Washington Redskins: Mason Foster re-signing brings back key piece

The Washington Redskins re-signed a key free agent on Thursday when Mason Foster took to Twitter to say he was coming back to D.C.

While things remain quiet on the free-agent front with quarterback Kirk Cousins, the Washington Redskins did re-sign a key contributor on their defense Thursday when veteran linebacker Mason Foster re-upped for two more seasons.

No, this isn’t Zach Brown, but Foster was an important piece for Washington’s defense in 2017 until a shoulder injury prematurely ended his season after just five games. The Redskins were actually one of the better defensive units in the league over the first quarter of the season when Foster and rookie defensive lineman Jonathan Allen were healthy. Brown looked like an All-Pro playing next to Foster and his play slowly declined throughout the season with Foster out.

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Foster’s two-year deal — with a base value of $4 million — is a reasonable one for the Redskins as incentives could push it up to $7 million. With Brown and former starter Will Compton, also free agents, the Redskins need the extra cap space to get one or possibly both of those players back, too.

Brown is a major priority for Washington and the team is negotiating with him, however, he could see the open market as he and the team have differing opinions on his true value.

In an ideal world, the team gets Brown back on a multi-year deal to play with Foster. When the two played together last season, it was Foster making the calls for the defense and Brown excelled with Foster in that role. The Redskins were much better defending the run with this pair on the field. A healthy Foster and more investments along the defensive line in 2018 and this could be a top 10 unit.

There was doubt at one time about Foster’s future in D.C. When the team put him on injured reserve, he wasn’t happy and took to Twitter to share his frustrations. Foster later apologized and admitted to speaking out of frustration. That’s all in the past now and things appear great between Foster and the organization that gave him the opportunity to resume his NFL career back in 2015.

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Now, the Redskins must get Brown back. If the team can keep Foster and Brown together for at least the next two seasons, that makes drafting an inside linebacker less of a priority.