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Redskins interested in Asante Samuel (kidding, but...)

By Skin Patrol

I'm kidding. I think we're all a little tired of "Redskins are interested in ___________" talk. Still, Ryan Wilson at AOL Fanhouse opens with an interesting possibility:

Here's an interesting idea: Asante Samuel has made it clear he won't be happy with the franchise tag. The Washington Redskins -- recently rebuffed by the Chicago Bears on a deal that would bring disgruntled linebacker Lance Briggs to D.C. and included swapping first-round picks -- are also looking for cornerback help. Thanks to a suggestion floated by a reader on a Football Outsiders' thread, what if Washington traded cornerback Shawn Springs and their No. 6 overall pick to the Patriots for Asante Samuel and New England's No. 28 overall pick?
I need to wrap my brain around this possibility but I'll briefly address some immediate Pros/Cons that strike me. Please add/subtract whatever I missed below:

Pros:

  1. Asante Samuel at 26 is younger than Shawn Springs, and does not carry the attendent injury concern.
  2. I don't want to short change Shawn Springs, but Asante Samuel 10 interceptions last year kind of sort of suggests that he's an upgrade over Springs in the secondary. Even if you think Shawn is the better Corner, throw in the age and injury concern to make this work.
  3. #28 pick would be cheaper to sign than the #6 (irrelevant if we trade down).
  4. We get out of Shawn Springs' contract, which escalates to 5M next year and 6M the following in base salary.
Cons:
  1. 7.5M dead cap hit associated with losing Springs. At best mitigated to 2.5M in '07, 5M in '08.
  2. Asante Samuel is playing the same fiscal complaining game that Lance Briggs was (to a lesser degree), and since I made a big stink about that as a matter of consistency I have to question Samuel's Football motivation.
  3. Samuel will carry with him a huge salary. We're just around 5M under the Salary Cap. With the dead space on Springs (which is either a netloss of a few hundred thousand in '07 space or else a netgain of under 5M in '07 with 5M in '08) signing Samuel could make it difficult to re-sign Cooley and others this coming year.
  4. We'd lose the #6 pick, which could get us either an impact Defensive End or else be parlayed into additional picks.
  5. The #28 pick severely limits our trade down options and decreases the likelihood of getting an immediate contributing young DE in the draft.
I don't know where I'm at yet with this proposal, which is totally hypothetical and not likely at all. No official interest has been expressed by the Redskins whatsoever, so take this all with a grain of salt. I would like to hear how reader(s) view this trade. Do I even have an accurate appraisal of what we're gaining/losing? I'm leaning towards no, if only because I'm pleased with our current CB situation and I really really want to trade down the #6 pick (also, how do we afford this???).

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