Despite being a white 44-year-old, Washington Redskins’ owner Daniel Snyder’s life seems to be based around the most popular lyric from Shaolin’s illest crew, the Wu-Tang Clan:
“Cash rules everything around me.”
The spendthrift Snyder bought the ’Skins in 1999 for the extravagant sum of $800 million with the intention of buying himself a Super Bowl. Instead, Snyder broke the bank on a plethora of over-the-hill players—Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Adam Archuleta, Shawn Springs, and Jeremiah Trotter, to name a few—who earned the team just one measly playoff victory.
Apparently, Snyder still hasn’t realized the error of his ways. Right after the National Football League’s free agency period started at 12:01 a.m. this past Friday, Snyder once again reached into his wallet and pulled out a wad of cash for two talented, but questionable, free agents: defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
Haynesworth signed a seven-year, $100 million deal that includes $41 million in guaranteed money, a league record. At face value, it’s apparent that Snyder emptied his wallet for a phenomenal talent, as Haynesworth is the most dominant defensive tackle in the NFL.
But character and injury issues have plagued Haynesworth since his rookie season in 2002. The most shocking incident occurred on October 1, 2006, when Haynesworth, then a member of the Tennessee Titans, stomped on the head of Cleveland Browns center Andre Gurode with his cleat—twice. That little indiscretion earned Haynesworth a five-game suspension, the longest ever given out for an on-field incident.
Hall is another example of Snyder’s careless spending. The cornerback signed a 6-year, $54 million contract that contains $22.5 million of guaranteed money. Granted, he made a positive impact on the Redskins’ secondary when he came over from Oakland for the second half of last season, but Hall was cut by the Raiders halfway through the first year of his 7-year, $72 million contract last season. He deserved it, too—his play was nowhere near what it should have been for the money Oakland was dishing out.
Snyder signed these two players instead of focusing on the ’Skins’ real problems.
Last season, the ’Skins had the bad luck of playing in football’s best division, the NFC East, with the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys. They started off the year 6-2 behind the strong play of young quarterback Jason Campbell, who efficiently passed for eight touchdown passes and zero interceptions over the first half of the season. Quickly, however, their season unraveled. The team went from an apparent lock for a playoff bid to one of the coldest teams down the stretch, finishing in last place in their division with an 8-8 record. And Campbell, one the ’Skins’ first half bright spots, threw only five touchdowns in the second half of the season and six interceptions.
What accounts for the drastic change midway? The ’Skins’ opponents started to take advantage of the team’s weakest area—offense. The team finished a mediocre 19th in total offense and 23rd in passing offense, a problem that needs to be fixed if the team wants to compete for a division title next season.
Their total defense, on the other hand, finished fourth in the NFL. The re-signing of Hall and the addition of Haynesworth will probably make the ‘Skins one of the top three defenses in the league, but it’s an area where Snyder didn’t need to spend money to improve the team.
Instead, Snyder needed to improve the receiving corps, led by an aging Santana Moss, and the offensive line. Investing in both of these areas would improve the ’Skins’ passing game and make it a strong complement to Clinton Portis’s rushing attack, allowing the team to form the offensive juggernaut necessary to compete in the NFC East.
Like a house that looks good on the outside but is built on a faulty foundation, Snyder’s ’Skins, even with their big off-season moves, are destined to crumble.
Andre Gurode did get his head stomped, but it was as a Dallas Cowboy, not a Cleveland Brown. Hell, based on this alone, Skins fans should be thrilled to have him.