Mike Shanahan met with the assembled media at the NFL Owners Meetings on Wednesday, and seeing as it was his first media availability in a while, he had an awful lot to catch up on. Let's start with the salary cap penalty that was issued to the Redskins, and the particularly bad timing of it. These quotes via Rich Campbell of the Washington Times.
Regarding the $36 million salary cap penalty imposed by the NFL, the Redskins "found out an hour before" the start of free agency on March 13, Shanahan said.
It also appears as thought the penalty prevented them from landing one of the players that was frequently linked to them. There were a lot of reports that the Redskins were close to a contract with Eddie Royal before he ended up in San Diego, and it seems like he might have been a salary cap casualty, even though he wasn't actually on the team.
The Redskins also targeted free-agent wide receiver Eddie Royal, who dined with Redskins’ brass early in free agency. Washington never had an agreement with him, Shanahan said, and Royal signed with San Diego. "You've got to make some tough decisions relative to the cap."
So that's one player that missed out on being part of the team because of the salary cap, or at least it sounds that way.
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