesting to see how Smith adjusts to Gruden, who pushes quarterbacks to run his offensive scheme wide-open — pedal to the floor.
Smith has a reputation as a conservative passer, but at times, that’s been overstated.
In 2017, Smith tied his career-high of eight yards per attempt. He also was sixth in attempting throws of 20 yards or more. Cousins, interestingly enough, ranked fifth.
Gruden wants his passers to take chances and the choice of whether to take more shots down the field was sometimes a source of friction between Cousins and Gruden.
Cousins told Sports Illustrated that if he played the way Gruden truly wanted, he’d throw 20 interceptions per year. Gruden quipped to reporters that Cousins would still have 60 touchdowns.
“I think there is going to be a point in time where he is going to have to give some receivers some chances that maybe look a little covered, but give them a chance to uncover or give them a chance to make a play,” Gruden said of Cousins.
Smith, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, was still one of the most conservative passers last year when it came to making throws into tight coverage.
Over his career, Smith has done his best work playing conservatively behind a strong defense and a reliable run game. But the Redskins, beset by injuries in the backfield, had one of the league’s worst running games in 2017.
Defensively, the Redskins made surprising strides, adding good pieces in free agency and seeing contributions from a number of young players.
The latter included the 22-year-old Fuller, whose inclusion in the trade is perplexing. If the Redskins want to build a solid team around Smith, surely a lockdown nickel corner on his rookie contract could have helped. It’s understandable why many, including safety D.J. Swearinger, were openly upset.
But the Chiefs wanted Fuller, and the Redskins decided he was worth giving up for Smith. NFL teams routinely do whatever is necessary to figure out the quarterback position. The Redskins are no different.
Gruden, at his year end presser, said the Redskins needed to be “good and diligent” when it came to making sure they got “the right piece in here to compete.”
The Redskins’ diligence led them to Smith — closing the book on the Kirk Cousins era in Washington.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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