Tre Boston to Washington A Match?

ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Football Team could possibly have a new option to target at free safety and it's a player that Ron Rivera and Marty Hurney have plenty of familiarity with.

Tre Boston, a veteran free safety, was released by the Carolina Panthers on Friday morning, freeing up more cap space as they pursue a franchise quarterback.

The Panthers cleared nearly $20 million in cap space by cutting four total players late this week, including Kawann Short and Boston, who they had re-signed to a three-year deal after Rivera was fired and while Hurney was still at least partially in control.

Boston's release reportedly won't be official until the league year starts March 17, with a post-June 1 designation, which means that Washington (and any other bidder) cannot officially sign him until that point.

The moves allow Carolina to not only target a quarterback but to likely use the franchise tag on right tackle Taylor Moton at a cost of over $13 million. Moton is a player that we've speculated on in terms of interest from the WFT, if they were looking at switching Morgan Moses over from right tackle to the left side on a more permanent basis.

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As for Boston, he played almost 1,100 defensive snaps in 2020 with a pretty equal amount (429) played at free safety to in the box (424), per ProFootballFocus.com (PFF).

Boston is 6-1 and 205 pounds and was originally a fourth-round pick of the Panthers in 2014 out of North Carolina.

It's a bit concerning that he played closer to the line of scrimmage this past year as opposed to what he did under Rivera, but that could be attributed to scheme changes.

However, when you combine that with his release after just one year of a three-year deal - the question is fair to ask:How much range does Boston have left?

Boston signed back with Carolina on a three-year, $18 million contract less than a year ago. He would have counted over $6 million on the cap in 2021.

PFF graded Boston as a 49.9/100 player in coverage in 2020. He had one of his best grades against Washington. Boston was charged with allowing 36 receptions on 52 targets for 319 yards and three touchdowns.

Overall, Boston was graded as a 53.8 and only 58.1 against the run and missed 16 tackles per PFF.

The bottom line is this: Boston probably would be an upgrade over what Washington has at free safety, which has been a revolving door between Jeremy Reaves, Deshazor Everett and Troy Apke.

Washington signed Sean Davis to improve that position in free agency last year and he was so bad that he didn't even make the initial roster.

Landon Collins could be moved to linebacker as colleague Cole Thompson suggested earlier this week.

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It says here that Washington would probably still like to upgrade and because they have a lot of familiarity with Boston and because he's starting to decline a bit - he would come cheaper than Marcus Williams, Justin Simmons or Anthony Harris.

That spells a potential match, the way we see it.