Junior Galette: The Phantom Menace

The Offseason Champs Strike Back.  The Redskins have proven that no one can match their ability to make flashy offseason signings with their addition of Junior Galette on Friday.  They have signed Galette almost a week after he was let go by the Saints, and the firestorm of accusations directed at Galette's character and the new found integrity of the Scot McCloughan era ensued.  These accusations are premature at best, and Galette's signing emboldens the optimists view that this Redskins team can do better than settling for average results this season.  This can be plainly seen in the stats that Galette brings to this defense, which seem to be lost in the discussion of his character.  Here are the stats that give credence to the notion that the Redskins may be better than people think this season with the signing of Junior Galette. 

Assuming that Galette will start opposite Ryan Kerrigan in the 3-4 in the season opener, the Redskins will have a combined 23.5 sacks (Kerrigan with 13.5 and Galette with 10) returning from last year on the ends of their 3-4 defense.  Only six teams return a better combined sack tandem on the outside edges of their defense according to the depth charts at ESPN.com, and only two of those teams return double digit sacks on both ends of their OLB positions in a 3-4 scheme. Those teams are the Ravens with Terrell Suggs (12 sacks) and Elvis Dumervil (17 sacks), and the Broncos with Demarcus Ware (10 sacks) and Von Miller (14 sacks).  Suffice to say that the Redskins have upgraded their pass rush to a level that is at the elite of the NFL, and they have put their players in a position to succeed.  The combined threat of Galette and Kerrigan will force teams to adjust their blocking schemes and hopefully open up one-on-one scenarios for Steven Paea and Jason Hatcher to take advantage of in their attempts at getting to the quarterback.  The upgraded secondary can only benefit from this added threat of pass rush by hopefully creating more havoc in the opponent's passing game that leads to more turnovers.  The defense becomes more potent and dynamic due to the Junior Galette signing, but some Redskins fans feel betrayed by Scot McCloughan.  Stats are great, but he said he would sign "high character guys.....with exceptions", but this guy doesn't seem right.  A close look, however, shows Galette's off the field issues to be dubious in nature, and his disposition may be exactly what McCloughan was looking for.

There are four stories that negatively impact Junior Galette's image as a person and as a player.  First, he initially attended Temple University and was a staple of Al Golden's plan to put Temple on the map.  Temple accomplished that feat under Golden, but Galette was kicked off the team in his senior season due to his cousin being found with stolen laptops.  He transferred to Stillman College in Alabama where he would complete his college career and be drafted by the Saints.  In January 2015 he was accused of domestic violence during the process of removing a woman from his house.  Then this melee video shows up that allegedly shows Galette hitting a woman with a belt. Finally, after Galette was released from the Saints his girlfriend's Twitter account came out with some not so flattering comments about anyone who donned the Fluer-De-Lis.  Deadspin also gives a good overview of what was said on Twitter.  What this all amounts to is another case of public trolling by lemmings who get a kick out of jumping on the pile of negative publicity.  If they actually read the information behind these stories they would see that Temple's policy was that a student is responsible for their guest's conduct while on campus.  Since Galette's cousin was his guest at the University, Temple held Galette responsible for his cousin's actions and he was removed from the team.  The domestic violence charges have been dismissed, although Galette's bail was a whopping $600 for whatever transpired (Please pick up on my sarcasm.  $600 bail is nothing so the charges could not have been that heinous), and the video was shot in 2013 and just now surfaces in June 2015.  Statute of limitations argument aside, there is no direct evidence that it is Galette whipping his belt in that video.  Finally, the twitter rants look bad, but they were made from his girlfriends account.  While they do contain detailed information that only an insider could have known, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Galette talked about these issues with his girlfriend previously and she is now airing them at this moment independent of Galette's consent to do so.  So his character flaws are dubious at best, and they mask a character that Scot McCloughan has been cultivating this off season. 

Galette's off the field issues cloud the fact that he has had to work hard to get where he is, which fits the character of what Scot McCloughan is trying to build on the field.  Galette fought hard on a Temple team that won one game his freshman year.  By all accounts he worked hard to gain the favor of the Stillman team when they said it could have been easy for him to be arrogant coming from a bigger program.  Galette was also named team captain by the Saints players at one point, so this guy has some positive characteristics that help him gel with his teammates.  This sounds like a high character guy to me, at least on the field, and he fits the mold of the type of player McCloughan has been cultivating this offseason.  It seems like McCloughan wants guys who come from high caliber programs and have something to prove and will work hard to do it.  Chris Culliver needs to prove that it was a mistake for the 49ers not to resign him after he had his best statistical season with them in 2014 and was described as their hardest playing corner.  Jeron Johnson comes from Seattle where he needs to prove that he is more that just Kam Chancellor's backup.  Dashon Goldson and Steven Paea need to prove that they are not afterthoughts and can still produce for an NFL team.  And now Galette must prove that he is not in it for the money; that he can still produce on the field and it was a mistake for the Saints to let him go.

I think that Galette fits the "high character" that Scot McCloughan is looking for, with a hint of nastiness that needs to be present if a defense is going to succeed.  All of a sudden we have these outcasts that teams did not want for one reason or another, and the character of this defense could be something we have not seen in a while here in Washington.  A Dirty Dozen style defense.  A group of guys left for naught but willing to prove people wrong in an arena where they think they do not have a chance to succeed.  A group of guys who possess the talent and disposition to work hard toward that success. The off the field issues may give some people pause, but I trust McClougan's judgment.  If not for McCloughan and the Seattle brass trading for a perceived malcontent from Buffalo who had hit and run and felony gun charges on his resume, the Seahawks maybe in a very different spot right now.  So I say that Junior Galette is the Phantom Menace.  His off the field issues are nothing to worry about, and he will haunt all of his detractors come September.