On the current situation with the CBA:
"I think as everybody knows what we have been trying to do for the last few weeks is get ready for either a CBA and get an agreement done or obviously we go without one. Most of the teams in the league had two plans. We certainly had two plans. We have been working hard on it. I know the one scenario without and agreement we have to work hard to get under the cap. I want to address that for a minute because it I think it is very important. The way I look at that is we are very aggressive. We are one of the aggressive teams in the league when it comes to signing free agents and doing the things that we need to do. I look at it as that is the way we want to be. Everybody has their own mode of operation but for us we feel like being aggressive when we see players that we can add through free agency, we want to do that. My way of looking at it is this, if we weren't aggressive in doing the things that we do over the last couple of years then we wouldn't have people like (defensive end) Phillip Daniels, (defensive tackle) Cornelius Griffin, and (linebacker) Marcus Washington. Our mode of operation has been aggressive and we are one of the teams that fall in that category. Having said that when we get ready for what is coming up with the collective bargaining agreement or we go without one, we are really praying on this end obviously that we wind up having an agreement. We have had several false starts. I think we are ready because we have been up late at night going hard all night trying to figure out are we going to go or are we going to postpone. Late night it got postponed at the last minute again. Our hope is that we get the collective bargaining agreement. Our preparation to get under the cap without an agreement came down to looking at a number of our players and their contracts, particularly the bigger contracts. You look to make moves there that help you get underneath the cap. We have had great cooperation with our players. I think you get a real appreciation for guys when you get in this scenario because what you are doing is going to them and in a lot of cases between them, our players, and their agents they make choices there. We have been very fortunate the last two years because in today's football many times a player can help you by adjusting their contract. They don't have to do it. It is voluntary. In most cases it does benefit the player. In some cases there are sacrifices made there. Our guys have been absolutely fantastic."
On #56 LB LaVar Arrington:
"LaVar's situation obviously is very important because his contract is a big contract. We started discussing with LaVar and his representative's different ways that he could help us get underneath the cap. It really came down to two scenarios when you look at it. One of them would be that LaVar would be here next year and it would be guaranteed money and he would play here next year. The second scenario was if he could help us with the cap we could make him a free agent at this point. As we discussed that and went through several days of discussions LaVar last night made the decision that he would like the latter. At that point we moved forward on that. If he took that scenario it would have been regardless of if there was a collective bargaining agreement or not a collective bargaining agreement. It had nothing to do with the collective bargaining. Which ever way we went we were going to do that and we were willing to make him a free agent at that point. That is the option that he chose. Having said that, I certainly wish the last two years had been smoother here. We came on board two years ago and LaVar came off some great years. Our situation that year was that he was injured for a bigger part of the year. Nothing went right it seemed like. It was an injury that we thought was going to be short in nature maybe five to six weeks. We kept him active and he did his absolute best to come back at the end of the year. We then developed a bone bruise and some of the other things that cost us all the way to the end of the year. It also started off this year because in being careful with the injury LaVar had in the off season it held us back as far as camp and some of the other things. We got off to a slow start this year and this year we all wished had gone better. Our hope is that we made this decisions and I am hoping it is going to be best for the Redskins and the best for LaVar. We wish him the absolute best. I think it gives him a chance for a fresh start and he can pick anywhere he wants to go which is a real plus for him. We appreciate him working through it with us. We hope that it will work out the best for both sides."
On if there is no CBA if he feels they are in good shape in terms of the cap:
"I think we would be limited in what we could do but we would make the most of it. I think any club that is aggressive you are probably going to be limited. I don't think it winds up being a good situation for anybody. If we go to free agency without a CBA I would say very few teams are going to be in play and be active. If you do have a CBA there are going to be a lot of teams out there competing for players. Right now that is how I see it. It winds up being a better situation I think for everybody if we get the collective bargaining agreement. At the same time for the League and the Players Union it has to be something that makes sense to both sides. Hopefully we are in a situation where that can be the case."
On how they pretty much have starters at ever positions but not much depth and how they will go about addressing that if they are limited in free agency:
"First of all, we hope that the CBA goes which would help loosen it up for us. If not we kind of make a plan on where we think we would be active, what we could get done, and we have the draft which could be anywhere between six, seven or eight picks depending on what happens. I think you just make a plan. That is what we do. You spend hours and hours looking at the board and you try and project all the way to the final 53 from here and what that is going to look like. You are hoping for the agreement because it frees up a lot of money for all of us."
On if he has talked to any of the team's unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents and whether they are in the team's plans for next season:
"I've talked to every single guy where we feel like they would be in a category where we feel like we can't do something. I've talked to them personally."
