D'Qwell Jackson and recent signings.

A Little House Keeping

A few signing I missed do deserve a little analysis.

The Washington Redskins signed impending free agents Will Montgomery and Darrion Scott to new contracts. Without the specifics of the money, it’s difficult to evaluate the value the Redskins got but I would say that these were good signings. Neither guy was demanding obscene amounts of money, likely combining for less than 2 million a year against the cap (a guess based on the value of extended backups around the league), so it’s not like they were straining their cap space to bring them back. Both are valuable, if unspectacular, backups and they maintain a certain amount of depth that the Redskins won’t have to go out and replace. At best, Montgomery is a decent starter at guard or center and Scott is a special teamer with minimal value on the defensive line. But while both staying on the team; the Redskins can really focus on filling the holes near the front of the depth chart.

D’Qwell Jackson’s extension should be the first of many

The five-year, 42.5 million dollar deal D’Qwell Jackson signed Monday should be the first of many for the Cleveland Browns in the next couple of years. Jackson has been a great leader in the middle of the defense and has succeeded in both 3-4 and 4-3 defenses. He did miss the majority of the 2009 and 2010 seasons because of pectoral injuries, which drove down his value somewhat. He’s also 28 and at the end of this contract he’d be 33, so that also came into play. But he should remain a major piece in the middle of the Browns defense for the remainder of his career.  

But Jackson, though playing an important position on the defense, shouldn’t be the last of the Browns contract extensions to come up in the next few years. The Browns have done a great job of building through the draft in recent years and guys like Joe Haden and Alex Mack should be getting extensions in the near future. Mack is a good young center and possibly the second most important piece on that offensive line. While his contract doesn’t run out for another two years, the Browns have a number of players, like T.J. Ward, Evan Moore and Shawn Lauvao whose contracts run out at that same time. While they may not want to re-sign all of them, it would make the decision making process a bit easier if they have Mack (or any of those other players) locked up to longer-term deals ahead of time.

Additionally, if Joe Haden continues playing as well as he has the last two years, it’s almost certain that the contract discussions will come up sooner rather than later. The Browns would be smart to beat Haden’s people to the punch and lock him up to a fair, but somewhat discounted deal before the market inflates. I’d say the same about T.J. Ward, but there have been more questions about how good he really is.

Thankfully for the Browns, the two other really good pieces of their defense, Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard are locked up for the next four years and have time to show how good they can be over the long-term.