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Things are coming to a boil with Antoine Winfield. His agent was sick over the last couple days, but a final decision is expected this week. The Redskins are pulling out all the stops, and if there's one thing we know Dan Snyder is good at, it's closing on free agents.
One other cool things #Redskins did for Antoine Winfield? Showed him a highlight tape... Which opened with him destroying the Skins
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 29, 2013
I think I'd also show Winfield film of Christian Ponder, just to remind him of that QB situation. Winfield will turn 36 this June. so it's hard to imagine he'll return to the Vikings with playoff teams like the Redskins and Broncos courting him.
ESPN 980 has learned progress is being made between Antoine Winfield & #Redskins. Certainly sounds like the parties involved want it 2 work.
— ESPN 980 (@ESPNRadio980) March 29, 2013
regardless of how strong a push Skins might want to make for Antoine Winfield, they face real cap issues. Vikings, Broncos among his options
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 29, 2013
How do you know #Redskins want Antoine Winfield? At dinner last night were owner Dan Snyder, Mike Shanahan, the defensive staff... & @rgiii
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 29, 2013
So, was dinner at Morton's or Hooters? Another little nugget....surely Fletcher has reached out too, right?
Just realized that Antoine Winfield and London Fletcher anchored the Bills defense together for two seasons ('02, '03).
— BurgundyBlog.com (@BurgundyBlog) March 30, 2013
Pro Football Focus broke down Winfield's play from 2012. I recommend reading the entire article, but here are some highlights:
Winfield finished the season with a +25.5 grade, narrowly edging Richard Sherman (+25.1) to the top spot in our CB rankings, but that's only part of the story. If you look purely at coverage, Sherman's grade (+26.4) is almost four times higher than Winfield's (+7.0), and there is no doubt that Sherman was the superior player in that regard last season.
He may have been atop the overall grade rankings among cornerbacks, but nobody at PFF will try and tell you that Antoine Winfield was the best corner in football last season.
Against the run Winfield's grade was almost twice as good as any other corner. On the season he made 44 stops (tackles that constitute an offensive failure), which was a dozen more than the next best player.