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The appeal of NFL-imposed cap reductions to the Washington Redskins ($36 million) and Dallas Cowboys ($10 million) has ended. Arbitrator Stephen Burbank dismissed their claims today -- for reasons described below -- and the teams have raised the white flag, issuing a joint statement accepting the decision. Interestingly, the two NFL owners who enjoy a good fight the most -- Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder -- have decided to go quietly here, choosing to use this as a chip for political capital down the road.

The NFL claimed the teams gained competitive advantage by maneuvering cap money into the uncapped 2010 year, clearing the deck for future spending without encumbrances from bloated contracts of Albert Haynesworth, DeAngelo Hall, Miles Austin and others. Were the teams given a chance to argue, they would have emphasized that there were no written warnings against their conduct, and that the contracts were approved upon submission to the NFL management council (NFLMC). However, they will have no such chance, as the case was dismissed.

Commissioner power

Burbank rejected the teams’ arguments that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was not authorized to act on behalf of the NFLMC, the unit of the NFL that gave strident verbal warnings about their cap maneuvers and suggested discipline. Burbank intimated -- but did not expressly hold -- that the articles and bylaws of the NFLMC contemplate the commissioner acting as an agent for them. Thus, the commissioner’s powers may extend past the playing field into the contract and cap decisions made by teams and their ownership.

NFLPA on board

The March 11 letter announcing the reduction (reallocation letter) was executed by both Goodell and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith. Smith was agreeable as long as league-wide cap room remained the same, with the $46 million reallocated to the other 28 teams (the Saints and Raiders were denied reallocation because of similar, but lesser violations). The union’s buy-in -- forged with assurances from the NFL that the team cap number in 2012 would not dip below that of 2011 -- was a factor in Burbank’s dismissal.

Teams on board

With the NFLPA signing off, the March 27 resolution by 29 NFL teams (the Bucs abstained) to ratify the reallocation letter became, in Burbank’s eyes, a valid amendment to the collective bargaining agreement. Therefore, the Cowboys’ and Redskins’ claims of unilateral changes in the cap and collusion by other teams were denied. The key line from the decision reads in part: “the March 27th Resolution effectively ratified the Reallocation Letter, which therefore is binding on the Redskins and Cowboys as an amendment to the CBA.”

Thus, Burbank essentially gave his blessing to two agreements that served to bind and penalize the Redskins and Cowboys without them being a party to either. Commissioner power is strengthened again, 28 teams have additional cap room, and the NFLPA protects its players’ cap room league-wide. Everyone is satisfied except, of course, those two owners.

Something tells me that -- although they are accepting the decision -- they won’t soon forget this episode.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled pre-draft hysteria to report a veteran player acquisition. Leave it to the New York Giants to treat this as a business-as-usual day, which they did by signing veteran defensive tackle Shaun Rogers. Rogers is a 33-year-old, 12-year NFL veteran who played every game last year for the New Orleans Saints.

The signing is interesting because of what it might say about the way the Giants feel about the younger defensive tackles they already had on the roster, including Linval Joseph and second-year man Marvin Austin, who missed his rookie season with an injury. Austin has been saying all the right things about working to get back on the field, but the Giants' recent hunt for a veteran at the same position (Mike Garafolo reports they were looking into Albert Haynesworth) indicates that they're not sure what they're going to get out of their holdover group.

Anyway, we all knew the Giants would find a way to come up with a defensive lineman today. It remains to be seen whether they'll draft one at 11:30 pm. As you know, they never believe they have too many.

Good and interesting insight in this story from Albert Breer on NFL.com about what, exactly, upset the other teams in the NFL about the way the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins spent their money in the uncapped 2010 season. The NFL stripped the Redskins of $36 million and the Cowboys of $10 million in salary cap space over the next two years, and those two teams have filed a grievance against the league and the NFLPA to dispute the punishment. But to this point, it has remained unclear what, exactly, the other teams felt they did wrong.

Albert writes that, by structuring the contracts of Miles Austin, Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall in such a way as to inflate 2010 base salaries and save money in future years, the Cowboys and Redskins inflated the franchise-player numbers for wide receivers, defensive tackles and cornerbacks. As a result, the Chargers had a hard time keeping Vincent Jackson, the Ravens were handcuffed by the contract they wanted to give Haloti Ngata and the Bengals were unable to keep Johnathan Joseph. For example:

Austin's contract was instrumental in pushing the receiver number from $9.5 million in 2010 to $11.3 million in 2011. San Diego franchised Vincent Jackson at the latter number in 2011. The leverage Jackson gained from having an $11.4 million tender made him difficult to sign to a long-term deal, and the resulting 2012 franchise figure -- by rule, 120 percent of the previous number, which came out to $13.7 million -- made it even harder to tag him again for the club.

So San Diego, which likely would've tagged Jackson again if the number had been more affordable, let Jackson walk. He signed a five-year, $55.6 million contract with the Buccaneers this offseason.

Many thanks to Albert for shining some light on what, exactly, the other owners found wrong with the way the Cowboys and the Redskins behaved in a year that was supposed to have no spending restrictions. The Cowboys and Redskins are arguing that there was no rule against what they did, and while that may be true, Giants owner and NFL management committee chairman John Mara said last month that all teams were warned that they could be punished if they did what these two teams did.

But for a couple of reasons, I continue to believe the teams that are complaining about this are full of it. First of all, commissioner Roger Goodell said at the owners' meetings last month that the reason for the penalties was that the teams in question had attempted to gain a competitive advantage in future years through their 2010 actions. But what Albert writes (on the league's own web site) is something quite different. Albert's reporting indicates that the reason the other teams got upset at the Cowboys and the Redskins was because their actions required them to spend more money than they wanted to spend to pay their own players. And if that's the case, then the artificial, unwritten guidelines the owners tried to put in place to control spending during the uncapped year were not an effort to maintain future competitive balance (as they have claimed publicly), but rather clearly an attempt to control player salaries.

Furthermore, it's important to remember that there never would have been an uncapped 2010 season -- or any reason to cut backroom deals to regulate spending therein -- if the owners hadn't decided to lock out the players in 2011 in an effort to restructure the CBA in a manner more favorable to themselves. Had they negotiated in good faith prior to 2010, they could have put a new CBA in place that would have imposed a salary cap and clear spending rules for that season. But because they had decided long before to impose a lockout strategy and not negotiate until they had the players backed up against the wall, the 2010 season arrived without a salary cap, as the prior CBA said it must if it were to be the final league year.

The entire concept of the uncapped 2010 season was an avoidable mess of the owners' own making. The lockout was an unnecessary act of pure greed, as evidenced by a new CBA that solved almost none of the competitive-balance issues raised by small-market owners. And the idea that the teams could whisper together behind closed doors about acting as though there was a cap when there wasn't and expect every owner to go along with the plan is (and always was) utterly foolish. The salary cap penalties against the Cowboys and Redskins are part of the fallout from the clumsy way in which the NFL's owners executed their negotiating strategy, and I continue to see no common-sense reason why those teams shouldn't expect to get some sort of restitution from the arbitrator.

Continuing our borderline relevant, hopefully fun and interesting look at the history of the specific draft picks our division's teams hold this year, we look at the Philadelphia Eagles, who have nine picks in this year's draft. Some interesting stuff you turn up in an exercise like this. For instance, some pretty good recent history at the Eagles' first two picks. And if you think the Eagles have to take a quarterback early if they're thinking about the future, scroll all the way down. They might be able to wait until their very last pick to find the next Bart Starr!

PICK 15 (15th pick, first round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Mike Pouncey, C, Dolphins

2010 -- Jason Pierre-Paul, DE, Giants

2009 -- Brian Cushing, LB, Texans

2008 -- Branden Albert, T, Chiefs

2007 -- Lawrence Timmons, LB, Steelers

Eagles' history of No. 15 picks

2003 -- Jerome McDougle

Hall of Famers picked No. 15

Alan Page (1967), Jim Taylor (1958)

Other Notables

Albert Haynesworth (2002)

PICK 46 (14th pick, second round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Orlando Franklin, T, Broncos

2010 -- Linval Joseph, DT, Giants

2009 -- Connor Barwin, DE, Texans

2008 -- Jerome Simpson, WR, Bengals

2007 -- LaMarr Woodley, LB, Steelers

Eagles' history of No. 46 pick

1983 -- Jody Schulz

Hall of Famers picked No. 46

Jack Lambert (1974)

PICK 51 (19th pick, second round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Da'Quan Bowers, DE, Buccaneers

2010 -- Toby Gerhart, RB, Vikings

2009 -- Andy Levitre, G, Bills

2008 -- Malcolm Kelly, WR, Redskins

2007 -- Steve Smith, WR, Giants

Eagles' history of No. 51 pick

None

Hall of Famers picked No. 51

Rickey Jackson (1981)

PICK 88 (25th pick, third round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Johnny Patrick, DB, Saints

2010 -- Andre Roberts, WR, Cardinals

2009 -- Ladarius Webb, DB, Ravens

2008 -- Bruce Davis, LB, Steelers

2007 -- Andy Alleman, G, Saints

Eagles' history of No. 88 pick

1984 -- Evan Cooper

Hall of Famers picked No. 88

Bob Hayes (1964)

PICK 114 (19th pick, fourth round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Cecil Shorts, WR, Jaguars

2010 -- Dennis Pitta, TE, Ravens

2009 -- David Bruton, DB, Broncos

2008 -- Reggie Corner, DB, Bills

2007 -- Marvin White, S, Bengals

Eagles' history of No. 114 pick

1967 -- Bob Van Pelt

Hall of Famers picked No. 114

None. Closest I found was Steve Largent, who was picked 117th. Sorry.

PICK 153 (18th pick, fifth round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Jeremy Kerley, WR, Jets

2010 -- Andrew Quarless, TE, Packers

2009 -- Cornelius Ingram, TE, Eagles

2008 -- Matt Slater, WR, Patriots

2007 -- Kevin Boss, TE, Giants

Eagles' history of No. 153 pick

2009 -- Cornelius Ingram

1967 -- Bob Hughes

Hall of Famers picked No. 153

None. No one at all in the 150s. Or the 140s, for that matter.

PICK 172 (second pick, sixth round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Brandon Fusco, C, Vikings

2010 -- Brent Bowden, P, Buccaneers

2009 -- David Buehler, K, Cowboys

2008 -- Thomas Brown, RB, Falcons

2007 -- Legedu Naanee, WR, Chargers

Eagles' history of 172nd pick

2005 -- Scott Young

1999 -- Cecil Martin

1984 -- Joe Hayes

Hall of Famers picked No. 172

None.

PICK 194 (24th pick, sixth round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Markell Carter, LB, Patriots

2010 -- Ramon Harewood, T, Ravens

2009 -- Brandon Gibson, WR, Eagles

2008 -- Ryan Mundy, S, Steelers

2007 -- David Irons, CB, Falcons

Eagles' history of 194th pick

2009 -- Brandon Gibson

1996 -- Steve White

Hall of Famers picked No. 194

None. Closest I found was Shannon Sharpe, who was picked No. 192 in 1990.

PICK 200 (30th pick, sixth round)

Last five players taken

2011 -- Ross Homan, LB, Vikings

2010 -- Charles Scott, RB, Eagles

2009 -- DeAndre Wright, CB, Giants

2008 -- Joe Mays, LB, Eagles

2007 -- Melila Purcell, DE, Browns

Eagles' history of 200th pick

2010 -- Charles Scott

2008 -- Joe Mays

1984 -- Manny Matsakis

Hall of Famers picked No. 200

Bart Starr (1956)

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- As the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean, the NFL's owners, coaches, GMs and almost anyone else with any connection to the league rise to begin their annual meetings at The Breakers. Most everyone checked in Sunday, and much of the lobby chatter was about the salary-cap penalties against the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. There will be more of that talk today, along with a great deal of other NFL business, and we'll keep you posted on all of it the best we can. Time to get you started, though, with some links.

Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he'd speak with reporters here Monday about the salary-cap penalties against his team and the Redskins. In light of what Giants owner John Mara said Sunday about the situation, I think we're all eager to hear Jerry's thoughts on this.

I enjoyed Calvin Watkins' short appreciation of former Cowboys running back Marion Barber in the wake of Barber's retirement announcement late last week.

New York Giants

Mara was in a bitter mood over several things as he took questions upon his arrival at the meetings Sunday. After he got through excoriating the Cowboys and the Redskins for breaking something that doesn't appear to have been a rule, he was asked what he thought about Tim Tebow signing with the Jets. "I don't know," he said, "but the David Carr press conference is tomorrow, too." The Giants sometimes get a little too fixated on the Jets, you see.

Giants 101 did a mock draft for the Giants and has them taking a pass-rusher, of all things, with the final pick of the first round. It's certainly not a need pick, but it wouldn't be a surprise. The Giants believe in what they believe in, and one of those things is that the draft is for building a deep roster, not for plugging short-term holes.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles tend to come to these meetings with a purpose, and as Jeff McLane wrote Sunday, this year's may be to see what kind of deal they can get for cornerback Asante Samuel. Now, you can argue the merits of trading Samuel versus trading Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie or even Nnamdi Asomugha. But for contract reasons and other reasons, it seems Samuel is the guy for whom they'd like to get something, and they should have some idea over the next couple of days what they might be able to get in return. If they can do better than a fourth-round pick, I imagine they'll jump on it.

In the wake of last week's Los Angeles Times report about front-office infighting in Philadelphia, Phil Sheridan ponders where the fault lines might lie.

Washington Redskins

Len Pasquarelli says the Albert Haynesworth deal was largely to blame for the penalties incurred by the Redskins in the salary-cap mess. What I've been given to understand is that this wasn't about just one or two deals, but rather about the Redskins repeatedly restructuring many of their existing deals in such a way as to dump money into the uncapped year. It's apparently something many teams did, but that the Redskins did to an extent that the other owners found odious.

The idea of a Redskins training facility in Washington, D.C., is a complicated one, and this here doesn't make it sound as though it's very far along or close to fruition.

Man, do I get LaRon Landry questions. Washington Redskins fans want to know if they're bringing him back. Dallas Cowboys fans want to know if they should sign him to play safety. Philadelphia Eagles fans want to know if they're taking a look. The answers, best as I can tell, are as follows:

No, no and only if it's really cheap. Landry is an injured player, folks. And if there's an early market for his services, it's because some team is willing to take a very big risk.

I guess Landry has fans' attention because he's a big name. And in spite of the fact that memories only go back six days in the NFL, there are some images still stuck in people's brains about big plays Landry used to make once upon a time when he was a healthy player. Oh yeah, when he's on the field, there are few safeties in the league scarier than Landry. There is no doubting that.

But the reason he's on the market -- and the reason the Redskins are talking to people like Brandon Meriweather while Landry is trying to get visits to other places -- is that he can't get on the field, and the Redskins are sick of wondering from week to week whether they can count on him. Hampered by Achilles and groin injuries, Landry played in eight games for the Redskins in 2011, was credited with just 35 tackles, no passes defensed and no interceptions. That doesn't scream, "Pay me!!!," especially when he played in only nine games the year before. The Achilles is still hurt, and he has refused to have surgery to repair it, which makes him an injured player, which explains why he's not on some big, happy tour of various team sites and sifting through huge contract offers.

So if you're a Redskins fan, you ought to say goodbye. The current coaching staff has had enough of waiting for Landry to show them what he can do -- and that he can do it reliably over the course of a full season. They have moved on. They used their franchise tag on Fred Davis instead and are looking at other options for the secondary.

And if you're a Cowboys fan, don't get your hopes up. The Cowboys don't appear to be going the big-name, low-production route this year. They're targeting guys they like for their specific need positions, and Brodney Pool is the safety coming in for a visit today.

And if you're an Eagles fan, keep expectations low. Yes, it's possible they'd take a look at Landry, but only if his price remains very low and he's willing to come in on a short, make-good deal that pays off only if he plays and produces. The Eagles have talented young safeties who need to play and develop, and while they might be willing to take a chance on Landry's talent, they're unlikely to do so at the expense of their long-range plan.

This post by AFC East blogger James Walker Wednesday says the Patriots and the Jets have some interest in Landry. It mentions the Eagles, too, at the bottom, but those two AFC East teams feel like more likely destinations. Rex Ryan loves him a big name, even if the production no longer matches up. You could see him taking a shot. And the Patriots? Well, Landry would feel like a very Patriot move. I could just imagine them signing him, late in the market, to a low-guarantee, high-incentive deal and everybody saying, "Wow, that Bill Belichick may have got himself a steal right there." You know. Like they said last year when he got Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco.

Fact is, whoever signs Landry may get themselves a steal, if he can finally stay healthy and put together a full season. But at this point, on the third day of free agency, with so many other healthier options available, it's hard to see how it's worth the risk. For anybody.

I get it, Washington Redskins fans. You've been hurt. You've been burned too many times by big March headlines you thought would bring lasting happiness but instead brought heartache, and now it's difficult for you to trust. You don't want to be hurt again.

How else to explain the horrified reaction by a quarterback-starved fan base to the idea of signing Peyton Manning? Judging by the reactions from the folks in our comments section all the way up to the mayor of Washington, D.C., you'd think we were talking about handing the starting quarterback's job to Dan Snyder's teenage nephew. This is what Mayor Vincent Gray had to say on the topic to a D.C. television station last week:

"You know, I think it depends on what role he would play, Bruce," Gray said. "But I really think the Redskins need a quarterback that they can build with for the future. You know, Andrew Luck is probably going to go to the Colts, but there's Robert Griffin III, and there's a couple other promising quarterbacks that are out there. We've kind of been down this pathway with quarterbacks who've been great but maybe are in the back end of their career, and even if he comes in and plays a year or two, where do we go from there?"

Well, jeez, Mr. Mayor. At that point, you go with the guy you drafted in 2013 because you weren't able to trade up and get Griffin in 2012. Or you go with a young guy you picked later in that draft who's been apprenticing for a year or two under Peyton Manning, for goodness' sake. What Gray and many other Redskins fans seem to be missing here is that Mike Shanahan can't just go to the "franchise quarterback" aisle at the Wegman's down the road from the team's Ashburn, Va., training facility and pick one. Only one team's going to get Griffin, and if the Redskins aren't that team, they need to have a good Plan B. If Manning is fully healthy and shows he can throw the ball the way he was throwing it two years ago before his neck injury, he's the greatest Plan B in alphabetically themed planning history.

Redskins fans, the mayor included, are looking at this whole thing through the disappointing prism of free-agent signing periods past. I'm hearing names such as Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Albert Haynesworth and yeah, Donovan McNabb -- a list of big-name, star players the Redskins brought in to great fanfare and who flopped for one reason or another. Because of this, the chorus moans, Manning isn't the way to go. The Redskins have done the big-name/big-contract thing before and it just never works out. They need to stop doing business this way.

Well, guess what? They kind of already have. Yeah, McNabb was a mistake -- a flyer Shanahan took thinking he could re-light a spark that had gone out in Philadelphia and maybe sneak into the playoffs in his first year in Washington. He acknowledges it was a risk that didn't work out. But (a) Manning is not McNabb, who was no longer driven to excel by the time the Redskins got him and (b) the McNabb acquisition is an outlier among the moves Shanahan and Bruce Allen have made since taking over personnel decisions two years ago. Everything else they've done in the draft and free agency has been focused, sober and competent, and they deserve the benefit of the doubt, even from Redskins fans scarred by the mistakes of past administrations.

Snyder doesn't pull these strings anymore. Part of the agreement Shanahan signed when he took the job was that Snyder would let him build the team, as he puts it, "the right way." Last year's draft was an exercise in patience, as Shanahan refused to reach for quarterbacks he didn't think were the long-term answer simply because he had a need at that position. He traded back, trying to build depth, and picked up key future pieces such as Ryan Kerrigan, Roy Helu, Evan Royster, Jarvis Jenkins and Dejon Gomes. He has eight picks this year and will have to decide how many of them he's willing to sacrifice if he wants to move up to draft Griffin. Shanahan knows how many needs his team has, so he's not going to make that decision lightly.

In the meantime, there is free agency, and although the Redskins didn't make a big splash last summer, they did very well in free agency. Shanahan targeted specific players in the 27- to 29-year-old age group -- guys he believed were already established but still young and hungry enough to grow and develop with the team. He plans to use the same formula this year to address wide receiver, offensive line and the secondary. He's not after the biggest name out there. He's after the specific types of players he believes his team needs in order to build a consistent, year-to-year winner.

Which brings us back to Manning, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Shanahan's not going to give Manning a big, five-year, huge-money deal. I don't think anyone is, given the health concerns, but if the market gets that crazy, I don't expect the Redskins to play in it. It just wouldn't be smart. Bringing Manning in on a one-year or two-year deal with incentives to allow him to prove he's healthy is smart, because if Manning is healthy, he's worth as much as any quarterback in the league.

That's the important thing to remember here, Redskins fans. Manning isn't a "fading star" who's past his prime. He was, before his neck injury, playing at as high a level as any quarterback in the league. He got hurt and missed a season. Now, it appears he'll be available again. And if he shows teams he can throw the ball the way he did in 2010, he's a smart short-term investment for a team that needs a quarterback answer now and for the future. The ideal solution would be both, but if that's not out there, the Redskins need to be smart about addressing the former while keeping their eye on the latter. So far, the Shanahan regime has shown that it doesn't do business like those "same old Redskins" who've hurt you so many times.

Jason La Canfora of NFL.com did a big thing on potential "cap casualties," and it caught my eye because of the photo of Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley right there at the top. Jason lists a number of players who, like Albert Haynesworth in Tampa Bay, Stanford Routt in Oakland and, very soon, Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, could be cut because their salaries don't fit into their team's salary-cap budget for 2012. And here's the part about Cooley:

Chris Cooley

#47 TE
Washington Redskins

2011 STATS

• Rec8
• Yds65
• TD0
• Avg8.1
• Long17
• YAC37

And at tight end, as much as Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan loves tight end Chris Cooley, he is oft-injured and his $3.8 million base may be too steep, especially if Fred Davis is brought back.

So, couple of things here. First, I have little doubt that Davis will be brought back. The Redskins will almost certainly designate him as their franchise player, since the number is low, they like his talent and they're justifiably leery of making a longer-term commitment to a guy who's one bad drug test away from a one-year suspension. To me, Davis isn't the issue.

Nor, presumably, is Cooley's salary. The Redskins are about $47 million under the projected salary cap and can afford to bring Cooley back on his current contract if they so choose. The questions about Cooley are health and whether he's worth that $3.8 million. With Davis having taken over as the primary passing-game threat at the tight end position in Washington, Cooley is now being paid for numbers he no longer puts up.

That said, when I met with Redskins coach Mike Shanahan in December, he mentioned Cooley's injury as one of the bad turning points for the Redskins in 2011 and spoke of how much he liked being able to "set the perimeter" on offense with two very good tight ends. So my belief is that he'd like to have Cooley back. And even if the Redskins decide $3.8 million is too much and they need him to restructure, Cooley's kind of all-in with the Redskins and likely would be amenable to such an idea if it meant staying with the team he loves.

It's a situation worth watching, and anything's possible. But my guess is Cooley comes back to Washington in 2012, even if it's at a lower salary than the one he's currently scheduled to make.

Now, now. Don't go getting all worked up without reading first. I'll even start you off with a little anecdote to ease you into it.

My first beat writing job in sports journalism was as the Florida Marlins beat writer for The Palm Beach Post in 1997. The Marlins had a big offseason prior to 1997, bringing in big free agents and hiring a new manager, Jim Leyland. One of the big free agents they'd brought in was Bobby Bonilla, who'd been a star early in his career in Pittsburgh but had gone on to New York and other places and cultivated a reputation as a selfish malcontent. It was the selfish malcontent thing that led people to question the Bonilla signing, but the reason the Marlins felt good about it was Leyland, who'd been Bonilla's manager in Pittsburgh when Bonilla was a rookie and a young star.

They were right. Reunited with Leyland, a manager he adored and whose every decision he respected and honored, Bonilla played very well for the 1997 Marlins, who won the World Series. He was gracious with and helpful to those of us who covered the team. He was good with the young players. When Leyland dropped him in the batting order during a slump, Bonilla said, "I never question that man." The writers in New York thought we were nuts when we awarded Bonilla our "good guy" award, but the fact is, he was a different guy in Florida than he was in New York, and Leyland was the reason.

So that's what got me thinking about Albert Haynesworth and the Philadelphia Eagles this morning. Haynesworth was released Wednesday, to no one's surprise, by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are the third team in the past seven months to kick Big Al to the curb, and since he hasn't done much in the three years since he left Tennessee besides loaf and make coaches and teammates angry, it's fair to wonder if any team will even think about signing him.

But if there's one team in the NFL that might think it can get something out of Big Al, it may well be the Eagles. Their defensive line coach, Jim Washburn, was Haynesworth's defensive line coach in Tennessee. Washburn was said to be interested in a reunion with Haynesworth last summer, and to have been hoping the Redskins would cut him so the Eagles could bring him in. Not wanting to risk playing against an angry, motivated Haynesworth twice a year, Mike Shanahan traded him outside the division. But now, he's just sitting there, probably not getting very many offers, and available for Washburn and the Eagles if they want him.

Whether this happens depends on a number of things, but the biggest may well be the way Washburn feels about Haynesworth and what kind of relationship the two men have. If Washburn really feels strongly that he can dig up the performance Haynesworth gave him in Tennessee, and if Haynesworth feels about Washburn the way my man Bonilla felt about Leyland, it's the kind of thing that could work beautifully. It surely wouldn't cost the Eagles much to take a flier on him, and if he turned out to be the same miserable lump he was in Washington, it'd be easy just to cut him and send him on his way.

The Eagles don't need to invite discord into their locker room at this point, so it would behoove them to be sure Washburn can really draw out his talent and motivate him to perform. But if he can, wow. Haynesworth doesn't even turn 31 until June, and when he was at his best, he was one of the best defensive linemen in the league. There's no indication that he's not healthy. His problems with Washington, New England and Tampa Bay all seem to have been attitude related. And yeah, maybe he's just a guy with a bad attitude who got his money and no longer cares about anything else. This is possible, even likely, and can't be ruled out. But sometimes, a coach and a player just click. And if Washburn could get Albert Haynesworth clicking again, the Eagles could come away with one of the steals of the offseason.

Much less is new about the Washington Redskins now compared with a year ago. This is Mike Shanahan's second season as their head coach, not his first. It's the second year of his zone-blocking offense, of Jim Haslett's 3-4 defense, of owner Dan Snyder staying in the background. And yet, even though so much less is new, so much feels different. Redskins players were saying this week that things this year around the team are "boring, in a good way."

"Most of the time, I've been around boring teams," Shanahan said when reporters relayed those comments to him. "That's what you like. You like guys taking care of business, and I guess compared to the first year, it is kind of boring."

After a year's worth of dealing with an Albert Haynesworth mess he inherited and a Donovan McNabb mess he helped create, Shanahan has the team he wants. He has a quarterback in Rex Grossman who knows how to run his offense and -- perhaps more importantly -- wants to do it. He has a converted 4-3 defensive tackle in Barry Cofield who's excited about playing 3-4 nose tackle. He has players he brought in -- such as Tim Hightower, Stephen Bowen and Josh Wilson -- who can carry out what he wants done now while also growing with the team as it develops into the future. He has high-caliber, high-character holdovers such as London Fletcher, Brian Orakpo and Santana Moss, whose leadership isn't being drowned out anymore by controversy after controversy.

For all of those reasons, this is the year in which people will make up their minds about Shanahan as Redskins coach. And the "Monday Night Football" spotlight he's got here in Week 3 in Dallas against the banged-up Cowboys is a huge opportunity for Shanahan to show people he's not just a big name but a great coach who knows what he's doing.

On the surface, it looks like a bigger game for the Cowboys, who would be 1-2 with a loss and heading into a very tough portion of their schedule. If the Redskins lose, they're 2-1 and still further ahead of the game than anyone expected them to be after three weeks. But if Shanahan's serious about changing the way things work and feel around the Redskins, he sees this game as a huge chance not just to do it but to announce it to the entire football-watching world.

A win in this rivalry game would make the Redskins 3-0, and 76 percent of NFL teams that start out 3-0 reach the playoffs. That was a goal that looked unattainable for the Redskins before the season started, but the way their schedule lays out, and the way their defense is playing, it's not out of the question. This is a league in which five new teams make the playoffs every year, in which we're guaranteed a handful of teams that turn out to be much better than we imagined they'd be. The Redskins are in a position to be one of those teams, and if Shanahan is able to take advantage of that position, it would rank among his most stellar coaching achievements.

Very little was expected of this year's Redskins, and they still have a long way to go to make good on their promising early returns. It won't always be this much fun around them. They will lose games they believe they should have won, and they will have to deal with more challenging issues than they've faced so far. Shanahan will have to manage all of that, and he surely knows this and believes he can.

But right now, in Week 3, Shanahan and his "boring" bunch of Redskins have a chance to do something that would force everyone who watches this league to sit up and take notice. Shanahan can make an early announcement that his team is for real and so is he -- that those who doubted after Year 1 were wrong and that he really does know something about how to put a team together from scratch and coach it. If they lose Monday, it doesn't mean none of that is true, and he'll have more chances down the road to prove it with steady progress. But if the Redskins win this game, there's going to be a lot of attention paid all of a sudden to the work Shanahan has done since he got to Washington. And people are going to be very impressed.

ASHBURN, Va. -- This will be Brian Orakpo's third year in the NFL, but the Washington Redskins linebacker finds himself in an unusual position. There are only 16 players in camp who have been with the Redskins longer than Orakpo has. Only five of those 16 are starters and only three play defense. This puts Orakpo, who turned 25 last week, in the position of having to help a lot of new guys learn the way things work around Redskins Park.

"It's very odd, man," Orakpo said. "I'm only going into my third year and already guys are looking at me as being a veteran on the team. So it's a different era, where we're at right now, but I'm excited for the opportunity."

Last year's plan didn't work. Donovan McNabb flopped as the quarterback. The 4-3 defensive personnel didn't fit into new coach Mike Shanahan's 3-4. And Shanahan decided, one year later, that the best thing would be to bring in new players: Barry Cofield, Stephen Bowen, Josh Wilson, Chris Chester, Tim Hightower and a slew of rookie receivers. A couple of quarterbacks, John Beck and Rex Grossman, who were on the team last year now find themselves competing to be the starter at the most important position.

"The plan, at least the plan in free agency, was to get people who are solid football players but solid people as well, and who are young," Shanahan said. "The second year, you always have a good feel for what type of people fit into your scheme and what type of people you want to have on your football team. If the nucleus of your football team is guys with character who can play, you've got a good chance."

Most of the new additions are in their mid- to late-20s -- players who are already established in the league yet young enough that they can continue to grow as the team does over the next several years. They're men and players, Shanahan says, that he specifically targeted for that reason and for those he listed above. And the feeling around training camp is that this is a group of people looking to build something together.

"Of course, right now we're looking to win, but you want to build something with longevity," said safety O.J. Atogwe, a graybeard among the new additions at the ripe old age of 30. "We want to have something that's sustainable, and I believe that's what Coach Shanahan is doing, getting good character guys in here, younger guys. You're building the nucleus of a team that can be a contender for years and years to come."

THREE HOT ISSUES

1. Who's the quarterback? Shanahan surprised a lot of people by not taking a quarterback in the draft. He surprised a lot more people shortly thereafter, when he declared that he believed Beck, who was already on the team, could be the starter. He has since moved to include Grossman as a candidate for that spot, but neither has inspired much confidence outside of the Redskins' offices.

Shanahan and his son, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, insist that they loved Beck when he was coming out of college and was picked 40th in the 2007 draft. They believe he continues to show the same qualities they liked when they watched him then -- athleticism, mobility, quick release, natural leadership ability -- and that the only reason he hasn't had NFL success is because he hasn't had NFL opportunity. They insist they like Grossman, who operated their offense last year at least as well as, if not better than, McNabb did. The sense I got from hanging around the Redskins for a few days is that the coaches are more concerned about the pieces around the quarterback -- the line, the receivers, the backs -- than they are about the quarterback position itself. Speaking of which ...

2. To whom will that quarterback throw? Santana Moss is back, and the team added veteran wideouts to the mix in Jabar Gaffney amd Donte' Stallworth. But in order to be successful, the Redskins' offense must get a jolt from one or more of the inexperienced receivers on the roster. Anthony Armstrong showed something late last year, and he'll be pushed by rookies Leonard Hankerson and Aldrick Robinson, as well as by holdover Malcolm Kelly, a 2008 second-rounder. Running back Hightower can be a weapon in the passing game, and the best receivers on the roster outside of Moss may be tight ends Chris Cooley and Fred Davis. But because of concerns about the offensive line and whether it can come together in short order, those guys may end up doing a lot of blocking.

3. Do they have the defense down yet? Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett said last year that it would take two years for the 3-4 install to work because it takes that long for players to re-train their minds and bodies around it. Adding in players better suited to the 3-4 than the people they had here last year should help, but new players such as Cofield, Bowen and rookie Ryan Kerrigan are experiencing the defense for the first time. The Redskins have a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball and could be good there in short order. But they're still in a learning process, and how good they are on defense this year will depend on the speed with which they learn it.

ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION

The story of last year's Redskins training camp was disgruntled defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and his distaste for what he believed would be his assignment in the new 3-4 defense. Haynesworth's refusal to be open to the switch led to a drawn-out confrontation between him and Mike Shanahan, the conditioning-test mess and a feud that lasted all the way through the season. Trading Haynesworth to New England (and McNabb to Minnesota) was one of the first things the Redskins did when the lockout ended, and the main reason they did it was because they were determined not to let last year's problems infect this year's training camp. It hasn't. Without naming names, London Fletcher laughed when I told him Cofield, who played in a 4-3 in New York, had told me he was excited to make the switch to a 3-4 nose tackle.

"That's good, to hear that he's excited about it," Fletcher said, chuckling. "I want a nose that's excited about playing that position."

EXTRA PREPARATION

Fletcher, Beck and Lorenzo Alexander organized some of the most frequent and best-attended player workouts of any team during the lockout. Fletcher said the three of them divvied up administrative responsibilities such as calling guys to make sure they were coming and reaching out to local schools to see about the use of fields. Fletcher said there was one time he flew in the day before one of the workouts and went over on a whim to check out the high school field on which they were scheduled to practice only to find it unacceptable and have to make a last-minute change.

"We had some great turnout, got some great work in," Fletcher said. "Obviously it's not what we're getting here now, but it was important for us. What upsets me a little bit is when we have something that we did in our player-only camps, and we don't cover it correctly out here. I'll see somebody do something wrong and I want to yell out, 'Man, we worked on that!'"

Maybe, but the coaching staff appreciates that the players took the time to work out together while they weren't permitted to work out with coaches at the team facility. Kyle Shanahan said he notices it with those young wide receivers.

"We weren't able to work with them, so that was one of the positions I was worried the most with," he said. "And I could tell that Rex and John had gotten with these guys and given them some stuff, and I could tell these guys had put in their work before they got here, so we weren't just speaking Chinese to them."

OBSERVATION DECK

• Alexander is an extremely valuable guy to the Redskins' defense. He has lined up at all four linebacker spots, could start the season on the outside if first-round pick Kerrigan isn't ready and has been lining up inside next to Fletcher, as well. Even with the return of Rocky McIntosh, expect Alexander to find his way onto the field a lot.
• Tim Hightower isn't here just for depth. I believe, after talking to Mike Shanahan, that Hightower is the clear front-runner for the starting running back job as long as his fumble problems don't follow him to Washington from Arizona.
• Ryan Torain, at least before he hurt himself, seemed to be working on his role in pass protection, which was something he didn't do much of last year. He'll have to if he wants to keep up with Hightower, for whom that's a strength.
• Second-round pick Jarvis Jenkins has been one of the eye-openers in camp and should fit nicely into the defensive line rotation. "He's learning so fast," offensive tackle Trent Williams told me, "it's almost scary."
• Beck may look good to the coaches who loved his college tape, but if you were out there watching the first week of practice, you saw a lot of receivers reaching behind themselves to catch his passes and a lot of wobble on the deep downfield throws. He does look good when he scrambles and runs, but as a passer, he looks as if he needs more camp.
• Trent Williams looks slimmed down from last year and has looked good in his win-some, lose-some battles with Orakpo in early drills.

ASHBURN, Va. -- Barry Cofield is the nose tackle for the Washington Redskins now, which is not what he necessarily wanted to be when free agency began. His first choice, he said at the time and says still, was to remain with the New York Giants. But the fact that the Giants didn't re-sign him didn't make him bitter.

"No hard feelings at all," Cofield told me in an interview after a Redskins practice here Tuesday. "Now, don't get me wrong. I'm excited about Sept. 11 and the prospects of playing those guys. That fires me up. But definitely no hard feelings. I definitely think I should be able to come back to the Super Bowl reunions and not get booed."

In the end, Cofield said, the Giants made a "respectable" offer, but that they "weren't able to be competitive because of their salary cap situation, and that's the economics of the game."

"They made their bed when they made the signings that they made at defensive tackle," Cofield said. "Guys like Rocky (Bernard) and Chris (Canty), they spent a lot of money on those guys. They're already invested in Canty, and that’s the guy they have to stick with. They drafted guys, and if they feel like they get a great value with a defensive tackle, with all the other positions of need they have, I was the odd man out."

He was surprised when the Redskins called, because he'd been a 4-3 defensive tackle in New York and the Redskins run a 3-4 scheme. But having played in a 3-4 in college, he liked the idea and the fact that the Redskins sought him out to be the man in the middle of their defensive line.

"They've definitely spelled out what they expect from me, and it's something I think I can do," Cofield said. "You're not taking on double-teams. It's not necessarily about two-gapping and being a 350-pound monster. Nose tackles come in different shapes and sizes, and I feel like I have my own fit, they obviously envision me in their defense, and we have a common vision."

Redskins coach Mike Shanahan told me Cofield and Stephen Bowen were two defensive linemen the Redskins had targeted going into free agency because of their ability, their age and their character. He said he had no concerns about Cofield adapting to the 3-4.

"He played it in college and played exceptionally well," Shanahan said. "You go back to film and you watch. He can give you all the calls of the 3-4 defense when you talk to him on the phone, so he's played it before and he's exceptionally bright. So whatever he does, he's going to be a consummate pro, and those are the guys you look for when you put a football team together."

Cofield likes the fact that the Redskins came to him. He liked, obviously, their contract offer. And the 3-4 is the defense in which he feels he fits the best. He remembers talking to the Steelers, Patriots and Cowboys before he was drafted and being surprised that the Giants, a 4-3 team, were the ones who took him.

"I thought there was a good chance I'd be going to a 3-4 defense. It just happened five years later," Cofield said. "I'm excited about it. I've always liked the 3-4 defense, I think it's an effective defense, I think there's a reason teams like the Steelers and the Ravens are always on the top of the league defensively. I think it fits my abilities perfectly. It's a defense that's built on technique, leverage and discipline, and I think those are my strengths."

He was known in recent years for his pass-rushing ability with the Giants, but Cofield said that's not really what he's all about as a player.

"I'm a guy that's disciplined, and I play with great pad level, leverage, technique, use my hands and I’m not the guy who’s aggressively flying upfield," Cofield said. "I did that when called upon in New York, and it was good for me to diversify my game, diversify my repertoire by doing that, but coming into NY, I felt like I was a guy that was better suited for a 3-4."

Now he's in one, and he's excited about making the transition. For Shanahan, who tried unsuccessfully to talk Albert Haynesworth into doing the same thing a year ago, that's pretty refreshing.

"Whoever you bring in," Shanahan said, "you want to make sure they have the right mindset."

He's got that in Cofield, who can't wait to get into that 3-4 and get at the Giants in that season opener.

So today is the day NFL free agents can actually sign contracts with teams. Yeah, that's right. All that noise and insanity of the past three days? Just the preliminary work. The agreeing to terms. The laying of the foundations for deals not yet consummated. Today is when it gets really nuts. Hope you didn't wear yourself out already. I haven't. See? Here are links:

Dallas Cowboys

Free-agent safety Danieal Manning reportedly got a four-year, $20 million deal with $9 million in guarantees from the Houston Texans. But Dan, that's the Texans, not the Cowboys, so why should we care? Well, I'll tell you why, italics. Because the safety market is going nuts, and the Cowboys still need to sign two of them. Quintin Mikell got $27 million for four ($14 million guaranteed) from St. Louis and Eric Weddle got $40 million for five ($19 million guaranteed) from San Diego. Manning's price is closer to that of the safeties the Cowboys are likely to get (Abe Elam, Brodney Pool, Roman Harper, Gerald Sensabaugh) than are either of those two deals, but it's still likely more than they hoped to spend (twice, remember, since they need two guys). And they may be priced out of guys like Michael Huff. Blogging the Boys offers a detailed breakdown of the safety market.

Lots of people have asked where Roy Williams would end up after the Cowboys cut him. Looks like he'll be a Chicago Bear. I'm interested to see if Dallas replaces him with someone from the outside, but I think their No. 3 receiver comes from their roster at this point.

New York Giants

Giants players are scheduled to report today for the start of training camp, which this year will be in East Rutherford, N.J., and all eyes are on disgruntled defensive end Osi Umenyiora. There's a pretty big leap from grousing about your contract to calling your GM a liar in a sworn affidavit, but it's a leap Umenyiora took this offseason, and it remains to be seen whether he'll hold out of camp until he gets what he wants (a trade or a new deal) or if he comes to camp and talks to Jerry Reese "man to man," as team owner John Mara has said he expects him to do. There's a report out of Baltimore that says the Ravens have some interest in Umenyiora if the Giants decide they don't want him anymore.

We might get some Plaxico Burress news today, too, though Mara said Thursday there's work yet to be done there. Remember, Burress is meeting with the Steelers tonight as well as the Giants, and could simply be using New York's surprising interest in him as leverage to sign with a team whose coach he doesn't hate.

Philadelphia Eagles

Albert Breer reports that Vince Young will sign his one-year contract to be the Eagles' backup quarterback today. If you guys were reading yesterday, you know how I feel about this. If not ... here you go.

And if I'm reading this correctly, Phil Sheridan believes the Eagles should pay DeSean Jackson more than the Jets just paid Santonio Holmes. I respectfully disagree, and I think Phil does raise in here some of the issues that are keeping the Eagles from jumping into a long-term deal with Jackson at this particular point in franchise history. Not saying they won't eventually pay him, and I'm certainly not saying he's not underpaid for 2011 (because he clearly is). But this isn't an open-and-shut case, and for that reason it could linger.

Washington Redskins

A refreshingly honest assessment from new Redskins defensive end Stephen Bowen, who admits that his decision to leave Dallas and sign in Washington was, pretty much, about the money.

Jason Reid says the trade of Albert Haynesworth to the Patriots was Mike Shanahan's finest hour so far as the Redskins' coach. I mean, I know Jason wanted Big Al out, but ... sheesh. If he's right in his assessment, it's a good thing for Shanahan he has four more years on his contract to come up with a better "finest moment."

Been banging it around on Twitter the past couple of days instead of in the comments, in case you guys have been wondering. The posts are coming fast and furious, but I haven't forgotten you. Hope you're enjoying it and keeping up. Plenty more to come, I am certain of it. These four teams can make some news.

Every day is different, for everybody and every team. And so, at the end of a crazy day tracking, dissecting and analyzing all the moves being made and not being made in the NFC East, we like to pause and ask each team a simple question: How was your day ...

Dallas Cowboys?

"Fiscally responsible." Yeah, that's not a real exciting answer. And as pretty much every one of their fans will tell you, the Cowboys haven't had a real exciting week. But while Jerry Jones surely would love to be slugging it out for Nnamdi Asomugha and the other top free agents, the fact is the Cowboys had to start this offseason slowly. On Thursday, they added Marc Colombo to the list of cuts that will trim more than $19 million in payroll and help get them under the cap. They agreed to terms with left guard Kyle Kosier one day after bringing back left tackle Doug Free. They signed first-round pick and projected starting right tackle Tyron Smith and then immediately let linebacker DeMarcus Ware go to work on him in his first training-camp practice. But they did nothing to address their holes on defense, and in fact they lost one of their free-agent defensive ends, Stephen Bowen, to the Redskins. But that loss could be a gain. Bowen got a surprisingly huge deal (five years, $27.5 million, $12.5 million guaranteed), and the Cowboys don't believe he was worth that much. That deal actually could help them get the defensive end they want, the Packers' Cullen Jenkins, who had been talking to the Redskins but no longer is. The Cowboys still need two safeties, two defensive ends and maybe another offensive lineman. But they'll get them. Fans just need to be patient. This might not be the most exciting Cowboys offseason ever, but it will surely be more productive than it's been so far. They are crawling before they walk.

New York Giants?

"Newsy." The Giants are still working and waiting on the resolution of their negotiations with Ahmad Bradshaw, Kevin Boss and Steve Smith, but they did knock out a new deal for Mathias Kiwanuka on Thursday. And Bradshaw lost a lot of his leverage when the Dolphins, with whom he and his agent had been playing kissy-face, acquired Reggie Bush, so the Giants should be able to get him at something closer to their price. But this day for the Giants was more about people talking -- John Mara talking about Plaxico Burress and Osi Umenyiora, the team talking to David Diehl about moving from tackle to guard and to Will Beatty about starting at left tackle, Rich Seubert and Shaun O'Hara talking about being cut ... lots of talking. There was even a report that the Giants were talking to Brad Maynard about coming in to replace shaky punter Matt Dodge. The talking -- at least to the free agents -- will soon lead to results one way or the other. But there was no shortage of interesting storylines coming out of Giantsland on Thursday.

Philadelphia Eagles?

"Cathartic." Yeah, they finally got that Kevin Kolb deal done. Felt like it took forever, right? Well, that's only because of that little lockout thing we no longer like to talk about. The end result is that the Eagles have their starting right cornerback in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round pick next year and will need to go find a veteran backup for Michael Vick, which won't be too hard. They also agreed to terms on a five-year contract with defensive end Jason Babin, who was much better last season with the Titans than he was in his first stint as an Eagle. But he should be OK since he'll be working with former Titans defensive line coach Jim Washburn, who's now in Philly. They still need to address linebacker and backup running back and maybe offensive line, but the actual moves they got to do Thursday will help, and at least they provided some distraction from this very icky DeSean Jackson holdout situation.

Washington Redskins?

"Productive." I'm sorry. I don't think they'll contend in 2011, but I really like what the Redskins are doing. Sure, they overpaid for Bowen. But as someone pointed out to me on my extremely active Twitter day, the Redskins (A) have the money and (B) sort of have to overpay right now to get guys to go there, right? Like cornerback Josh Wilson, Bowen is a guy who is young and still emerging, and the Redskins are making a bet that he'll be better in the short-term future than he is now. They are a future-focused team and should be, and their moves have reflected that. Another example: They cut veteran center Casey Rabach and reportedly agreed to terms with Chris Chester, who can replace Rabach at center or play guard if Will Montgomery or Kory Lichtensteiger does. Still need a right tackle, but the defense starts to look pretty doggone respectable with the additions of Wilson, Bowen and Barry Cofield. Oh, and I almost forget. They dumped Albert Haynesworth on an AFC team before the sun came up. That alone would have made it a decent day for Mike Shanahan no matter what else happened.

Me? Man. My day was kind of nuts. Did some more TV and a whole lot of Twitter conversating with y'all. Enjoyed every single bit of it and can't wait for tomorrow.

How was your day?

The sun is up, birds are chirping and Adam Schefter is hard at work as usual, reporting this morning that the Redskins have made their third trade of the week. This one, Redskins fans will be happy to know, sends disgruntled defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth to the New England Patriots for a 2013 fifth-round pick.

No, it's not exactly a haul they're getting in return. Not exactly the second coming of the Herschel Walker trade. And truth be told, I expected that Haynesworth might have more value than that, given it wasn't long ago that he was one of the more dominant players in the league. But Redskins coach Mike Shanahan, whose very public disputes with Haynesworth were a focal point of Shanahan's first season in Washington, clearly didn't want the guy around anymore. And as we've been saying here for weeks, he didn't want to just release him and let him go anywhere he wanted -- Philadelphia, for instance, where he could have reunited with his former defensive line coach from Tennessee and terrorized the Redskins twice a year in head-to-head matchups.

Can Haynesworth help the Patriots? Yes, I believe he can. They run a 3-4 defense, which was supposedly his problem in Washington. But Bill Belichick has a history of getting something out of malcontent players who wash out elsewhere. Randy Moss springs to mind, and all those records he set with Tom Brady in 2007. The Patriots will try to do a better job of selling Haynesworth on their defense and his potential role in it than Shanahan and Jim Haslett got a chance to in Washington.

For the Redskins, this is clearly about getting rid of a headache. A fifth-rounder in 2013 is pretty close to nothing in return for a guy they signed for $100 million (and who has already cashed almost all of that). But they'll save $5.4 million this year by releasing him and they won't have to answer any more questions about what he's doing in their locker room when all he does is bellyache and never play. Barry Cofield will be brought in as the much happier replacement, and the Redskins will move on with their rebuilding project. Shanahan and Haynesworth were a bad match from the start, and the ill-fated Haynesworth era in Washington is now over after two eventful but largely unproductive years.