The Redskins have never been shy about opening their wallet to big-name free agents under owner Dan Snyder, and it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
According to former NFL quarterback and current Bleacher Report analyst Chris Simms, the Redskins are going to be “a major player” for free agent cornerback Aqib Talib‘s services once the 2014 league year starts at 3:00pm CT Tuesday. Simms was in the Patriots organization recently as a coaching assistant and played with Talib in Tampa Bay.
Looking at the Redskins’ offensive needs, ESPN.com’s John Keim said Talib is the one player who could be intriguing, given the tight relationship between Talib and secondary coach Raheem Morris — the duo spent time together in Tampa Bay. Keim acknowledges the hefty price tag but likes Talib’s versatility to play inside and out and evolvement into a leader.
Talib’s biggest knock, as Keim points out, is his injury history — Talib hasn’t played more than 13 games in a season since 2009, and was knocked out of playoff games each of the last two years.
Washington is in a decent cap situation with just under $22MM in space, according to overthecap.com. However, teams like to give themselves $5-6MM of wiggle room as the season approaches and require $2-3MM to pay rookies, so paying Talib his desired salary might be a tall task.