Andre Carter sold his soul to himself

I'm on a strict diet of nothing but children's dreams
Image from The Examiner

The famous story goes that legendary Mississippi Delta Bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical prowess sometime in the early 1930s. Son House, another great musician, spread the rumor in the '60s. Apparently House had insulted Johnson's musical talents at a local juke joint. Robert Johnson disappeared for some time and when he returned, mysteriously, he was as an amazing guitarist.

Practice was the more likely culprit, though here at Hogs Haven we speculate about the occult and otherwise with little abandon.

For much of the season Andre Carter disappeared. Redskins fans, such as myself, played the part of Son House echoing repeatedly "bust" following each poor performance. He had two games where he accumulated zero tackles, against Houston and the Giants. Never had Carter managed more than four tackles through November.

Here we begin to speculate. On November 27th, Andre Carter hit a crossroads and decided he'd had enough. The Devil was summoned but Old Scratch didn't want to have anything to do with this man. Can you blame him?

So Andre Carter was forced to enter into an otherwordly pact with the only being terrifying enough to scare the Devil away: himself. The result of this soul solitaire? 11 tackles with a sack on December 3rd. 8 tackles with a sack last Sunday. Andre Carter accumulated nearly half his tackles this season in the past three weeks alone. Carter is suing the month of December for naming rights (to be called: "Andre Carter's month, bitch") though the Supreme Court is too terrified to hear the case.

Here's what we know about Andre Carter:

1. He currently leads the Washington Redskins in sacks.
   
2. He currently leads all defensive lineman in solo tackles and total tackles.
   
3. He has more tackles in 2006 than he did in 2005.
   
4. He cost the Redskins about half as much as his backup (Renaldo Wynn) in 2006 cap space.
   
5. He cost the Redskins over 1 million less then the other starting Defensive End on the team in 2006 cap space.
   
6. He is scheduled to cost less in 2007 cap space than either his backup or his colleague on the other end of the line.

Two good games in December does not a great season make. But those two games, viewed holistically with what else he's done this year (admittedly limited), does not suggest that we overpaid him or that he is a bust. He is one of the few players the Redskins paid in the offseason who has actually produced better numbers than his positional peers, and it is about time fans recognize his contribution to this football team. If we want to insist, despite evidence, that Andre Carter is one of our many "busts" this offseason, we're going to have to account for why he's playing better than everyone else on this defensive line.

Hogs Haven welcomes Andre Carter to this defense.