How will Gardner's situation pan out?

Mid training camp, Bugel gets hungry and trades Gardner for a ham sandwich.

and then proceeds to do 100 pushups.

I see this playing out as a package deal. Gardner and a RB(Betts) or a O-lineman for a DE. We still have never addressed this glaring weakness and we might be waiting for another teams injury for us to pounce on the trade oppurtunity.
Why would Gibbs trade one of the players he has been effusive in his praise about? Betts, while prone to getting dinged, is a solid backup to Portis. No-one else on the roster has demonstrated that ability.. I don't think O-line depth is a problem (Friedman, Raymer, Brown, Molinaro, Wilson) and DE isn't a glaring weakness in Williams scheme since he doesn't depend on them solely for the pass rush..

Any chance that the Skins are trying to squeeze Gardner since he made it hard to trade during the draft?

Why would Gibbs trade one of the players he has been effusive in his praise about? Betts, while prone to getting dinged, is a solid backup to Portis. No-one else on the roster has demonstrated that ability.. I don't think O-line depth is a problem (Friedman, Raymer, Brown, Molinaro, Wilson) and DE isn't a glaring weakness in Williams scheme since he doesn't depend on them solely for the pass rush..

Any chance that the Skins are trying to squeeze Gardner since he made it hard to trade during the draft?
Yep - a good chance. There is almost no chance that Gardner will play out his final year of this contract, and because it's his last year, we can keep him until Opening Day, and cut him without penalty. I don't think it'll go that far, but Gardner's interests aren't really the team's concern. We'll see if any value can be gained from him, and release him when it becomes clear that there isn't.

Why would Gibbs trade one of the players he has been effusive in his praise about? Betts, while prone to getting dinged, is a solid backup to Portis. No-one else on the roster has demonstrated that ability.. I don't think O-line depth is a problem (Friedman, Raymer, Brown, Molinaro, Wilson) and DE isn't a glaring weakness in Williams scheme since he doesn't depend on them solely for the pass rush..

Any chance that the Skins are trying to squeeze Gardner since he made it hard to trade during the draft?

Please tell me you didn't just say "I don't think O-Line depth is a problem" and then proceeded to list Friedman, Raymer, Brown, Molinaro and Wilson. Molinaro and Wilson are huge question marks. Freidman and Raymer stink. Brown has maybe a year or 2 of serviceability left in his tank at most. He is not a dominating force anymore...just a good backup. Gardener is better than Thrash or McCants. He will go to training camp and stay for the year and test the market next year.

Please tell me you didn't just say "I don't think O-Line depth is a problem" and then proceeded to list Friedman, Raymer, Brown, Molinaro and Wilson. Molinaro and Wilson are huge question marks. Freidman and Raymer stink. Brown has maybe a year or 2 of serviceability left in his tank at most. He is not a dominating force anymore...just a good backup.
Isn't that what depth is? Bodies that can fill in for a play, a series, a week but not someone who is relied upon to be starter? I don't know of a team in the league that has 2 quality starting offensive lines so if one dominating force goes down another one just plugs in. Friedman, Raymer and Brown were all starters, Molinaro and Wilson played well when pressed into action. Granted I don't think anyone wants them out there for 16 games, but I'd be comfortable with them out there for a week..

I see we're back on the Madden style trade ideas.

Betts isn't going anywhere. He proved to be a very capable backup last year and he should have an increased role this year.

There's not going to be some last minute blockbuster for a pass rushing DE. While the d-line didn't generate much heat last year, they were absolute monsters against the run. If I was Williams I would stick with that same formula. No need to mess with a good thing.

As for Gardner, watch for him to be cut a week or two into camp. Unless a team is absolutely desperate for a WR, I don't see anyone wanting to trade for him when they know the Skins need his $2M cap room and he's an inevitable cut.

Again, don't forget about Daniels everyone. The reason we got him WAS to be a huge pass rusher.

This is the last time I'll chime in on the supposed lack of depth on the OL. Last year even with the constant lineup shuffling and a key injury to Jansen, the line still performed admirably under the circumstances. Ray Brown played out of position and did a solid job. Wilson stepped in for a game and played very well. Friedman may not be starting quality, but for a backup we certainly could do alot worse.

With Jansen coming back and the addition of Casey Rabach, two weaknesses on the starting OL have been seriously upgraded, and the borderline starters (Friedman, Brown) who saw significant time last year are back to the bench as backups where they belong.

I guess some people aren't happy unless you have 2 starters at every position on the OL, that's just not reality. Maybe I'm completely wrong here, but I don't see the OL depth as a major concern. I guess we'll see what happens this year for the final verdict on this issue.

WR have a tendency to drop like flies (other than Eagles D-lineman) during TC. I'm not sure Elias Sports Bureau has a statistic for it but it seems like every year there is a rash of injuries surrounding the WR position. Teams do get desperate throughout the pre-season if they feel that position is thin. I think the Dolphins pony’d up Adewale Ogunleye for Marty Booker (in the process getting fleeced) because David Boston went down with an ACL tear. I would never wish injury on anyone (with the exception of Cunningham during his heyday w/ the Eagles) but I wouldn't be surprised if we can jostle for a player-for-player trade if a WR goes injured during TC.

If we get to the point that we cannot trade Gadner and have room in our cap maybe we just hang on to him to add depth and size at WR.