The reshaping of Lovie Smith's defense continues.
Dashon Goldson, the 30-year-old two-time Pro Bowler, has been traded from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Redskins, the teams announced Friday.
The Tampa Bay Times first reported the development.
The deal cost Washington a 2016 sixth-round pick, NFL Media's Albert Breer reports, per a Redskins source. Tampa Bay included a 2016 seventh-round pick along with Goldson in the deal. NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport adds the trade saves the Bucs $4 million in salary-cap space, per a team source.
The move is yet another aggressive push by the Buccaneers to clear out any defensive players who do not work in Smith's scheme. The team shed Mark Barron in a similar fashion last October and are now doing the same with a free safety who signed a five-year, $41.25 million deal just two years ago. Darrelle Revis, another expensive piece of a once-feared secondary, has now donned two different uniforms since his one-year hiatus in Tampa.
This offseason, we've seen Washington continue to make some smart, if understated moves in free agency. General manager Scot McCloughan is looking to make his team more competitive, but only at a certain price. He was on the same 49ers staff that selected Goldson in the fourth round back in 2007.
Goldson is owed roughly $4 million guaranteed in 2015, according to league records. However, the Bucs are going to absorb that money as part of the deal, per The Washington Post.
This offseason, we've also seen coaches take a stranglehold on their systems. Like the Eagles' Chip Kelly, Smith hasn't been afraid of dealing players who no longer fit what he is trying to do with the Buccaneers.
Having made it to a Super Bowl in the past, he'll get the benefit of the doubt for now.
A new uniform and system should give Goldson an opportunity to repair his on-field credentials after two critically poor seasons in Florida. While his struggles might have been system based, they were enough to allow the veteran to jet for a late-round pick.
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