Updated: Redskins Trade for Vikings DE Erasmus James

Erasmus James' career has been very similar to the beginning of Kyle Vanden Bosch's career, who is a pro bowler now. Vanden Bosch was a second round pick of the cardinals, who tore 2 ACLs and an MCL in his first 3 seasons and got cut after his 4th season(2004). Then in 2005, the Titans picked him up for the vet minimum and he started all 16 games and got 12.5 sacks.

James was a first round pick who tore 3 knee ligaments in his first three seasons and now he got traded to the Redskins to try to resurrect his career. It might take all of this year to get healthy, but it is definitely possible for him to come back and play very well. I'm not saying he is gonna be a pro bowler like Vanden Bosch, but it is possible. It has been done before.

Kyle Vanden Bosch (http://www.nfl.com/players/kylevandenbosch/profile?id=VAN378810)
Erasmus James (http://www.nfl.com/players/erasmusjames/profile?id=JAM188263)

I hope youre right...one major difference is size though.
This dude is like 280....James is closer to 260.
That impacts whether he is situational or not

When you have a rookie year like Erasmus James was able to, 4 sacks in only 9 starts, you have the skill set to be a successful NFL pass rusher.

Will he ever be healthy for us? History says he won't, but it was only two knee injuries...so maybe he's healthy and its in the past.

Either way, great, cheap deal for us, and some much needed line depth. 100% money back if James gets beaten out in camp too.

Schneed, you never cease to amaze.
Excellent analysis on the cap...this makes me feel better...since I think this guy is only worth about 500k

Thanks for the kudos.

I'm thinking it honestly wouldn't matter if the guy makes $2.5 million this year (he doesn't, he makes $1.0). We're going to have plenty of cap space going into this season, he could make starting DE money and we'd have no problem carrying it. You would theoretically only lose out on the opportunity to sign someone else to an extension to make use of that space, or lose out on the opportunity to bolster next year's cap limit by playing with incentives for your current players. But other than that, the guy could make a buttoad and it wouldn't matter, as long as he fits under our cap. Which is no problem.

The way I see it, Vinny saw this as an opportunity to get a guy who played for one of the coaches who sees talent in the guy, with nothing to lose from a cap standpoint, with little to lose from a pick standpoint, and who could potentially add depth. It's not hard to understand from my perspective, the bottom line is:

- James is talented
- James is always injured
- Who knows how James will look in camp
- If he looks good and healthy, a 7th rounder and $1.0 million is a small price to pay for a young hungry talented DE
- If he looks hurt/crappy, you cut him and lose nothing

No brainer. Good move.

I don't have much of a problem with taking a chance on him, except for the fact that we could have paid him the vet min, instead of 1 mil base he is do now, due to the trade. I hope he does not make the team because I think Wilson will be a 6-9 sack guy and I want Evans and Buzbee to be the other 2 DE backups. WE NEED A NICKLE DB!!!!! We were 16th in pass defense last year and we had Taylor and Rogers for half a season(ranked No.1 before they went out). We are going to have our season ruined by bad pass defense!!!! That is the only issue I have with Cerratto is that he is not good at evaluating a roster. Any GM would notice this glaring need, but Cerratto sees Springs and Smoot and thinks we are set, when any elite football guy would say wow we are thin at DB. We can not put our season on the hope that Springs will play 16 games, which he has only done 1 time, since signing with Washington. We should have drafted Carl Nicks instead of Tyron and then got Tyron in the 6th, where he was projected to go, or drafted Scandrick in the 4th over Tyron because he is so much more physically gifted. I like Synder's enthusiasm, but he and Vinny just do not know how to properlly evaluate a roster, particullarly depth and they do not understand the value of certain positions, just the obvious positions like WR and RB.

You can't fix everything in one year. The FO felt that the offensive players we picked were better than any corners that were on the board. In case you didn't notice, we've had trouble scoring points around here so let's just wait and see. Let's hope Springs, Smoot and Rogers can hold up. Chances are they won't so we'll just have to go with what we've got.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Let's recap:

If he doesn't make our 53 man roster, we don't give up any picks/compensation to the Vikings.

If he doesn't make our 53 man roster, we don't carry any salary cap charge. If he makes the team, we're only responsible for his $1 million base salary this season, which is non-guaranteed.

After signing rookies, we will have $4-5 million in cap space. So if he beats out a Ryan Boschetti or an Alex Buzbee and makes the team, salary cap space will not be an issue.

So... what exactly is the downside here? Nothing. You either got yourself some DE depth with upside, or you say bye bye to him and you've still got the same personnel (and draft picks) you had yesterday.

Will it change our season, almost certainly not. But there's no downside at all.

Great post! Now everyone can calm down. Very good move by the FO IMO. The rewards totally outweighs the risk.

huh, actually I have more than 10 posts, but please do not refer to this passing of time as a carreer. But back to my point, this trade should have been done for a nickle, instead of a washed out pass rusher. I know some idiot is going to say washed out is inaccurate, due to his age of 25, but he is washed out and will do absolutely nothing with the skins. Just to show you how stupid this front office is, he will make the team, costing us a 7th rounder and have no more than 2 sacks. This is Jerome Mathis all over again, but at least Mathis was the vet min and did not cost a pick potentially.He's making 1 million.

Do you know how much the 'vet min' is? It's going to be between 650,000-800,000 this season.

Or just a hair under 1 million, which is what James is making.

Good Point, when I think of vet min, I just don't realize that it is close to 1 mil. Still, the only postitive I see in this move is the low risk factor, but I do not think James will ever do anything or even be healthy. Even if he makes the roster I do not think he will stay healthy and if he did he would not produce because it has to be slower than he was and he never had elite speed to begin with if you look at his scouting report.

That makes sense, and there is an inherent risk in this deal: oppertunity cost. If James makes the team, the coaches are going to have to play him. If his injury causes him to lose effectiveness, he's going to hurt our defense.

Our coaching staff is going to have to be very careful with him. If he's not going to be a key contributor, we have to release him at the end of the preseason.

Still, a wonderful value deal for the front office.

Thanks for the kudos.

I'm thinking it honestly wouldn't matter if the guy makes $2.5 million this year (he doesn't, he makes $1.0). We're going to have plenty of cap space going into this season, he could make starting DE money and we'd have no problem carrying it. You would theoretically only lose out on the opportunity to sign someone else to an extension to make use of that space, or lose out on the opportunity to bolster next year's cap limit by playing with incentives for your current players. But other than that, the guy could make a buttoad and it wouldn't matter, as long as he fits under our cap. Which is no problem.

The way I see it, Vinny saw this as an opportunity to get a guy who played for one of the coaches who sees talent in the guy, with nothing to lose from a cap standpoint, with little to lose from a pick standpoint, and who could potentially add depth. It's not hard to understand from my perspective, the bottom line is:

- James is talented
- James is always injured
- Who knows how James will look in camp
- If he looks good and healthy, a 7th rounder and $1.0 million is a small price to pay for a young hungry talented DE
- If he looks hurt/crappy, you cut him and lose nothing

No brainer. Good move.

Good points. Let's just hope that if he does look/get hurt that it happens in July and not in early October.

7th is only spent if he makes the team. we had to go that route, or else we'd be late enough in the waiver line that someone else would take him.

and yeah, we do pick up his rookie salary this way (minus bonus money) to the tune of $1mill this year... though technically we could redo it to a min deal, i doubt he'd be super willing to take the cut.

that $1mill and the 7th give the current DEs the upper hand as to who makes the roster, since the skins won't want to spend that on a guy with injury history if he hasn't shown anything this preseason.