Haynesworth speaks on why he went to WAS, Jason Taylor, and Skins Needs

[Andre3stacks]

Many people have wondered why defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth signed with Washington instead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he finally explains why.

Haynesworth was on The Monty Show on Sporting News Radio today. He spoke about his hesitation to sign with Tampa Bay the day after they cut Derrick Brooks and other veteran starters. Haynesworth also spoke about the Redskins losing Jason Taylor today and also said he would have come back to Tennessee had they "stepped up."

Here is the transcript provided by The Monty Show on Sporting News Radio:

You came from a team that had great success last year, do you think you can have that same success quickly in Washington?

"I really think so, that was the one thing looking into it, because we did have both the same money on the table and everybody knows that one was from Tampa. I looked at the roster of the Redskins and looked at the roster of the Bucs and they cut a lot of starters, I mean they were older guys, but they cut five starters the day before. And then you look at the skins and their team wasn't old, and it's not young, it's in that middle age group like my age type of guys. And you know having all the names we do that are really good players out there, even great players, I definitely thought we had a great shot at making a nice run for the playoffs and hopefully winning our division and getting deep in the playoffs."

If Derrick Brooks had not been cut, would you have gone to Tampa?

"Yeah, it was a few things we looked at. You couldn't really say that, but cutting a bunch of those guys and having a bunch of new starters didn't help the situation any. I felt comfortable with Raheem, he seemed to be a good person and he's going to be a good coach, and I thought they had a lot of upside. But then they started whacking people, I guess they wanted to have that fresh new look and that's what they went for. It didn't really scare me off, but it didn't really help the situation."

Was there ever a chance you were going to stay in Tennessee?

"yeah, don't get me wrong, I love Tennessee. I think it's a great state… I was drafted by the Titans, I played at the University of Tennessee, my kids grew up here in Tennessee so far, they were all born here. So I have strong roots and I'm going to keep my house in Knoxville and uh yeah, I would have come back if they would have gotten up but honestly they didn't really make a strong push for me, I mean not as strong as I thought it should have been. So that's when I decided to look elsewhere."

How do you feel about the Washington defense minus Jason Taylor?

"Well you know what, I honestly… it's still a good defense even if you don't have Jason Taylor you're still going to have a good defense. And expect that Dan Snyder is going to go out and look a D-End that he can get to play in place of Jason. If you can so call replace Jason Taylor."

If its been posted im sorry.

[asknoquarter]

you CAN replace Jason Taylor.....

Igor Olshansky will do just fine. Get it done Dan. This guy wants his DE.

Might as well get Crowell too

oh yea, don't forget about a RT

[A Skinhead in Saints Land]

Trade down get a RT then draft Tyson Jackson. BOOM!

[Califan007 The Constipated]

You can replace the 2008 Jason Taylor, anyway.

[Renegade7]

You can replace the 2008 Jason Taylor, anyway.

3.5 sacks can be had for less then $8 million from someone. I like that Albert has faith in this team, and I do believe that he's one of those players that will make people around him better. I would make the arguement that we have more talent on D then the Titans do, and Haynesworth more then makes up for any loss of Taylor's underproduction.

[Redskins Reparations]

Has anyone ever been successfull after being on "Dances with the Stars"? We should have know just like the Tuna did.......What did we give up for him again? Was it a second rounder? :doh:

[jnhay]

Has anyone ever been successfull after being on "Dances with the Stars"?

Is Kevin Costner in that one too?

[squatch66]

3.5 sacks can be had for less then $8 million from someone. I like that Albert has faith in this team, and I do believe that he's one of those players that will make people around him better. I would make the arguement that we have more talent on D then the Titans do, and Haynesworth more then makes up for any loss of Taylor's underproduction.

demetric evans will have more than 3.5 sacks with haynesworth beside him. hell so can chris wilson.

Has anyone ever been successfull after being on "Dances with the Stars"? We should have know just like the Tuna did.......What did we give up for him again? Was it a second rounder? :doh:

second this year and a sixth next year :doh:

[TSO]

I really really hope and pray he is the force we believe we're getting. It'll hurt so bad if he ends up being another FA bust... and no, it wouldn't be "Vinny and Danny's" fault like everyone would love to say.

Let's just hope he really does want to win and isn't lying to everyone.

[TheGoodBits]

I really really hope and pray he is the force we believe we're getting. It'll hurt so bad if he ends up being another FA bust... and no, it wouldn't be "Vinny and Danny's" fault like everyone would love to say.

Let's just hope he really does want to win and isn't lying to everyone.

If the Redskins get what they're paying for, we will have an absolutely dominant defense this season.

[SkinsFTW]

If the Redskins get what they're paying for, we will have an absolutely dominant defense this season.

No way one guy will be as dominant as the entire Giants DL, or the Steelers, Bears, Pukes or anybody's actually. But he costs more than most teams 3-4 starters. 16M+ a season, LOL.

[KDawg]

But it's not $16 mil a season.

The contract is a 4 year/48 mil with 41 mil guaranteed, essentially. 21 mil of that comes next season where we're supposed to have an uncapped year. If that doesn't happen, hopefully Snyder has a plan to get that number down.

[Tastes Like Chicken]

So.... That's quite a piece of speculation there on Haynesworth's part. In one sentence, he's intimating that there's not a DE on this roster (behind Carter) that is as good as Taylor today. He also is being a little presumptuous IMO because if we DON'T go out and sign a DE, he's publicly thrown the owner out there.

[Hunter_R]

So.... That's quite a piece of speculation there on Haynesworth's part. In one sentence, he's intimating that there's not a DE on this roster (behind Carter) that is as good as Taylor today. He also is being a little presumptuous IMO because if we DON'T go out and sign a DE, he's publicly thrown the owner out there.

I don't think it's presumptious at all considering one of the reason he didn't pick the bucs, even though they offered more money, is that they cut 5 starters.

[Nighthawk]

So.... That's quite a piece of speculation there on Haynesworth's part. In one sentence, he's intimating that there's not a DE on this roster (behind Carter) that is as good as Taylor today. He also is being a little presumptuous IMO because if we DON'T go out and sign a DE, he's publicly thrown the owner out there.

Well, I doubt Haynesworth has ever heard of Chris Wilson, Alex Buzbee or Rob Jackson, so he would be correct if he's intimating that there isn't a DE as good as Taylor aside from Carter on our roster.

We're down 3 DE's from our roster of last year, if you include Daniels who was out on IR, so yes, Danny and the Redskins do need to go out and get a DE to replace Jason Taylor.

[DaMuller7]

If you can so call replace Jason Taylor."[/u]

Trust me, you can replace 2008 Taylor with any average guy out on the market including Evans!!! Not saying we replace him with Evans, but Taylor was a shadow of his former self and he wasn't getting any younger, so there was no point to keeping him bloated salary around.

I think we should take a stab at signing a free agent LB and DE (whomever is out there anyways) and draft an OT with the 13th pick and maybe draft another Offensive Lineman instead of defense with the 3rd round pick...

[DexterSackMachine]

You can replace the 2008 Jason Taylor, anyway.

My thoughts exactly. 3.5 sacks is pretty easy to replace.

[Thinking Skins]

I think Haynesworth was lied to. He probably believed that we were gonna keep Taylor. Now he's gotta play it off.

[Mr. S]

I think Haynesworth was lied to. He probably believed that we were gonna keep Taylor. Now he's gotta play it off.

who knows, he said he didn't like the veteran leadership being released from other teams. We still had Fletcher and Griffin and Carter, even though Marcus, Springs, and Daniels were released.

I think had we released Griffin especially, then Haynesworth would not have been as keen to come here. He knows that Griffin and Carter are still viable starters who could draw double-teams when at their peak.

Plus, I hope this means we go out and get Olshansky, the guy won't even be as expensive knowing that he can't get more than what Antonio Smith received.

[DGREENHULK]

you CAN replace Jason Taylor.....

Igor Olshansky will do just fine. Get it done Dan. This guy wants his DE.

Might as well get Crowell too

oh yea, don't forget about a RT

Igor or Olshansky would be a nice pickup but at a good price other wise Tyson Jackson from LSU would also be a good fit...but getting a Starting RT and Jackson will take some draft day movement by Vinny.

[Rhodus333]

Alot of people have been questioning why we waited so long to get rid of taylor. Seems to me we kept him on the roster as an incentive for Haynesworth to come here. He talked about how its a good defense and how there are alot of strong established guys here that look ready to step up and play deep into the playoffs. One of the reasons for not going to Tampa was that they didn't seem as established

My guess is that the FO never intended to keep Taylor, but kept him around to make the defense look better on paper to Haynesworth and his agent. If thats true i wouldn't necessarily call it a bad move (12 million in cap space is lookin pretty good right now), but i hope Haynesworth doesn't feel like he was misled or had the rug pulled out from under him. If I was him, I'd be a little pissed with this move.

[Tastes Like Chicken]

I don't think it's presumptious at all considering one of the reason he didn't pick the bucs, even though they offered more money, is that they cut 5 starters.

so what happens if the team decides that Wilson or someone else is ready to start, and Snyder doesn't go out and sign a big-name DE? Then what?

Well, I doubt Haynesworth has ever heard of Chris Wilson, Alex Buzbee or Rob Jackson, so he would be correct if he's intimating that there isn't a DE as good as Taylor aside from Carter on our roster.

We're down 3 DE's from our roster of last year, if you include Daniels who was out on IR, so yes, Danny and the Redskins do need to go out and get a DE to replace Jason Taylor.

Sorry but I still think that even if true, it's not AH's place to make a comment like that. Even if unintentional, why risk dissing your new teammates who will be in the trenches with you?

A simple, "we have a talented roster so I'm sure things will work themselves out" would have sufficed. Instead, AH put the owner on the hook to go out and sign a high profile DE. And, again- if he doesn't? Then what?

[LoudMouth12thMan]

Evans was as productive or more productive for us last year as J. Taylor was, so I don't see the issue as far as Taylor being gone. Not saying that there is/was one, but I'm sure the FO and coaches plan on adding a DE to the mix anyway, even if they originally planned on keeping Taylor. He didn't exactly wow anyone and give anyone confidence that he would be productive in 2009. Orakpo, someone in the second (oh wait, scratch that :doh: ), or a good free agent will help with depth. I'm curious though regarding what they're going to do b/c we need another productive End. Some of this is contingent on Daniels' health too. :2cents:

[bikie]

I'd really like to think we could find a replacement for a player who yielded 29 tackles, 3.5 sacks, commanded zero attention or double teams, was injured and wasn't committed to working out with the team... with this FO though, you never know...

[Hunter_R]

so what happens if the team decides that Wilson or someone else is ready to start, and Snyder doesn't go out and sign a big-name DE? Then what?

Then he's still getting paid 41 million.