Washington Commanders

Washington Redskins Sign Veteran Center John Sullivan

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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John Sullivan is officially a member of the Washington Redskins and Kory Lichtensteiger will be heading to the IR. How will this impact the team?

The Washington Redskins made a big move on Tuesday afternoon when they announced that they would sign veteran center John Sullivan to a deal. Sullivan, who had spent his entire career with the Minnesota Vikings, was released prior to the season in favor of fellow veteran Joe Berger. The signing was reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Former Vikings C John Sullivan is signing with the #Redskins today, source said. He worked out for them earlier.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 27, 2016

As a result of the signing of Sullivan, veteran Kory Lichtensteiger was placed on injured reserve. The former starting center had injured his calf on Sunday afternoon. Now it appears as though he will miss the whole season.

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However, Lichtensteiger’s absence will not be too impactful. The fact is that Sullivan is a superior player to Lichtensteiger. The Vikings had one of the deepest offensive lines in the NFL, and they could not afford to keep all of their players. Sullivan was the one chosen to be released after Berger beat him out. The only reason he was let go was because he was a veteran coming off of an injury. He is still considered to be a good starting center.

In fact, following the release of Sullivan, I called for the Redskins to sign him in a piece on NFL Spin Zone:

The team that comes to mind as needing a center is the Washington Redskins. The Redskins recently attempted to trade with the New England Patriots for Bryan Stork, but the deal fell through due to a failed physical. Sullivan would be an immediate upgrade over Kory Lichtensteiger as a starter. He also would improve the pass blocking for the team, and that will greatly help Kirk Cousins.

All of that remains true to this day. Cousins really needs an upgrade at center, and Sullivan will definitely give the team that. He will greatly improve the offensive line, and that could work wonders for the offense. Matt Jones and the run game will also be thankful, as Lichtensteiger was guilty of many holding penalties and false starts that pushed the team back into obvious passing situations.

Overall, this deal just makes sense. Sullivan was the strongest blocker on the free agent market and he fills a need for the Redskins. They had to replace the injured Lichtensteiger, and Austin Reiter was no longer on the team. Sullivan became the man, and adding him to the starting lineup on Sunday will help the Redskins avoid putting Cousins in a bad situation for any amount of time.

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