Washington not eager to rent players ahead of trade deadline

The calamity that is this year’s NFC East makes it even more difficult to predict whether the Washington Football Team will be buyers or sellers ahead of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline. 

At 2-5, Washington’s record would normally indicate a team on the verge of selling. Indeed, names like pass rusher Ryan Kerrigan and quarterback Dwayne Haskins have been heavily floated as trade candidates. But at the same time, Washington remains just 1½ games back with an upcoming winnable four-game stretch against teams that aren’t .500.

Does that make them buyers? Not exactly.

With less than 24 hours to make a deal, coach Ron Rivera swatted away trade rumors involving his team Monday — and instead laid out what would be the ideal conditions for Washington to pull the trigger on a trade. The takeaway: Washington likely isn’t in the rental business.

“There are a number of guys out there you can trade for, but they’re all on their last year of their contract and you’re sitting there going: ‘Oh, wow. If he comes out and plays really well, it’s going to be really, really expensive,’” Rivera said. “If it is really expensive, you may not be able to keep that player, so you just invested three months and now that player’s gone.”

Rivera said he weighs trades by looking at if the deal fulfills a need for the team — and, perhaps more importantly, “will he fulfill that need for two or three years?” Rivera has seen that formula work before. In 2011, Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney traded a third-round pick to the Chicago Bears for Greg Olsen, who was given an extension upon the trade and blossomed into a three-time Pro Bowler.

This time around, Rivera will have control over trades for the first time as he was given a say over personnel decisions when hired. But looking at the trade market, and which players are rumored to be available, it’s hard to find a player that fits Rivera’s description of someone who would fill a need, but also signed beyond 2020. Recent trades, for instance, involving Yannick Ngakoue (Minnesota to Baltimore) and Avery Williamson (Jets to Pittsburgh) involved expiring contracts.

Any potential trade could be further complicated by Washington’s record. If Washington gives up one of its draft picks and doesn’t make playoffs, there’s a good chance it would be in the upper part of the round. Despite being a game-and-a-half out of first in the NFC East, Washington still holds the ninth-worst record in football.

Two years ago, Washington, then 5-2, made the mistake of chasing the short term at the trade deadline. The team shipped a fourth-round pick to Green Bay for safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in an attempt to shore up its secondary, despite Clinton-Dix being in the last year of his contract.

The move didn’t pan out. Clinton-Dix was a mess in pass coverage, Washington missed the playoffs and then signed with the Chicago Bears that offseason.

Since then, Washington has overhauled its front office. Former team president Bruce Allen, the architect of the Clinton-Dix trade, was fired last December. Rivera is in charge now.

“It’s all about circumstances and situations,” Rivera said. “Right now, our circumstances are what they are.”

In addition to determining whether Washington wants to add pieces for a division push, Rivera will also have to decide what to do with those involved in trade rumors.

Over the weekend, ESPN reported that Kerrigan, whose playing time is at a career low, may have — or may not have — asked for a trade. The network cited conflicting sources in the story, with one source saying that Kerrigan had made the request while another denied it. Kerrigan, 32, is set to hit free agency after the season.

On Monday, Rivera refused to comment on any rumors — besides to say that Kerrigan has been a “total pro” throughout his career. Kerrigan is playing just 36.4% of the team’s defensive snaps, but Washington values his mentorship to edge rushers Montez Sweat and Chase Young.

“He’s been exactly what we hoped he would be,” Rivera said. “He’s contributed, made impact plays. He’s impacting our young players on the team, setting the example. He’s the right kind of guy to have here.”