Message from Coach Gibbs

Everyone thought it was Champ! But Smoot & Springs are great! Add ST, and we have a good start in the secondary. We need a couple more warriors though, with Bowen out!

I was not a big backer of Springs, but he also walks the talk! He was on the Monday night post game show, and he's bigger than I thought, and is clear headed and concisive in speaking! Kind of the Anti-Smoot! He levels out our Secondary!

I wouldn't classify Springs ability to articulate as anti-Smoot. If anything it is complimentary. Springs is from Maryland. Smoot is from Mississippi. As a southerner, I'm proud to see a young man who speaks from his heart and doesn't care about using perfect English grammar.

Smoot is incredibly important to this team. And barring some major interpersonal catastrophe in the locker room, he's got to be one of the guys on Coach Gibbs' "core player list". So, I'll buy that Gibbs will push to sign Smoot as a top priority.

However, I'm not going to sit here and delude myself into believing that Smoot will re-sign here for a significant discount over what he can make elsewhere. The Redskins will have to come up with a package that is as beg as the deal he and his agent get somewhere else.

In the past, Danny Boy has structured deals such that other teams could not quite match them and do whatever else they needed to do - remember the Jetskins? So, what happens if an owner like Robert Johnson of the Jets decides to return the favor and give Smoot such a huge signing bonus that it would strap the Redskins down for any other free agent signings?

I'm not saying this "payback" will happen, but Smoot could draw some really big offers at the end of the year - particularly if he makes the Pro Bowl which his agent will use as a lever to raise the price even higher.

While I understand what Gibbs is trying to do with building for the future the reality of what he has done and how today's nfl work do not match up. The salary cap prohibits teams from really building for the future. In today's nfl the future is next year not 5 years. The only way this "future building" can be done, as New England has done so successfully, is through the draft. However Gibbs gave away draft picks to get a pretty much over the hill Bruenell. I have a bunch of faith in Gibbs but I hope when he's talking future me means next year because in % years the ship will have sailed and the skins will still be standing on the dock waving good-bye.