Redskins place franchise tag on Orakpo

This is driving me crazy. What Tripp said is 100% right. The decision comes down to pay him or lose him. If he tests the market he was going to get a deal that will probably cost us more to match than just signing him long term. If he went FA he was lost. Dithering over whether to pay him 10 or 12 a year is stupid. The extra bit just isn't that big a deal. We've been operating on a BS shoestring budget for 2years and now we want to pinch pennies? Com'on man.

This.

Seeing that Byrd is a FA now.

Would you have rather spent the $$$ on Byrd or Rak? Which would have the bigger impact on our 14 team?

This is assuming we only signed one big name star.

Who could it cost us? With the expansion of the cap, I have a hard time how anything but an astronomically bad long-term contract stops us from retaining important guys.

Who knows. I'm all for keeping Rak, but I'm not going to get all excited about keeping a pretty good player on an average team just so we can say "we keep our own"

I go with the guy we know. If we can get Byrd also, great. I just get the feeling he is the next big FA flop. Namdi Asoumagawatchamacallit redux.

Seeing that Byrd is a FA now.

Would you have rather spent the $$$ on Byrd or Rak? Which would have the bigger impact on our 14 team?

This is assuming we only signed one big name star.

No reason we couldn't have both if we wanted to.

I voted "No. We are doomed forever now. Hide your wife and kids". If Snyder is still making decisions over his personnel people, we're doomed regardless of whether we keep Rak or not.

From what I know inside the Skins the opinion on Rak is pretty split. You make it sound like everyone that works for the Skins voted against resigning him, and it came down to Snyder vetoing the opinion of everyone in the building. If it was a split opinion I'm sure he wouldn't mind being the tiebreaker, but let's not act like it came down to Snyder vs. everyone else.

From what I know inside the Skins the opinion on Rak is pretty split. You make it sound like everyone that works for the Skins voted against resigning him, and it came down to Snyder vetoing the opinion of everyone in the building. If it was a split opinion I'm sure he wouldn't mind being the tiebreaker, but let's not act like it came down to Snyder vs. everyone else.

Exactly. It's a simple, lazy narrative that people want to hold onto forever. In the event of a tiebreaker, Snyder should weigh in. It's his money after all! Show me a front office & coaching staff that don't disagree on player evaluations. It's a healthy process that successful teams have. The opposite is the Al Davis Raiders and the Cowboys, would we rather have that set up?

Someone would be getting blamed either way. If he didn't get the tag we would hear about how it's the same old Redskins, always letting talent get away for nothing.

As far as Orakpo the football player I'm pretty sure he was just a warm body out there, or at least the first half of the season when I was actually paying attention. As far as Orakpo the person he's always seemed like a solid citizen type guy. I'd have let him walk, personally. It's a lot of money for someone who there are better versions of elsewhere, but given our dearth of pass rush in general, I suppose keeping him this year and trying to add to our rush could actually make him more effective.

I'm thinking we can't fix it all in one offseason so this allows us to focus on some other things. I'd concentrate on upgrading the OL and front seven at the expense of other holes. Last year was unacceptable. We essentially added no one on OL or DL. This team with a good OL and some real players in the front seven has plenty of upside and room to grow even if our DB's are getting torched and our recievers can't get open without time or scheme.

Seeing that Byrd is a FA now.

Would you have rather spent the $$$ on Byrd or Rak? Which would have the bigger impact on our 14 team?

This is assuming we only signed one big name star.

I really don't want Byrd. I am sure he must have wanted out of Buffalo, but my understanding is that they were trying to show him the money, and he still refused. For me, that sets a big red flag. I don't know the solution at Safety, but somehow we have to find the talent that is the right price and attitude. I just have no clue who that is, rookie or FA wise.