Like Mike Florio, I like this trade (not yet confirmed) for both teams.

As Florio points out, people will give Bill Belichick the benefit of the doubt. Other teams would likely be criticized for taking on this head case.

That said, Belichick will likely use Albert Haynesworth properly, avoided the idiotic showdowns in Washington where defensive offensive “genius” Mike Shanahan tried to make this elite interior pass rusher into a hole-clogging nose tackle.

As resident Patriots homer expert Rosenthal points out, the Pats use a 4-3 front roughly half the time. Thus, Haynesworth likely will be a part-time player, but he possibly will be in the alignment he prefers 100 percent of the time that he’s on the field.

And while there’s no way he’d be asked to play the nose tackle position in New England’s 3-4 alignment, thanks to the presence of Vince Wilfork, Belichick surely wouldn’t expect Haynesworth to be a traditional lineman-occupying presence at defensive end in that formation. That’s where Belichick’s brain becomes important. When a player doesn’t like a certain type of system, it’s because he doesn’t play as well in that system. So instead of forcing Haynesworth to eat his brussel sprouts, Belichick will find ways to let Haynesworth get the most out of his talents. Who knows? Maybe that will mean periodically lining him up on the edge in obvious passing situations and letting him maul a tackle one-on-one and chase down the quarterback.

Belichick understands the concept of calculated risks. His team needs a pass rush, and this move makes sense.

Meanwhile, the Redskins are looking for a fresh start, so this helps. We haven’t seen them break the bank yet with idiotic free agent signings, so maybe new GM Bruce Allen might be taking control from Mr. Ego Daniel Snyder.

If Daniel Snyder were looking for someone to blame for the way things have unraveled in Washington with the Albert Haynesworth situation, then all he has to do is plant himself in front of a mirror.

I get that this may be an oversimplified way of looking at the situation, but considering this could have all been avoided had Snyder not fallen victim to the same losing methods that he has embraced over the years, the situation is rather simple to grasp.

Haynesworth is who he is and the same goes for Mike Shanahan. As Shanahan has alluded to, Haynesworth is used to getting his way but that’s not going to fly with his new head coach, who has proven in his short stint with the Redskins that his players will fall in line. If you play for him, you’re going to do things his way, which includes practicing if you want to suit up on Sundays.

If Snyder wanted to avoid this situation, all he had to do was pass on cutting (figuratively, of course) Haynesworth a $100 million check last offseason. But because he had to have Haynesworth’s talent, it didn’t matter what the defensive tackle’s track record looked like.

And let’s look at that track record for a moment.

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Redskins’ owner Daniel Snyder told the Washington Post on Saturday that he’s disappointed in defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who has yet to show up to any workouts this offseason.

“I’m disappointed he’s not here. Absolutely,” Snyder said. “We’re expecting our players to lead by example, and we’re expecting our players to understand that they’re Redskins and they need to be here.”

If I paid someone $100 million to do a job and the person didn’t bother to show up to work, I’d be disappointed too. The workouts that Haynesworth has missed are voluntary, but Snyder and the Redskins feel as though they’re moving in the right direction and it would be nice if the team’s best defender would embrace a leadership role. Haynesworth’s situation puts a damper on what should be an encouraging time in D.C., especially after the team acquired Donovan McNabb in the offseason.

Here’s a shock: Daniel Snyder might be ready to throw a ton of money at an unrestricted free agent.

According to sports talk show host Lance Zierlein of 1560AM in Houston, the Redskins are “charging hard after” Julius Peppers. Zierlein writes that today’s “bloodbath” in which the Redskins released 10 players will help pave the way for the team to sign Peppers by tomorrow.

Zierlein brings up a good point that Washington took similar steps last year, right before signing DT Albert Haynesworth to a mega-multi million deal. Although I don’t know how Zierlein would have inside information on the Redskins seeing as how he works in Houston, nobody will be surprised if Snyder signs the biggest free agent of the offseason. (And for that matter, nobody would be surprised if Peppers signed with whatever team offered him the most money.)

12:15AM ET Update: Zierlein writes on his Twitter page that the Bears aren’t going to let Peppers get away from them.

ESPN.com is reporting that the Redskins have reached a 5-year contract agreement with Mike Shanahan to become their next head coach.

Under the terms of the new deal, Shanahan will team with Redskins executive vice president and general manager Bruce Allen, but Shanahan will have the ultimate authority on football decisions. Shanahan will be introduced as the Redskins head coach at a 2 p.m. ET news conference Wednesday.

As the contract was being signed at the Redskins’ training complex, Shanahan and owner Dan Snyder posed together for a picture. Then, with the deal signed, Shanahan, his agent Sandy Montag, Allen and Snyder headed out for a celebration dinner in Washington, D.C.

The contract is worth approximately $7 million a year, the Denver Post reported on its Web site. Now that Shanahan has been hired elsewhere, the Denver Broncos, who fired Shanahan one year ago, will recoup $7 million in offset money over the next two seasons under the terms of the agreement they had with the coach.

Finally, Daniel Snyder made a good football decision for his franchise. Shanahan is absolutely the right fit for an organization that is in desperate need for a leader that can give them direction and build a solid foundation.

But the key now is that Snyder needs to get the hell out of the way. He’s meddling has cost his team before, so if he continues to play the role of owner-knows-best, then this will be a wasted hire.

You found the right guy Dan, now sit in the back and let Shanahan drive the ship.

- AWFUL ANNOUNCING reports that ESPN will be the first to launch a 3-D network, starting this year.

- CAMEL CLUTCH BLOG thinks that Howard Stern’s idea of a Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant is a great one.

- RUMORS & RANTS lists the biggest flops of the 2009 NFL season.

- ONLINE SPORTS GUYS thinks that Daniel Snyder is the worst owner in NFL history.

- EAST COAST BIAS picks the most annoying fans for each NFL division and is now proceeding through a playoff bracket. (Though the site doesn’t understand why Packer fans would boo Brett Favre, so be warned.)

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has video of an anti-BCS commercial that is going to run in select cities before the BCS title game.

ESPN.com (via the Denver Post) reports that the Redskins have begun discussions with Mike Shanahan about their head coaching position, despite the fact that Jim Zorn still occupies it.

The Redskins on Thursday hired Bruce Allen, son of late Redskins Hall of Fame coach George Allen, after Vinny Cerrato abruptly resigned.
Allen maintained Jim Zorn was still the Redskins’ coach.

“Give us some time to see how our relationship develops,” Allen said.

Zorn’s job status is believed to be tenuous, with the Redskins’ record at 4-9 and three games to play.

Zorn’s tenure in Washington has been bizarre from the start. In January of 2008, he was hired to be the team’s new offensive coordinator. But in February, Snyder decided to make him the new head coach despite the fact that Zorn had never even been a coordinator in the league.

Now, just two years after he was hired, he has to endure a situation in which his job is being filled while he still has it. He’s a better man than I, because if I knew I was going to be replaced at the end of the year, I’d be flipping Snyder the bird as I walked out the door. But I’m sure Zorn feels that he has a responsibility to his team and if so, he deserves credit for sticking around.

Zorn wasn’t ready to become a head coach when he was hired, but he deserves a shot to be an offensive coordinator someplace else. Hopefully other teams are monitoring his situation in Washington and will give him an opportunity to gain experience as an assistant.