Moving on: Washington planning to part ways with QB Smith

The Washington Football Team plans to let the NFL’s 2020 comeback player of the year, quarterback Alex Smith, depart this off-season, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed on Monday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

The move doesn’t come as a surprise despite Smith’s inspirational season, when he returned from a devastating 2018 broken leg to play midway through the season and led Washington on a run to the NFC East title.

Smith, who turns 37 in May, has a $24.4-million (U.S.) cap hit for 2021. Though he provided a steadying force to the offence, his mobility was indeed limited because of the injury — which required 17 surgeries to repair, including the insertion of a titanium rod in his tibia and the transfer of muscles from his calf area to the front of his leg.

Smith missed four of last season’s final five games, including Washington’s playoff defeat to the eventual champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with an injury related to that surgically altered calf.

Smith recently revealed to the magazine GQ that Washington did not want him to return in 2020.

“When I decided to come back, I definitely threw a wrench in the team’s plan,” he said. “They didn’t see it, didn’t want me there, didn’t want me to be a part of it, didn’t want me to be on the team, the roster, didn’t want to give me a chance.

“Mind you, it was a whole new regime, they came in, I’m like the leftovers and I’m hurt and I’m this liability. Heck no, they didn’t want me there.”

Smiht wants to play in 2021, but Washington has other plans at quarterback. In addition to re-signing Taylor Heinicke, who started in the playoff game, Washington is expected to draft a quarterback and sign a veteran in free agency or acquire one via trade.