Washington plans to release QB Smith
The Washington Football Team plans to let the NFL’s 2020 comeback player of the year, quarterback Alex Smith, depart this offseason as the organization reconfigures the position group, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed Monday.
The move doesn’t come as a surprise despite the inspirational campaign that Smith orchestrated last season, returning from a devastating 2018 broken leg to play for the first time midway through the season before leading Washington on a run to the NFC East title.
Smith, who turns 37 in May, has a $24.4 million cap hit for 2021. Though he provided a steadying force to the offense, 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 transferal 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 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.”
He maintains a desire to play in 2021, but Washington has other plans for its QB depth chart.
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.
Ex-player dies: Louis Nix III, a standout nose guard at Notre Dame before being drafted into the NFL, has died in Florida after being missing for several days, but many questions linger about the circumstances of his death.
The Jacksonville Sheriff ’s Office said the 29-year-old Nix was reported missing last Wednesday. An update tweeted late Saturday said Nix had been located, but didn’t give any other details.
Nix’s mother, Stephanie Wingfield, told multiple Jacksonville news outlets Sunday that authorities said her son died but haven’t been able to tell her how.
Family members say his car was pulled out of a pond near his home on Saturday. It’s unclear whether his body was inside.