Jason Reid of The Washington Post reports that RFA linebacker Rocky McIntosh is not participating in today’s Redskins minicamp. [DISCUSS IT!]
Rocky McIntosh will not attend minicamp but hopes “we’ll have a resolution soon.” Hmmmm. Sounds like a potential trade could be in works.
McIntosh and CB Carlos Rogers are restricted free agents [RFA] who received the required 1-year tender offers to keep them off the open market. [Rogers is participating in the minicamp today.] Both wanted either a long-term deal with the Redskins or to be released unconditionally, but the Redskins, like pretty much any other team in this position, declined to do so. These are the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the Redskins are using them as other teams do. As of now, both Rogers and McIntosh have declined to sign their tender offers. [Jason Campbell signed his on Monday and will be studying Mike Shanahan's playbook, but not participating in the minicamp while he waits for a trade.]
If McIntosh and Rogers do not sign within 10 weeks from the start of free agency, they will be unable to play in the 2010 regular season or playoffs. In addition, if they haven’t signed by June 15 their tender amounts can be reduced to 110 percent of their 2009 salaries. That’s not a literal cut in pay, but it is a lot less money than both expected to make in 2010.
Now, when McIntosh says that he hopes to “have a resolution soon” to this situation, it could mean, as Reid suggests, a trade is coming. Or it could be that his agent is getting close to a multi-year contract agreement with the Redskins. We don’t know at this point.
There haven’t been many RFA moving this year because teams must give up draft picks to sign another team’s RFA and few teams want to do that. Thus, working out a trade for McIntosh or Rogers or both isn’t going to be easy. In addition, McIntosh has a history of knee injuries and Rogers was benched last season for giving up long touchdown passes off wide receiver double moves.
In the end, Rogers and McIntosh can only become unrestricted free agents by playing this year, which means sooner or later they will have to sign those tender offers and get on board the Mike Shanahan Express — for one season, at least.
My view is that both players are pretty replaceable. Rogers has never lived up to his selection as the 9th pick in the Draft. McIntosh played pretty well in 2009 and would have made bank this offseason. However, it remains to be seen if he can make the transition from weakside linebacker to inside linebacker, which is where he must play in the new 3-4 defense. Because London Fletcher is so small to play a 3-4 and the Redskins need 8 solid linebackers to play that defense, McIntosh is probably more important to the team than Rogers, who has never been more than an adequate cornerback in the NFL.
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- Nats trade Christian Guzman to Rangers
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