It didn’t take Scot McCloughan long to establish that he’s going to be making some changes around these parts. After signing Ricky Jean-Francois early yesterday, he also cut veterans Stephen Bowen and Barry Cofield.
The two defensive linemen shared some commonalities – they both came to the Redskins four years ago – they both only played in eight games last year – and both were projected cap casualties with high bills of service for the upcoming season.
Bowen’s release means a savings of about $5.5 Million cap dollars. He was slated to be a cap hit of just over $8 Million, but now he will only cost $2.5 Million in dead cap space. Recent injuries kept him from being more effective than he was in his first two seasons in Washington, and his contract was just not proportionate with his production. The 30-year old had 7 sacks and 96 tackles in 50 games for the Redskins.
Cofield was also 30 and also had a big cap number of over $7.5M for 2015. Now he will count for about $3.5M in cap – a savings of about $4 Million more. He was released with a failed physical designation, and seemed to have too many question marks for the dollars he was due anyway, after last year’s issues. Cofield was dependable before last year though, starting every game his first 3 seasons, and registering 9 sacks and 100 tackles while in Washington.
The two moves should free up about $9.5 million more in cap space, leaving the Redskins with somewhere north of $25 Million left to spend.
The Redskins also announced that they had re-signed Tom Compton. The 25-year old offensive tackle started 9 games and appeared in all 16 contests last season.
They have a lot of holes to fill, but they have some money to do it. McCloughan has his work cut out for him, and a lot to do, but today he definitely gave every indication that he was ready to go to work.
Stay tuned!