NFL Free Agency: Should Washington Go Hard for Golladay?

Some big-name free agent receivers were tagged and a few were not. One could be an exciting pair to Terry McLaurin.

ASHBURN, Va. -- We say the Washington Football Team should pursue deep-threat Kenny Golladay when free agency officially opens next week. But, they should do it with caution. 

What does that mean?

Golladay is 27 and coming off an injury-filled year in Detroit, part of a miserable season for the Lions who are hitting the blow-up button on their organization.

With Allen Robinson and Chris Godwin tagged, Golladay is in our view the most tempting free-agent target on the market.

Golladay is a long-ball specialist. When healthy in 2019, Golladay had the deep pass connection clicking with Matthew Stafford. But after playing over 900 snaps in each of the previous two years, Golladay was only around for 225 snaps in Detroit in 2020.

He's going to be asking for and expecting a lot of money (near $20 million?) despite being a guy who only played in five games in 2020.

Some other concerns: Golladay's catch percentage in his two big years in Detroit was 58.8% and 56.0%. It's hard to tell what the exact reason for that is ... but those numbers, based on a percentage of targets, feel low.

Golladay had 12 drops over the last two-plus seasons and only forced one broken tackle since 2019, according to ProFootballReference.com. Passes were also intercepted seven times in the last two-plus years when Golladay was targeted, which could be because of bad ball location or, it could be the receiver not fighting hard enough for the ball.

OvertheCap.com projects a four-year, $21 million per year contract. To pay Golladay $85 million or so represents a huge, significant risk, in our view.

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Golladay does have the leverage with Robinson and Godwin off the market so he knows he's going to get paid. To us, if Washington could get him at $18-19 million per, that would be easier to swallow.

If the price tag is higher than $21 million per? Maybe best to move on.

In addition, there's no guarantee that Golladay will want to come and play in Washington for a 'discount' rate with the organization not having a stud at quarterback. ... Though maybe WFT can still do just that.

CONTINUE READING: Washington Football Team's 5-Move 'To-Do List'