RUSSELL: Why did Redskins choose now to release Scandrick?

Orlando_Scandrick_Redskins
Photo credit Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

The Redskins released veteran and versatile corner Orlando Scandrick for a couple of reasons on Tuesday.

They like their young cornerback group consisting of Greg Stroman, Danny Johnson and Adonis Alexander. They mix in well with Josh Norman, Quinton Dunbar and Fabian Moreau as the likely core of the Redskins corner group, at least for now.

Another reason, based on multiple reports, is that Scandrick did not mix well personality wise with coaches and younger players.

J.P. Finlay of NBC Sports Washington reported the Redskins have reached out to veteran corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.

The Redskins seemingly have good reasons why they would move on from Scandrick. 

However, why would you essentially reward Scandrick right now? Jay Gruden told reporters the move was done now, in part, to allow Scandrick to find another team. Why? So he can potentially help a team you might have to compete against? The hell with that. If Scandrick was such a problem, you make him suffer a little and hurt his reputation. At least for now.

Instead, the Redskins rewarded him by releasing him. It’s another bad free-agent signing and wasted salary cap space. The Scandrick signing costs Washington 500,000 per year in dead cap value over each of the next two years.

They open two million or so in cap space this year, which is important, per Spotrac.com, which would allow them to be able to sign a veteran replacement if they so choose.

Orlando Scandricks’ release leaves behind $1M of dead cap ($500,000 each in 2018 & 2019), clearing a little over $2M in 2018 salary cap for the #Redskins. https://t.co/Oi40No6h8h

— Spotrac (@spotrac) August 14, 2018

Here’s the problem: Until you have that veteran corner signed to an agreement, you don’t do this. Why? Because players can fail physicals, or contract talks can break down very easily.

If Washington can't reel in a veteran defensive back, for whatever reason, they are exposing themselves to a group that is very short on experience outside of Norman.

What happens if a player or two at the position get injured for a significant period of time? Think it can't happen? As the Redskins found out last week, your depth can be rocked quickly and in a matter of moments. Washington lost Derrius Guice, Robert Davis, Manasseh Garner and a young fullback for the season in the span of less than 48 hours.

Sometimes you think you have enough, but you never, ever, have all the answers. In a different sport, the Nationals thought they were so deep in the bullpen that they traded Brandon Kintzler, for reportedly talking too much to the media, and on the same night, had Shawn Kelley melt down on the mound and embarrass himself and the organization.
They designated Kelley for assignment the next morning and traded him a few days later. This was while closer Sean Doolittle was already on the disabled list. Then, Kelvin Herrera got hurt and had to be put on the DL, leaving Ryan Madson's bad back to allow a walk-off grand slam in Sunday night's soul-crushing loss in Chicago.

The overall point? Washington thought it was very deep and all of a sudden has egg on its face. The Redskins think they're young and deep at corner. Hopefully, they'll be right, but the odds and common sense tell us that this move could backfire quickly.

They should have held onto Scandrick until they had another solution.

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