FanHouse Dan Synder

The Redskins aren't giving Jason Campbell a contract extension this offseason, and that's been the plan all along. The team's 2005 first-round pick will play the 2009 season on the last year of his rookie deal, and depending on how things go, he'll either be in line for a nice raise or playing elsewhere 12 months from now.

This isn't to say that the organization is down on Campbell, just that the circumstances -- primarily the current salary-cap constraints -- dictate that he won't be getting a new contract anytime soon. Some fans are fine with that, and, in fact, are ready to pronounce 2009 the Year of Colt.

The Raiders have been called a lot of things since going to the Super Bowl in 2002, but after dropping $178 million on new contracts during free agency, you can't call them cheap. So there's that.

The issue, though, is what $178 million will get you these days. Most of the dough went to DeAngelo Hall, ($70 million), Tommy Kelly ($50.5 million) and Javon Walker ($55 million). Yes, the players won't see most of this money, but Oakland has still spent gobs more than any other team. And as the Sacramento Bee points out, the reason is obvious: Al Davis is tired of losing.

Fair enough, I suppose, but here's an idea: instead of trying to through money at the problem, why not, I don't know, be a little more thoughtful/less reactionary during the hiring process. It's hard to blame Davis for Bill Callahan -- he worked under Jon Gruden and got the team to the Super Bowl (even if the the Gruden-led Buccaneers blew their doors off) -- but Norv Turner, Art Shell? Not Davis' best two moments as Raiders owner.

And now Lane Kiffin's job is in jeopardy because, as best I can tell, Davis doesn't like him anymore. That's fine, but Kiffin did make some progress with the team in his first year -- something neither Turner nor Shell can claim -- and for his troubles the old man is trying to run him out of town. Yep, it's a mystery why the Raiders stink.

Maybe the $178-million down payment will be the difference. Or, as Redskins' owner Dan Snyder figured out after a decade of blowing money on over-the-hill, overpriced free agents, you can't buy a winner.

Via the Washington Post's Mark Maske: evidently owner Dan Snyder tried to talk Joe Gibbs into returning for one more season after the Hall of Fame head coach informed him of his intentions to resign.

Gibbs declined, telling Snyder that he promised himself his second stint in Washington would be different; Gibbs wouldn't be totally consumed with the job. But despite his best efforts, that's exactly what happened.

[Gibbs] poured himself into the job again and found it to be every bit as taxing as it ever had been, and found when he got to the end of this season that he had nothing left. Gibbs was "very firm" in telling Snyder, during a meeting that lasted until after midnight, that he wouldn't return as coach, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Gibbs hasn't addressed his resignation publicly yet.

Maske also writes that the Redskins are denying reports that assistant coach-defense Gregg Williams' contract "contains a provision guaranteeing him a bonus if he does not replace Gibbs as the head coach."

I suppose such a provision could exist and still not violate the Rooney Rule, but apparently it's moot at this point. That's not to say Williams isn't a candidate for Gibbs' job, or that he might eventually get it. But before we get that far down the road, the Redskins will have to interview a minority coach.