At this point, calling the Washington Redskins a dumpster fire would be unfair to dumpster fires everywhere. At least, most of those are contained to an extent.
What is happening in the nation’s capital is akin to a fire that’s spread out of control and is just picking off dry brush at its own leisure.
We’ve read about the team firing its former general manager. We’ve read about reports that Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins wants out of dodge. Heck, we heard from a restricted free agent that he somehow found out about the Redskins offering him a contract via social media (more on that here).
In between all this, Washington lost its two starting wide receivers.
Needless to say, it hasn’t been a great past month for the Redskins.
It’s something defensive tackle Ricky-Jean Francois touched on recently, which could have very well been a prelude to the veteran being released by Washington on Wednesday.
“It seems like we’re getting back to the norm, we’re getting back to the dysfunctional, we’re getting back to the drama. It just feels like at no given time we’ve never had that period where we were just comfortable with everything and everything was just running smooth,” Francois said on SB Nation Radio just recently. “Everything is changed and it’s like, why? We let go of DeSean Jackson, one of the most explosive receivers in the NFL. We let go of Pierre Garςon — only had one drop last year. You let Chris Baker go, Chris Baker was one great pass rusher for us.”
This came just a week before Francois was released by the Redskins. Some had concluded that the team saving $3 million against the cap by moving on from the rotational defensive tackle was the primary motivation. If his comments from last week are any indication, that’s likely not the case.
Sorry guys, but I'm told RJF cut doesn't have anything to do w freeing up money for Hankins or Poe.
— Mike Jones (@ByMikeJones) March 15, 2017
In an interesting turn of events, those close to the situation in Landover credit Francois himself for turning around the environment in the Redskins’ locker room following the whole Robert Griffin III fiasco a couple years back.
To top this off with a neat little bow, former Redskins defensive tackle Chris Baker “congratulated” Francois on being released by the team shortly after it was announced.
Congratulations @Rbjf_99 😂😂😂 come to @TBBuccaneers
— Chris Baker (@cbakerswaggy) March 15, 2017
If the Redskins decided to move on from a valuable defensive player simply because he was critical of the dumpster fire we have seen, that’s probably not the best route for team-building.
This comes on the heels of the brass in D.C receiving a ton of flack for its handling of the entire Scot McCloughan situation prior to showing the general manager the door last week.
Yeah, everything doesn’t seem to be going too well in Washington these days. No wonder, Kirk Cousins seemingly wants out of dodge. Wouldn’t you?