Yahoo's Michael Silver wrote a piece today about the Eagles being one of the teams likely to be aggressive when free agency gets underway. I read it earlier and somehow this line slipped past me. Luckily, it did not slip past Sheil Kapadia.
"[Jim Washburn] is convinced he can get the most out of Haynesworth," the Eagles source said. "He wants him badly."
He identified the source as someone "familiar with the teams thinking." This same source also said he believes the Eagles will be aggressive.
"This is the year," the source said earlier this week. "We think we have a great shot to win it, and we’re loading up and going for it."
Eagles GM Howie Roseman was also interviewed for the piece and in an answer about when he thinks the lockout will end, Roseman called this free agency period a "career defining opportunity.
"There are two trips we’ve had planned for a year; friends are coming into town to join us on one of them," Roseman said, laughing. "So I guarantee that’s when the lockout will be settled. That wouldn’t be ideal, but whenever it happens, we’ll be ready. It’s a once-in-a-career opportunity."
Obviously Haynesworth at his best is arguably the most dominant defensive player in football. Jim Washburn certainly got the best out of him as his position coach in Tennessee, but can he do it again? Even further, how do the Eagles go about getting him? As much as it appears the Redskins are done with him, he is still under contract there. They could certainly cut him, but they will likely try to trade him as well. The Skins have already eaten a large part of the "7 year year $100 million" deal he got from them. A whopping $24.6 mil was paid to him last year alone. Like all NFL contracts, it is loaded with some funny money at the end. The next two years of Haynesworth's deal are not terrible.
2011 -- -- $5.4 million
2012 -- -- $7.2 million
He will likely also get another million as a workout bonus this offseason. I guess he will that is... I really don't know how workout bonuses will be affected by the lockout. He's not cheap over these next two years, but the final three years of the deal are the ones that really make it seem huge. He's scheduled to make $29 million in 2013, $10.8 million in 2014 and $12 million in 2015. Of course, that's not guaranteed and he won't ever see that.
So do the Eagles go after him if he's cut? I'd say "why not?" But could they swing a trade with the Redskins? After they were essentially fleeced in the Donovan McNabb deal, would they want to risk further embarrassment by sending one of the great free agent flops of all time to the Eagles to potentially resurrect his career?
That may be too bitter of a pill to swallow for the Redskins. After the jump is our favorite Haynesworth memory.
