Only a few days after the Dallas Cowboys released the 31-year-old, Orlando Scandrick has joined the Washington Redskins. He's ready to provide veteran leadership in the defensive backfield.

After 10 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, new Washington Redskins cornerback Orlando Scandrick will be on the other side of the NFL's greatest rivalry.

It will take some getting used to in the coming days.

"It's just now hitting me," Scandrick said Monday in an interview on "Redskins Nation." "I'm excited, super excited for the future. It's a blessing and I'm very humbled to be a part of this great organization, this great franchise with so much great tradition."

Scandrick had spent a decade with the Cowboys after Dallas selected him in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft out of Boise State. While he was productive throughout his time in Dallas, the Cowboys in recent seasons brought in younger talent in the defensive backfield.

That eventually left Scandrick on the open market, although the 31-year-old was signed just days after being released by the Cowboys.

"When you've been in one place so long and you get an influx of youth, I knew eventually that they would move away from the older players," Scandrick said. "I watched all of my other teammates go out the door and sign with other teams and I was the last one standing. I knew eventually it would be me next."

Scandrick added that Washington was "not one of the places" he expected to land, but quickly released the Redskins were the right team for him moving forward.

 "I had a great meeting with the coaches, great meeting with [President] Bruce Allen," Scandrick said. "I had a great conversation with [Redskins owner] Mr. [Dan] Snyder after I signed, so I'm very excited."

In Scandrick, Washington is getting a veteran cornerback for a group that is relatively young across the board. In his NFL career to date, the Los Angeles native has appeared in 125 regular season games, recording 406 tackles (362 solo) along with 63 passes defensed, 11.5 sacks, eight interceptions and eight fumbles forced.

While Josh Norman is entering his seventh NFL season, Washington's three other cornerbacks on the active roster – Quinton Dunbar, Fabian Moreau and Joshua Holsey – have appeared in a combined 68 games with the latter two seeing limited defensive action during their rookie seasons last year.

Still, Scandrick sees a lot of talent across the board on defensive coordinator Greg Manusky's unit.

"I [felt] like they got a lot of good players, a lot of talent," Scandrick said. "I feel like we just need to stay healthy, play together and I just want to be a contributor and fit in and just win more games and get back to the playoffs."

Now Scandrick will look to fit in with the Redskins and go against some familiar faces, this time on the practice field.

"I had some battles against Jamison Crowder, Josh Doctson. And then some battles against Jordan Reed and I played against Vernon Davis for a lot of years," Scandrick said. "I'm just looking forward to coming in and fitting in and doing whatever I need to help the team win."