The Washington Redskins have announced they have cut Pro Bowl tight end Chris Cooley. (Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-US PRESSWIRE)
In a surprising move to some, the Washington Redskins have parted ways with veteran Pro Bowl tight end Chris Cooley, the team has announced. Cooley has struggled with injuries in the recent past, but was eyeing 2012 and the arrival of quarterback Robert Griffith III as a way of reviving his career. It now appears that Cooley will have to do that elsewhere.
“Im very fortunate to have played for a team and a fan base that have embraced me like they have.” Cooley said in a statement released Tuesday morning. “This team changed my life.”
Cooley has spent the last nine years with the Redskins and is the franchise’s all-time leading receiver at tight end. But with Cooley’s recent injury prone past, he was passed up on the depth chart last year by Fred Davis and the Redskins are putting their faith in Davis (and new second stringer Niles Paul), not Cooley, to usher in a new era of Redskins football.
From the Redskins point of view (namely the Redskin’s checkbook) this move was a no-brainer. Cooley is set to earn $3.2 million this season and with the kind of action he’d see this was not a bargain for Daniel Snyder — nor would it have been for anyone in their right mind.
The Pro Bowler will likely see work again, as he passed his physical with the Redskins who gave his injured knee a medical green light. But his days in Washington are over and this quietly the end of road in the Nation’s capital for one of the best Redskins to ever put on the uniform.
