Washington’s NFL Team Continues It’s Stupid Trend of Alienating Talented Defensive Backs

Rather than write several dense paragraphs about how and why Washington’s second best football team (the XFL’s DC Defenders are undefeated and don’t have a racial slur as a team name, which automatically makes them the best team, GO DEFENDERS!) seems to keep ruining perfectly good defensive backs (cornerbacks in particular), here’s a list of straight up dumb shit that’s happened in the Redskins backfield in no particular order.

• Signed Josh Norman to a record five year, $75 million dollar contract that paid him fifteen million a year. Norman played up to that contract for exactly one and a half years before injuries (this might be a theme) made a slow guy even slower, which became an issue when teams realized they could throw at him and he literally could not keep up with anyone. Recently, Washington could have saved a cool $6 million in cap space by either cutting or trading Norman, but instead they waffled, having Norman start this season, get toasted multiple times, benching him, and then trying to trade him at the deadline when whatever trade value he’d had was well dried up.
• Ruined Bashaud Breeland after two promising seasons by leaving him on island with Antonio Brown instead of having their highly paid cornerback Norman shadow the best fucking wide receiver in the league, naturally leading to a bunch of fans criticizing and antagonizing him. He was unceremoniously benched in 2017 for “reasons”. He played solid in 2018 with the Packers and signed on with the Chiefs in 2019, recording an interception for Jimmy Garappolo in the gotdamn Super Bowl, which they would go on to win.
• Traded Kendall Fuller after two impressive seasons as the team’s starting nickelback to the Kansas City Chiefs, along with a third round pick, for Alex Smith. Fuller has played solid football for the Chiefs, and, wouldn’t you know it, had a game sealing interception in the gotdamn Super Bowl.
• Have a revolving door at safety that has included such Guys as LaRon Landry, Brandon Merriweather, O.J Atogwe, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Madieu Williams (who was roughly 300 years old at the time), D.J Swearinger (who rightly pointed out how shit the coaching staff was and got released for his trouble), and future Guy Landon Collins, who made the boneheaded mistake of deciding to sign with Washington instead of literally anywhere else, even the fuckin’ Browns, who definitely killed Deadspin.
• Have now annoyed and pissed off starting cornerback Quinton Dunbar, who’s seeking to renegotiate his contract. Dunbar was an undrafted free agent out of Florida and originally played wide receiver before being asked to change positions. Dunbar fought through training camp and ended up with a position on the 53-man roster despite a room that was stacked with players the team had drafted. Every year he got a little bit better. The team made him play on an injured leg that had nerve damage and he managed to record an interception. In 2019 he became the full-time starter opposite Norman and ended the season ranked in the top 10 corners in the league and a second-team All-Pro according to Pro Football Focus. Even Bruce fuckin’ Allen was smart enough to try and re-sign the guy, but the team’s newly structured front office has reportedly stopped negotiating with him. Dunbar has no guaranteed money and is playing for a team that nearly killed Alex Smith after a broken leg, but the new braintrust in Washington is playing hardball with the exact kind of football player that teams need to actually win games, a hard-working, no bullshit player who literally started from the bottom of the roster. Dunbar has now either demanded to be traded or to be released, presumably because he has realized what most people need to realize; Washington’s NFL team is a fucking shithole, and the best thing you can do is fucking leave before they destroy your career.

Thank guy the XFL bought professional football back to Washington, D.C, so fans can actually have something to cheer about.