According to Jason Reid of the Washington Post, via Washington Redskins’ tight end Chris Cooley, defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth has practiced with the scout team this week as the ‘Skins get ready for their season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
As far as I know, that officially makes Haynesworth the highest-paid scout player in the history of any sport — anywhere, ever, at any point. But there could be a reason behind this other than Mike Shanahan clearly not liking Haynesworth as a player or a person.
It could mean the Redskins are coming down on their demands for Haynesworth and anticipate trading him, so why would they allow him to take snaps from the guys who will actually stay with the team? If they’re confident they’re going to be moving him soon, putting him on the scout team and getting use out of him in that aspect is much more beneficial to them.
While I feel for Shanahan and new general manager Bruce Allen, there isn’t an ounce of pity from me for Danny Snyder. Giving Haynesworth that enormous contract will go down as one of the dumbest moves ever made. It doesn’t take a lot of research to see that Haynesworth plays for money and nothing else, and that once he padded his wallet he would completely shut it down and turn into just another guy.
Case in point: in Haynesworth’s first five seasons in the league (2002-2006), he had 9.5 sacks and three forced fumbles. And of those five years, he never started more than 14 games. He played in all 16 games his rookie season, but that would be the first and last time that ever happened.
Then, heading into a contract year (2007), Haynesworth suddenly turned into an All-Pro. In 13 games, Haynesworth had six sacks, 32 tackles, and was almost impossible to block. His dominant play didn’t even show up on the stats sheet because a lot of his game was drawing attention to himself and opening things up for the other guys along the line.
Haynesworth was in line for a huge extension after being voted into the Pro Bowl and named an All-Pro, but instead the Titans simply slapped the franchise tag on him, essentially holding him hostage for one more season.
So, again, Haynesworth was playing for money.
He responded with an even better season in 2008. Haynesworth racked up 8.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, two recoveries, and 41 tackles. Again, he was voted into the Pro Bowl and named an All-Pro.
This time, there was no franchise tag and five hours into free agency he landed that now-infamous $100 million deal with the Redskins.
And, as you would expect, he regressed a great deal once the money was in his pocket. He was only able to hit the field for 12 games in 2009, and accounted for only four sacks, no forced fumbles, one recovery, and only 30 tackles. That’s not a bad season for the average, but for a guy with the largest non-quarterback contract in league history, it’s downright pathetic.
Jump forward to the missed practices this offseason, the multiple failed conditioning tests, the feud with Shanahan, and you’ve got — by far — the worst free agency move the league has ever seen.
It appears as though Haynesworth’s time as a Redskin certainly won’t last through the 2010 season, but he’ll be heading somewhere else was a lot of Snyder’s wasted money and even more of the Redskins’ wasted time.