Is no news good news?

Those crickets you have been hearing from this blog? Yeah, those are the same ones you can hear over at the hangar for Redskins One. I haven't written a whole lot around here lately simply because there isn't much to talk about. There are no free agents coming through the normally revolving door at Redskins Park and there aren't even any good rumors of anyone bound for D.C.

So as long as things are quiet I will come by to dust every so often but once things start rolling again, you can bet this blog will be humming.

Collins returns

In a sign of some continuity, the Skins have finally re-signed backup QB Todd Collins. I think this is a good move, especially since Collins got us to the playoffs after starter Jason Campbell went down with an injury.

I do actually have one small problem with this whole scenario however. As we are trying to get away from our free spending ways - i.e. no more big, long contracts that we continue to pay years after guys leave the league - I am puzzled by the contract Collins received.

Now I think Collins should be rewarded for what he did last season however, how smart is it to sign a guy turning 35 in May to a 3 year contract? Vinny Cerrato said at the bottom of the story that they are waiting for the market to come back down before they make any other signings but was the market for Collins really 3 years, $9 million?

Baby steps I guess ... but welcome back Todd. Great to have you sticking around.

Lloyd area officially ends

Well, another costly mistake is finally out the door as the Redskins released WR Brandon Lloyd today.

I hate to say that this move seemed obvious but when you spend an entire season in Joe Gibbs' doghouse and catch only 2 passes for 14 yards (which "bumped" his total number of passes caught with the Skins to 25, with no TD's), you know your time has to be short. It just seems to be a shame that during a season in which both starters battled injuries and veterans were signed midseason to try and help the passing game that Lloyd couldn't stay out of the doughouse long enough to get another shot.

It's mistakes like this which cost us two draft picks and $10 million in guaranteed money in a new contract that I hope truly are things of the past as was reported over the weekend. And I'm not just complaining about the steep price of getting overpaid talent here, but the fact that they will continue to eat at our salary cap long after they hit the retirement home it seems.

But I guess if we are moving in a new direction, we've got to start cutting the dead weight somewhere and Lloyd seems like the logical choice.

So here's to clearing out our locker room and salary cap by 2012.

Possible free agent targets

Now I by no means pretend to know what Vinny Cerrato has planned for the opening of free agency on Feb. 29 (and I don't think he does either) but the following projections are what I feel the team should do to address the holes we need to fill.

(Editor's note: I realize I promised the completion of my mock draft this weekend however, because I am so unfamiliar with most of the prospects right now I will post a new mock draft after the completion of the combine, once I can do more research on the topic.)

Despite Jim Zorn's recent comments about both Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El being good fits for the offense, it appears Cerrato and company think the Skins need a more durable WR. And even though free agents may not be a priority, the buzz is D.J. Hackett could be reunited with Zorn this offseason.

I personally think if we brought back midseason signees Keenan McCardell and Reche Caldwell, we should be fine. Size doesn't catch passes, talent does and I think there are enough guys in the current group with talent that we can get away with being a little undersized. This is not a position to worry about in free agency.

If we go after anyone in free agency, I think the one guy we should seriously consider is Justin Smith. This guy gets after the QB and paired with Andre Carter, these two would wreck havoc on opposing OL's and provide the type of pass rush we haven't seen since the days of Dexter Manley and Charles Mann. The only problem with this scenario would be that Dan Snyder would have to go back to his old ways of whisking people away on Redskins 1 before they knew what hit them. Smith will demand top dollar and will probably be out of our price range (is that an odd statement to anyone else?) 15 minutes after free agency opens.

An option at safety could be Mike Doss. If he too isn't vastly overpaid once this thing gets underway, he could be a valuable leader brought in to fill a tough hole. He isn't Sean Taylor by any stretch of the imagination but he could be the guy who helps seal the wound.

If you haven't gotten it from this post already, all signs point to the Redskins actually building through the draft for once. Gone seems to be the influence of George Allen bringing aging veterans looking for one last run. If that truly is the case, we may finally get that permanent turnaround we've been searching for since Snyder bought the team. Maybe the guy has finally learned his lesson.