Jabar Gaffney Told to Seek A Trade

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There's a pretty significant lesson in this Gaffney deal to take away, which is that the Shanahan's feel that getting rid of last year's leading receiver is no big deal because his production was entirely a function of the offensive system.

To an extent, I think they're right: I didn't love the Jabar Gaffney acquisition, though I felt it was a trade they could very easily win (and remember how they couldn't figure out where to put Jeremy Jarmon in the 3-4 even given a season). Gaffney did exactly what was needed of him here last year.

It is hardly shocking given the stopgap nature of the acquisition that the Redskins are willing to give him away after a season, even considering how well he played. But what's shocking here is the utter lack of respect for his contributions. It's pretty jarring when a team moves it's top returning receiver and laughs it off as no big deal. With the Redskins, I'm not sure where they've earned the benefit of the doubt on personnel moves like this one.

With that said, this has nothing to do with his Tweet-fest. He was pretty clearly the odd man out of the rotation, as he got dropped from first to third string by the offensive acquisitions. This was calculated the entire offseason: the anticipation being they could trade him on draft day. I think the Twitter rant was just ill-timed re: his trade value. Gaffney has been on the block all along. Now the Redskins are just willing to take less.

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This post in short: Gaffney was leading receiver, now odd man out. Reflective of Redskins as an organization. Whether good or bad is entirely dependent on perspective.