The Old 10 Is Not The New 10

On Tuesday the Redskins released Jabar Gaffney. I know he was only with the team for one season, but I'm trying to figure out how this move makes any sense. The Redskins traded Jeremy Jarmon for him prior to the 2011 and all he did was have a career year while leading the Redskins in Receptions, Yards Receiving, Touchdown (rushing or receiving) and was second on the team in Yards Per Catch (min 10 receptions). That's surely a guy you don't want on your team. Here's a 10 year veteran whose catch totals had gone up for 4 straight years. Right, that's the guy you want to get rid of.

The Skins recently signed Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan, I can only imagine, to add depth to their receiving corps. Last season, Gaffney had basically the same numbers as Garcon and Morgan's numbers from last season don't even compare. Yes, Garcon and Morgan are much younger than Gaffney, but it's not like Gaffney is on a downward slide. A lot of people are saying that another reason the Redskins don't need Gaffney is the emergence of Leonard Hankerson. I'm not saying Hankerson isn't worth anything, but he's coming off a rookie season where he caught 13 passes in 4 games before ending the season on injured reserve. Once again, you're letting you're best receiver from the previous season go and replacing him with a second year WR who has only played 4 games, a WR who has averaged 33 receptions a year and another receiver who has identical stats. Got it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some super fan of Jabar Gaffney, but to me, this seems like a backwards move to me. This was not a salary cap move as Gaffney was only scheduled to make $2.65 million this year (a fair wage for your #1 WR) and was willing to renegotiate his contract to help the team. Compare that to Garcon who has a base salary of $2.1 million and cap hit this season of $4.8 million and Morgan whose numbers are $1.8 million base and $4.55 cap hit. Clearly this move was not about money. One could say it's about getting younger but Santana Moss is a little older, but he does have better overall stats.

I would think that with two rookie quaterbacks on the team, you would want some real experience at the receiver position, but I guess there can only be one #10.