Washington Football Team DL Caleb Brantley Opts Out

Caleb Brantley, a promising young talent has opted out of the 2020 NFL season which hurts the defensive line depth.

Per the NFL transaction wire, as first noted by ESPN's John Keim, Washington Football Team defensive lineman Caleb Brantley is opting out of the 2020 season. 

Brantley was poised to enter his third year with the organization having missed most of 2019 with a Lisfranc foot injury. 

Hot Read: Cody Latimer Placed on Commissioners' Exempt List

Per ProFootballTalk.com - Brantley becomes the first player to opt-out using the "high risk" designation which means he'll receive a $350,000 stipend with no offset language and an accrued/credited season.

He was expected to be a key part of the deep defensive line rotation that Jack Del Rio and Ron Rivera have and mostly inherited. 

Tim Settle and Brantley figured to be interior defensive tackle rotation pieces to help keep Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen and Matt Ioannidis fresh.

Hot Read: Reuben Foster, Alex Smith on PUP, Kelvin Harmon on NFI Lists

This opens up the potential that international signee David Bada or seventh-round rookie James Smith-Williams  could make the initial 53-man roster, which would have been much harder to do from a numbers perspective if Brantley was part of the team. 

Chris Russell is the Publisher of this site, a part of SI.com. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621