It looked like safety Su’a Cravens would resume his playing career somewhere other than Washington when reports this week had him being shopped in a trade that the Broncos were interested in making, but that may not be the case.
Redskins coach Jay Gruden addressed those reports from the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Thursday and pumped the brakes on talk that Cravens will be heading elsewhere.
“We’re not trading him,” Gruden said, via the Washington Post. “I just saw that on the ticker. He’s still a member of this football team and we have every intention of seeing where he’s at. I’ll have to talk to him and see where he’s at mentally. Physically, I know he’s going to be in great shape. The big thing is, is this something that he wants to do? He has to commit to it full time. He’s a good football player, there’s no doubt about it. He’s a great kid. I’m sure it will work out for him.”
Cravens, who was a second-round pick in 2016, left the team last summer and his agent said recently that he’s been cleared to return to football after receiving treatment for post-concussion syndrome. The reaction to his reinstatement hasn’t been uniformly positive among players and Gruden acknowledged people around the team were “disappointed,” but thinks people will move past it.
“He made a decision that he thought was right for him and his family and at the end of the day, no one can really put themselves in his shoes,” Gruden said. “He had to do that for himself and make that decision himself. People make decisions. We’re not the judge and jury. It’s up to him to come back and I think guys will accept him back.”
Gruden’s comments don’t mean Cravens will definitely be a member of the team come April, let alone September, but it does sound like a move is less of a sure thing than it did a few days ago.