It's important that fans, waiting to voice either their approval or apprehension over the possible trade of Lance Briggs to the Washington Redskins for a first round draft swap, are familiar with the terms currently being thrown around. Here's one possibility per the Chicago Sun-Times (emphasis added):
Please don't do this, Washington.
If the sources and stories are to be believed, the Redskins have formalized an offer made, by all accounts, by Dan Snyder in a bar without having discussed the move with Joe Gibbs or Gregg Williams. Evidence (emphasis mine):
In fact, Snyder spent a couple of minutes talking to Briggs, who showed up with Rosenhaus at the meeting.
Snyder and football operations man Vinny Cerato left to find head coach Joe Gibbs regarding the deal. But before leaving Rosenhaus informed Cerato that he in fact spoke with the Bears and they were waiting an official call from the Redskins.
Vinny Cerrato materialized from somewhere and, instead of saying, uh, Mr. Snyder, shouldn't we go have dinner somewhere and chat about this privately, he jumped right on board. Where a fire hose was needed, gasoline was applied.
And then, after a few minutes of excited chatter among Snyder, Cerrato, and Rosenhaus, either Snyder or Cerrato said it.
"We've got to get in touch with Gibbs."
Whatever else you might think of the trade offer, know that it was spawned in a bar in the mind of Dan Snyder, perhaps impulsively. It's important for fans to know how serious Football decisions give birth in the Redskins organization, and this entire process affords a unique look into that. I think it's absotively posilutely the most ass-backwards approach I've ever heard, but whatever. Personally I always imagined serious trade offers were discussed internally among a collection of (sober) Coaches and Redskins scouts who could pour over potential offers and weigh the costs/benefits holistically against team personnel needs and financial limits. Instead "Rosenhaus, go tell them Bears we'll swap first rounders. Peace."
At this point I believe the team has formally presented that offer to the Bears, and if the Sun Times is to be believed, we'd be paying Lance Briggs a cool 20M guaranteed. Obviously, if that's the case, my position hasn't changed at all. Take that back, it has changed: I'm now even more opposed to it.
Best case scenario is a stubborn Chicago Bears GM Jerry Angelo refuses to relent to Lance Briggs and saves Your Washington Redskins from themselves.