Redskins Expected to Release Coles

[Big C]

wow...i hadnt been able to get the site to work for a while so i was just gonna wait till tomorrow, then i see this. damn.

i think we need to bring in jerry porter and take braylon edwards if available, if not then take mike williams. porter will come cheaper than buress, and we cant have a rookie as the #1 wideout. i dont think that thrash or jacobs are #1 recievers right now. i think edwards should be chosen over williams because he is better all around. he is faster, and is consistent, 3 1000 yard seasons in a row. but we def need to take a reciever first round, and i think jerry porter would be a good fit.

[rome108]

I'm not too upset about Coles wanting out. It's not like his play has led us to the playoffs or anything, as a matter of fact, I think his productivity went down last year, quite a few dropped critical balls and, hell, if he's bitchin' about not gettin' any deep balls, how's about trying to get some seperation downfield? He didn't do much of that last year either. Only thing is, I would like to see some draft picks or something for him, although some salary cap room is nice, too.

How about trading Coles and Gardner for Michael Clayton and a pick? It seems Gruden may want Gardner, so lets give him Coles too. I'm down here near Tampa and see highlights of Clayton, let me tell ya, he is the real deal. I'd love to see him in burgandy and gold.

[Luxorreb]

drinking Miller Lite str8 outta da bottle. Shit is crazy.

[offiss]

The release of Coles is not the real problem, the real problem is why? And the reason seem's to be that he feel's Gibb's is so out of touch that he is willing to give up a lot of his signing bonus to get out, I have a bad feeling about this and Gibb's being able to come back into form after such a long absence. If he can't get a pro like Coles into the flow of the offense how's he going to manage to do it with a rookie? My biggest concern on this matter of Gibb's not coming around were his post game comment's and insisting we took shot's downfield when we all know we might have thrown semi deep once or twice a game, I don't care how many injuries you have our offense was just pathetic, the big questio to me that stand's out with this new's is this, is Gibb's for the most part washed up? because I didn't see a coach who was progressing as the season went on, I hope I am wrong but Gibb's reminded me to much of S.S. last season wr screen, after wr screen.

[Gmanc711]

Well, I've had an entire night to have it sink in..... and I dont feel at all better about this. I honestly thought this was going to be a big joke when I woke up this morning. I'm still freaking shocked. Were in some serious trouble at the WR position, we cant even think of drafting elsewhere. I'm very bitter right now.

[CRT3]

Originally Posted by smootsmack

The real shame is that CRT3 isn't awake right now. Dude could be marching right along past the Morton avatar and onto Taylor with this thread alone

Yes add another Avatar to the heap. At least there is no Smoot cause he is the next to go. I don't think Matty can keep up with the Avatar anyways as the speed that changes will happen in the next 2 weeks will be insane. Just remember the fact that we are releasing Coles really means nothing. The Redskins always win the Spring Super Bowl. I suspect we will see Porter or Muhammad.

[Funbunchfan]

Originally Posted by Shane

With all due respect to Laveranues Coles, this is great news to me. Coles was miserable and that has a very destructive effect on the atmosphere of the team. Give him credit for not going public – but the players all knew, the coaches – everyone.

We need “all for one and one for all” players on our team. That is what makes for a great team.

In addition, Coles may never get back to his pre injury form and if not, ability wise he is just getting too high a paycheck.

We have an excellent player in Taylor Jacobs who just needs room to blossom, and we may well have Mike Williams on our roster soon.

Gibbs made a typical super classy move in agreeing to release him outright. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is good also in that in generates the respect of players, and potential free agents.

Speaking of free agents, I hope we get a player like Andre Davis. I hope we pass on those big names – unless the staff really comes to believe they would add a tremendous amount to the ballclub.

A potential lineup could include:

Taylor Jacobs
Mike Williams
Andre Davis
James Thrash

We probably need another free agent, but that is a good group right there in my view.

As far as being unhappy with the offense – those are just comments to be ignored. We are building something special here, and our offense is going to be super. Coles just doesn’t fit in with the kind of team we are building. I wish him well and hope he finds a team that is going to highlight him, and I hope he recovers from his injury soon. We will have an excellent receiving corps without him.

I like your outlook on this whole situation. Look at the glass as being half full instead of half empty. Being a Boston Red Sox fan im used to dissapointment. The Red Sox , this year, traded Nomar who in these parts was considered to be what a Red Sox player is and look the Red Sox are the world champs without him. However I do remember having the same pit in my stomach when i got that news as I do now. If a player is truely that unhappy on one hand i think its best to let him go on the other im afraid it sets a precident for other disgruntled players and that I dont like. Remember in the big scheme of things we are on the outside looking in and we dont know how bad it truely is. Yesterday is history tommorrow is a mystery we dont know what the future holds. We do know what our past is and that was two losing seasons with L.C. So in closing keep a stiff upper lip to quote us die hard Red Sox fans wait till next year!

[TheMalcolmConnection]

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!! I go out of town for a few days and THIS is what happens?!?!?!?! I'm sick to my stomach. I KNOW it's a classy move to just outright let Coles go, but this is a business and it would be better to trade him rather than "make friends."

[skinsfanthru&thru]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

Yeah I think 57 posts in about an hour is close to record for a non-game discussion thread. And at midnight no less! Where did everyone here about this? I saw it on wp.com and came here to see what everyone was saying. Little did I know it had just been posted on WP.com and I would be among the first Skins fans to have a seizure over this. There are Redksins fans everywhere just sleeping soundly now. Little do they know the importance of this night.

I am one of those fans just finding this out this morning and after reading the article I definitely am not the happiest person right now. I really liked the heart coles showed, but quitting after one year? I mean if the last couple games were an indicator of next years offense, I don't see why he would have such strong negative feelings about where the offense could go next year. If he were as much of a professional as most of us believed, he would make it so the organization not only got most of it's money back, but also recieved some type of compensation from his next team via trade.
There is no doubt in what is our primary objective in the offseason and unfortunately this year's WR pool is a bit shallow. Burress seems more capable of being a number one than porter to me or I'd take Mason as my number one wr. Either way we have to also draft wr, whether it be Williams or trading down a little and getting Williamson or someone else. And for saying the cap space being made HAS to go to resign Smoot doesn't make too much sense seeing as to how coles leaving the offense is twice the impact of smoot leaving the defense and the void being left by coles therefor needs more attention paid to it.

I hope working will help get this off my mind today but i'm getting the feeling that this is gonna be something that simmers in the background for a while. Well this is kind of a crappy way to start off the day.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Normally I am one to keep a cool head, but I say screw all this bullshit. Screw EVERYONE wanting to be traded and not being shown the "love" to stay around. I trust in Gibbs' system and I trust that no matter who leaves, he WILL find someone to replace them. This prima donna shit has got to stop. I always thought Coles was better than this.

[Brute44]

I think everyone has forgotten about Antonio Brown. That guy has some real speed. I would hope with the departure of Gardner and Coles we could give this guy a serious chance at WR and not just KR. Best of all he's not making hardly any money. This is how Gibbs works, he finds solid players that other teams have given up on and gets the most out of them. I wouldn't be surprised if Gibbs hasn't had this planned for a while, either Coles gets the surgery or he's gone. I know Brunell didn't work out so good last season but I would like to see what he does next season with some actual talent at wide out. Not to say that Coles doesn't have talent but as stated earlier he hasn't been the same since the injury and if he wont get surgery to fix it, whats the point of him staying here anyway? I just hope he gives back enough so that we can go out and get a couple of cheap receivers like Brown under the radar that can contribute.

[Schneed10]

I gotta get involved in this thread, this is definitely not good.

First off, now that we're releasing LC, do you still trade Rod Gardner? I guess you do, because it saves you cap room.

So, the question is what happens next? I'm a financial analyst, so I'll hit you with the salary cap ramifications: Coles signed a 7-year deal with a $13 million bonus, meaning that bonus counts $1.857 million against the cap each year of the deal. He's played out 2 years of the deal, so the unallocated portion of his bonus would amount to 5 year's worth, or $9.286 Million. If he gives back all of that $9.286 Million, his bonus will clear off of the books, and his cap number in 2005 will decrease by $1.857 million. Plus we won't be paying him his base salary of $1.5 million, so that would go to savings, meaning we would save a total of $3.357 million in 2005.

We need to find out how much of his bonus he'll be giving back. The formula to find the effect on our salary cap if we cut him is this:

(9.286 - The Amount He Gives Back) - 3.357

If the number comes up negative, that means our cap goes down. If it comes up positive, it means his current 3.357 cap hit will get bigger.

Hopefully he'll give back at least $8 million of that bonus so we'll gain some cap room. If we get cap room, I gotta believe we have to make Derrick Mason our #1 priority, or the receiving corps is in some trouble.

[MTK]

I'd suspect that he's going to be giving back a large portion if not all of his due bonus in exchange for his outright release.

That must give us a little bit more to play with this offseason to perhaps pursue someone like Burress.

I'm just waking up and I'm still in shock.

[MTK]

I was just looking at the cap sheets and Coles # for 2005 is approx $3.3M, but in 2006 which is supposed to be a rough year for us cap wise his # is approx. $6.8M.

I know this move really stinks right now but for the cap it could be a great move.

(I'm trying my best to be optimistic here)

[SmootSmack]

Do we wait until after June 1st to cut him? Does that make a big difference?