Ereck Flowers and the Redskins are in contract talks, Franchise tag deadline extended for Brandon Scherff

“We know we’re going to try to bring both guards back.” Ron Rivera has talked about bringing back all of the Redskins free agent offensive linemen(+ holdout Trent Williams/- Tony Bergstrom) since being hired. He wasn’t able to undo the damage done between Williams and the team last year, and the disgruntled left tackle is now free to seek a trade.

Brandon Scherff and the team have been negotiating since last year on a new deal, but have been reportedly far apart in the past, and it looks like the franchise tag will be used to retain him if nothing changes. The Redskins got an extension on the tag deadline, thanks to an extension on the players’ vote on the new CBA. The new deadline is Monday, March 16th at 11:59 am. This is 1 minute before the NFL’s legal tampering period starts, and two days before free agency officially begins. No pressure.

We’ve heard from Rivera that the team would like to bring Ereck Flowers after he made a successful transition to guard, and started 16 games for the Redskins. Mark Tyler asked Hogs Haven readers if the team should re-sign his pet cat to a long-term contract. The results were overwhelmingly in favor(91%) of rewarding Flowers and locking him into the LG position.

There has been almost no news about actual contract negotiations until JP Finlay tweeted that the team and Flowers are talking now. There are no guarantees that any deal will get done before free agency opens next Wednesday. The Redskins took a chance on Flowers last year, and turned him into a serviceable starter. This should be motivation to return, but the coaching staff, and offensive schemes have changed this year. They will also need to work out a contract that’s fair to both sides, and decide how long-term, long-term is in this case. For now, it sounds like it’s much more likely that Ereck Flowers stays with the Redskins long-term than Brandon Scherff.