Washington Redskins: Daniel Snyder Brought on the Albert Haynesworth Dispute

The Albert Haynesworth/Washington Redskins contract dispute continues to dominate the NFL offseason headlines.  Many are throwing all the blame on Haynesworth himself. But, in my opinion, the Redskins' front office brought this upon themselves.

Daniel Snyder, in particular, threw far too much money on the table to begin with. Plus, the 'Skins were well aware of his past troubles before throwing the $100 million contract at Big Al.

Obviously his size—6'6", 350 pounds)—allows him to plug running lanes and his ability to sack the quarterback (28 career sacks in eight seasons) made it tough to pass on the opportunity, but the baggage wasn't worth the price.  Signing anyone to such a large contract comes with huge risk, let alone a guy who already carries character issues with him.

There have been a couple of other very productive defensive tackles that came with less baggage who signed elsewhere for a lot less, including Corey Simon and Vonnie Holliday.

Holliday may have only played three of his 12 seasons at D-tackle, but he was very successful at the position in Miami where he accumulated 116 tackles and 14 sacks from 2005-07 (he was already over 30 years old at the time).  Simon, now retired, played seven seasons and totaled 192 tackles and 32 sacks with three different teams.

Both guys were highly underrated, therefore came pretty cheap, yet produced solid numbers for their respective teams.  Using those two examples alone, tells me that there is hidden talent at the defensive tackle position without throwing $100 million on the table.

Silly Dan. Next time, use the draft to pick up a defensive tackle to build your defense around.