A pair of former Redskins will play in the Super Bowl on Sunday. The Redskins let both players leave for good reason -- but both probably are just fine with where they’re playing now. One of them will walk away with a Super Bowl championship.
Former Redskins tackle Tyler Polumbus plays right tackle for Denver, mostly in reserve; former Redskins kicker Graham Gano serves in the same capacity for Carolina.
Polumbus’ departure from Washington was expected after last season, when he lost his starting job. The Redskins let him walk in free agency and he eventually signed with Atlanta. It’s been a rough last 18 months for Polumbus, with his mom being diagnosed with breast cancer -- he found out right before the start of the 2014 training camp -- and his brother dying in a car crash last offseason.
Atlanta released Polumbus earlier this season and he signed with Denver, for whom he’s been mostly a backup. The Redskins were wise to let him go; he played poorly in his last season here and they had Morgan Moses and eventually drafted Brandon Scherff.
As for Gano, even though he’s improved, it’s not as if the Redskins made a big mistake letting him go. Despite his success, Gano still only ranks 16th over the last two years for field goal accuracy among kickers with at least 40 attempts. He’s made 83.1 percent of his attempts.
In two-plus seasons with the Redskins, Gano showed that perhaps he could be groomed, but he didn’t give the team enough reason to stay patient. He made just 72.4 percent of his field goal attempts in 2010-11 with Washington, placing him 27th -- and last -- among kickers with at least 40 tries during those two seasons. The league average during that time was 83.1.
Gano does a good job on kickoffs, leading the NFL with 130 touchbacks. He’s second in the NFL with 71.8 percent of his kickoffs resulting in touchbacks. The Redskins are in a good place, finally, with their young kicker Dustin Hopkins. This past season, his first as a full-time kicker, he made 25 of 28 field goals compared to 30 of 36 for Gano. Hopkins missed one extra point in 40 attempts; Gano missed three in 59 attempts.
Two other ex-Redskins could end up with a ring, both of whom are now in the Carolina organization: Donnie Warren (scout) and Ray Brown (assistant offensive line coach).
