Washington Redskins center Kory Lichtensteiger, a starter for most of the past seven seasons, announced his retirement Friday after two years of dealing with various injuries.
Lichtensteiger was scheduled to count $4.05 million against the salary cap. His retirement will free $3.5 million in cap space; the Redskins entered the day with approximately $60 million in cap space.
Lichtensteiger, 31, joined the Redskins in 2010 under then-coach Mike Shanahan, who had drafted him in Denver two years earlier. Lichtensteiger was an undersized player who ended up starting 75 games for the Redskins at guard and then center. He started 37 games at left guard from 2011-13 before converting to center.
Injuries ruined his last two seasons, as he missed a combined 24 regular-season games because of nerve damage in his shoulder (2015) and a calf injury (2016). He was replaced as a starter by third-year Spencer Long, whom the Redskins viewed as their center of the future.
The Redskins liked Lichtensteiger, despite his weighing approximately 295 pounds, because of his smarts at center and his mindset.
“Kory defied the odds of being undersized because of his competitive spirit, accountability and attention to detail,” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said in a statement. “It also helps to be tough as hell. We want to thank Kory for his relentless effort and leadership and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”
Lichtensteiger said in a statement he told team president Bruce Allen and general manager Scot McCloughan of his plans shortly after the season ended.
“When I came to them after the season and shared my thoughts, they were extremely gracious and agreed to let me to ‘retire a Redskin,'” Lichtensteiger said in a statement. “This is a great business, but it is indeed a business. And for that reason, I am thankful to be treated as family in the final hour of my playing career.”
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos keep saying they’re comfortable with either Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch as starting quarterback.
As they enter the early stages of the decision-making process, offensive coordinator Mike McCoy believes he has a head start in evaluating those quarterbacks and the rest of the players on offense. McCoy just finished four seasons as Chargers head coach — he was fired at season’s end — so he spent plenty of time preparing for the Broncos’ quarterbacks as an AFC West foe.
“Being in the same division, and obviously I’ve seen more of Trevor since he played more than Paxton, I’ve seen most of those games,” McCoy said. “I had a good idea of what the two players were like.”
Mike McCoy has started the process of evaluating the staff and says the Broncos will be going with either Paxton Lynch or Trevor Siemian as the starter. Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
It means McCoy already has a foundation as he works his way through the video of last season’s games and begins to construct the playbook.
Certainly the quarterback decision will draw more attention than the other positions on the depth chart, but as the staff installs a new offense, all of the players will face the same challenges.
The quarterbacks have to learn it first while the Broncos decide if they’re going to stick to their public comments and choose a starter between the two. It was a question McCoy asked coach Vance Joseph in their first conversation.
“When I first talked to Vance on the phone I asked him about what his plans were at the quarterback position if he were to take this job, and that was one of the questions when I came in for the interview,” McCoy said. ” … We have two talented players, and we’re going to play the best guy. We’re going to let them come in and compete and go from there.”
Joseph said earlier this week he was “absolutely” committed to Siemian or Lynch being the team’s quarterback while executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway said last month his plan was “to proceed” with Siemian and Lynch as well.
But he said he’ll lean on some of the work he did leading up to those Chargers-Broncos games in recent seasons.
“It was nice to have seen these players play a number of times on a weekly basis during the past two seasons,” McCoy said. “[I can] say, ‘OK, I have a good idea of what these guys can do.’ … It’s our job in the next couple of months to figure out what each one of those guys do and take advantage of their strengths and try to minimize their weaknesses.”
“We’ll see what these two players do [well] and what do they like also,” McCoy said of Siemian and Lynch. “I’m big into talking to the quarterbacks, installing from a week-to-week basis and looking at our plans and being open with these players. And saying, ‘What do you really like? What are your favorites?’ When we get into the game plans at the end of the week, I’m going to ask the quarterbacks, ‘What [are] your favorite plays in these situations? Your first and second down calls, what are your favorite plays?’ Just so they have a lot of confidence when they’re under center on game day.”
Arsene Wenger’s coy responses over his Arsenal future have led the club to draw up a four-man shortlist over who could succeed the Frenchman, reports The Mirror’s John Cross.
Borussia Dortmund’s Thomas Tuchel takes top spot over Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri – who didn’t rule himself out of the running on Thursday – Bayer Leverkusen’s Roger Schmidt, and Leonardo Jardim, who’s guided AS Monaco to the summit of Ligue 1.
Related: Allegri evades talk over succeeding Wenger at Arsenal
The Arsenal link for Tuchel has even prompted Dortmund to scour the market for potential replacements, according to Alex Richards of The Mirror.
Wenger’s contract at Arsenal expires at the end of the campaign, and he intensified speculation that he could end his stay of 21 seasons in north London when he failed to give a straight answer on his future last week.
“It’s not all quantifiable,” Wenger said on assessing his performance this term. “It’s linked with your gut feeling as well.”
In Tuchel, Arsenal would pick up one of the most highly regarded young coaches in the game, but Dortmund’s domestic performance this term – stationed fourth and 12 points adrift of league-leading Bayern Munich – has been underwhelming.
It’s a similar story for Schmidt in Leverkusen’s ninth-placed Bundesliga standing, although his penchant for entertaining football and enhanced reputation for honing youngsters could win over the demanding Emirates Stadium support.
Allegri and Jardim possess top spot in their respective divisions, with the former building on Antonio Conte’s designs at Juventus to clinch back-to-back Serie A titles, and the latter showcasing free-scoring football at Monaco after a nomadic coaching career to date.
Arsenal hosts Hull City on Saturday before travelling to Bayern Munich for the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 meeting on Wednesday.
New Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian had the chance to have lunch with Matt Ryan this week, his first opportunity to really connect with the MVP.
What did Sarkisian take from the conversation? He compared it to another chat he had years ago with a top-caliber quarterback.
“I went to coach quarterbacks for the Oakland Raiders in 2004 — I was 29 years old — and I inherited Rich Gannon, who was two years removed from the Super Bowl and his MVP season,” Sarkisian explained, “and Rich was really focused. He was very driven. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he liked.
“I heard a lot of similar things coming from Matt at lunch: a guy who has had some success throughout his career, has been part of really good offenses, and then really saw it all come together this year. And then ultimately really saw it come together as a team getting to the Super Bowl. So I think the guy I saw and what I felt from him was he’s still very hungry and he wants to keep going and he wants to see this thing through, and he’s willing to put in the time and effort, whatever he needs to do to make that happen.”
Sarkisian said he didn’t get a chance to dig too deep with Ryan just yet. They’ll have plenty of time to connect during the offseason.
“As we get into specifics of the offense moving forward — this was somewhat of an introductory meeting of just things we believed in or liked and styles, and coaching styles — but more importantly, my takeaway was that this guy has a real fire in his eyes right now that he can’t wait to get back to work,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian has been a quarterbacks coach throughout his career but envisions the Falcons hiring someone else in that role to assist. Regardless, he plans to have a hands-on approach with Ryan as he becomes accustomed to the offense former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan implemented, an offense Ryan mastered this past season.
“There’s no question my relationship with the starting quarterback — in this case, Matt — is one that is critical to our success,” Sarkisian said. “And it will be a point of emphasis here all offseason and then into the season.”
Ryan didn’t necessarily connect with Shanahan in Year 1 of the offense, which led to a rocky season. But the two improved their relationship and communication going into this past season, which led to Ryan having the best season of his career. Now he’ll look to maintain the momentum while working with Sarkisian.
