Bruce Allen explains Commanders' approach on free agency
If you're wondering why the Commanders weren't in the running for Julius Peppers when free agency began at 12:01 a.m., Washington General Manager Bruce Allen has a simple explanantion: Peppers just wasn't in the team's plans.
The Commanders have been relatively quiet today, locking up their own unrestricted free agents and hosting at least a couple from other teams. But they were apparently not in the bidding for some of the big-name free agents as they have been so many other years.
"It's very clever how all these rumors start," Allen said this afternoon on "The John Thompson Show," on ESPN980, the statio owned by Daniel Snyder. "So we just smile about them and let them go."
While it's certainly possible the team wasn't in the hunt for Peppers, it is believed that people in the organization were intrigued by the talented defensive end and Peppers was under serious consideration.
It's possible the Commanders decided he ultimately wouldn't fit in with their new defensive scheme, it's possible they heard the dollar figures Chicago planned to throw around and pulled out late, and it's possible it was all subterfuge to begin with.
At any rate, Peppers is reportedly signing a three-year deal with the Bears that's expected to pay him a total of $40 million.
"Julius Peppers is a very good football player. I've been in the NFC South the last five years and he's tortured my team [Tampa Bay] a few times," Allen told the team's web site. "He's a good player, but I think he's going somewhere else."
Allen was not made available to other reporters this afternoon, but on ESPN980 and on the team's official site, he seemed to say that the Commanders had a deliberate, methodical approach and never intended to pursue all of the free agents that media reports had linked them to earlier in the week.
"There are so many rumors before free agency starts and then afterward there's speculation," Allen said on the team's site. "We divided out our staff and went after the players we think will fit what we're looking to accomplish this season."
On the Thompson show, Allen acknowledged the Commanders would host free agents, though he didn't reveal any names.
"We're going to keep looking into free agency to find more and more depth for competition at every position."
He said even though free agents might visit, they might not instantly receive contract offers and, overall, he seemed pleased with how Day 1 of free agency has transpired.
"This organization is going in the right direction and it's everyone, from the medical staff, the scouting staff, the PR staff," he said. "We're all in this together."
