Linebacker Rocky McIntosh is a restricted free agent. The Redskins applied to him a second-round tender, which makes him eligible for a one-year contract worth $1.759 million.
And McIntosh doesn’t like it. So he hasn’t signed it. And he has stayed away from offseason workouts.
But on the same day the Redskins announced the arrival of veteran linebacker Chris Draft, McIntosh has decided to report for “work.”
We’re told (and Adam Schefter of ESPN also has reported) that McIntosh has signed an injury protection letter and will join the offseason program. Per a league source, the move is being made solely for the purposes of kick-starting talks aimed at working out a long-term deal.
We’re also told that McIntosh won’t be signing his tender offer “any time soon.” As of June 15, however, the Redskins can reduce his offer from $1.759 million to $588,000, which equates to 110 percent of his 2009 salary.
So with nearly $1.2 million hanging in the balance, it’s safe to say that McIntosh will put pen to paper at some point before the middle of June.
If, in the interim, he suffers a season-ending injury during offseason workouts, he’ll be guaranteed to receive his $1.759 million salary for 2010.