Washington Redskins Get Biggest Steal of Free Agency in Terrance Knighton

Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton has learned that during free agency, the market can laugh at you. It’ll laugh hard if you have an inflated sense of financial worth. Then suddenly instead of being paid like a premier player at your position, you become a sweet bargain.

That’s what Knighton is right now for the Washington Redskins after he had to settle for a one-year contract worth only $4 million, according to, well, Knighton himself. The walking small mountain told ESPN’s Josina Anderson he’s going to sign with the Redskins for that cheap discount rate.

Knighton may have plunged his own value by inflating it far too high when free agency began. He visited with the Oakland Raiders, a team that seemed like a logical fit. Jack Del Rio is the head coach there now, and he’s also Knighton’s former defensive coordinator when the two were with the Denver Broncos.

But he reportedly wanted $8 million per season, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Vic Tafur, double the eventual weight of his pocket in Washington.

There should have been some middle ground, though, and a happy place found. Overpaying for a two-down player isn’t wise, but surely the best remaining defender on the market in his specific role (run clogging) deserved more than wide receiver Dwayne Harris, right?

Right?

Harris, for the record, is primarily a kick returner who had 116 receiving yards in 2014. The New York Giants gave him $7.1 million fully guaranteed at signing, according to Rand Getlin of Yahoo Sports.

A better and more direct illustration of how quickly Knighton’s market crashed can be found in the tale of fellow defensive tackle Dan Williams. That’s who the Raiders—again, they're employing a head coach quite familiar with Knighton’s work—signed instead of the aptly nicknamed Pot Roast.

Williams' guaranteed cash? Oh, about $15 million.

The salary ceiling for one-dimensional nose tackles is always low enough that you have to duck while entering the room. But still, here we have Knighton on the open market after he recorded a defensive stop on 8.5 percent of his run snaps in 2014 (11th best among defensive tackles, per Pro Football Focus) stretching for that ceiling and then stumbling to the floor.

The Redskins, meanwhile, are shrugging and doing their own laughing. They've now locked up a 331-pound behemoth who’s still reasonably young at the age of 28 and fresh off anchoring a Broncos run defense that allowed only 79.8 rushing yards per game in 2014.

Knighton is only the latest piece of a significantly fortified defensive front in Washington. Ricky Jean-Francois and Stephen Paea were also signed by the Redskins for more interior beef. Paea and Jason Hatcher will likely be the starting defensive ends in Washington’s 3-4 scheme, with Knighton serving as a nose tackle upgrade over Chris Baker.

The Redskins did all that for the rather economical figure of roughly $15 million guaranteed, according to ESPN 980’s Chris Russell. Or put another way: The same amount of guaranteed money Oakland gave Williams.

Knighton’s plummeting price may have been a product of both his unrealistic financial demands and reports he’s ballooning fast.

The latter cause is curious. Potential suitors surely knew the purchase they were considering when the player in question answers to a food-based nickname. Yet a fear persisted that Knighton was possibly going for the full Albert Haynesworth growth.

That name sends shivers throughout Washington. Haynesworth infamously signed a $100 million contract with the Redskins in 2009, with $41 million guaranteed. He then went about the business of lying down, cashing out and eventually fading into the sunset to enjoy his boat.

That risk has entirely evaporated now with Knighton. It doesn’t exist, and it’s not even a thought, which is the beauty of his new contract. If Knighton continues to grow horizontally and is a failure, that will be unfortunate. But his failure will also be brief, and a one-year mistake at minimal cost.

Knighton's contract is the anti-Haynesworth: Wise risk management with the potential for a return on the Redskins' investment that far exceeds what they paid.

The Redskins have replenished their defensive front with shrewd salary-cap maneuvering, maximizing every dollar of the $10 million saved when defensive linemen Stephen Bowen and Barry Cofield were released. That includes signing Knighton, who’s among the NFL’s best space-eating tackles, to a deal at the market’s floor.

The Washington Redskins are making smart financial decisions. We’re living in a strange, brave new world.

Sean Tomlinson is an NFL Analyst for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.