During the emotional press conference announcing his release from the Redskins, tight end Chris Cooley was careful to say that it was his last day with the team “for now.”
That suggested the possibility of a return to Washington at a salary well below the $3.8 million he was scheduled to make this season. There’s some more fuel on that fire Friday after Redskins General Manager Bruce Allen said that the team has been talking to Cooley since he got dropped near the end of August.
“Yes, absolutely that door is still open,” Allen said, via the team’s Twitter account. “We have a meeting next week.”
The timing works out a little better for the Redskins than Cooley. By waiting until after Week One, the Redskins won’t need to guarantee Cooley’s salary for the entire season although their desire to bring him back suggests that the problem was his salary and not his ability to still contribute to the team. Cooley’s had time to get a sense of what kind of market there is for his services, which he can use to negotiate his way back to familiar surroundings in D.C.
There’s plenty of other teams who might like to avail themselves of the non-guaranteed salary, especially if they lose a key tight end this weekend, so it’s early to start rewriting Cooley’s name onto the Redskins roster. It wouldn’t be surprising if it still winds up happening, though.