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The Indianapolis Colts released defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois on Monday, saving nearly $5 million in doing so. It didn't take him very long at all to find a new team, as tonight reports emerged that the lineman has signed with the Washington Redskins.
Drew Rosenhaus has confirmed former Colts DT Ricky Jean Francois' 3-year, $9 million deal that includes $4 mil guaranteed with Redskins.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 26, 2015
As ESPN's Adam Schefter notes, the deal is a 3-year deal with a $9 million base salary and $4 million guaranteed. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reports that, with incentives, the deal could be worth up to $11.5 million. There were reportedly a number of teams interested in RJF, including the 49ers and Seahawks along with the Redskins. It's not a big surprise that he choose to go to Washington and that the Redskins wanted him, as although he used to play for the 49ers, Scot McCloughan was the one who drafted RJF in San Francisco and is now the general manager in Washington.
In two years with the Colts, RJF played in 26 games (23 starts) and recorded 47 tackles, 5.5 sacks, and six passes defensed. He is a very solid defensive lineman and a good rotational/depth player, but he wasn't worth the 4-year, $22 million contract the Colts gave him two years ago. He was to have a cap hit of over $6 million this year and with the Colts being able to save nearly $5 million of that by cutting him, it was an easy decision. With that said, the Redskins are getting a nice piece to add to their defensive line mix, and we wish RJF the best in Washington.
UPDATE (8:10 p.m.): Always a class act, RJF tweeted a thank you note to Colts fans tonight:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="http://t.co/Ng0JSLDJGn">pic.twitter.com/Ng0JSLDJGn</a></p>— Ricky Jean Francois (@Freakyjean99) <a href="https://twitter.com/Freakyjean99/status/571113994553065472">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>