Lloyd: Skins will pay later

The Redskins will cut now, pay later.

To update yesterday's piece about the little-lamented release of Brandon Lloyd by the Redskins, Vinny Cerrato said that Lloyd was indeed designated as a post-June 1 release. That means that the Skins will get charged with the lion's share of the $7.4 million in accelerated bonus money in the 2009 season rather than this year.

The decision is hardly shocking; indeed, a decision to eat a net hit of $3 million this year would have been stunning. Just because it's not surprising , though, doesn't mean that it was the right way to handle it.

An early glance at PC's detailed cap charts reveals that the Redskins aren't in much better cap shape in '09 than they are now, so it's not like they are pushing the money into a year in which they have a lot of cap space. But, the Redskins Way is to keep on pushing money back, so they'll find a way to convert and cover the dead cash.

That makes the wise use of this year's six draft picks critical for the short- and medium-term prospects for this team. If they can garner, say, two immediate starters, two future starters and a special teamer or two out of it, they will have relatively cheap talent that can replace expensive, aging talent. If they trade a high pick or two for, say, Chad Johnson the cycle that has them stuck as an OK team but one incapable of making a push to the Super Bowl will continue.