Washington reportedly wants a first-round pick for Trent Williams

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After months of insisting that holdout tackle Trent Williams won’t be traded, Washington is now getting out the word that Williams is available, for the right price.

Albert Breer of SI.com reports that the right price is, for now, a first-round pick.

In August, someone leaked that the Patriots had offered a first-round pick for Williams, and that Washington had refused to budge. It was obvious at the time, based on multiple reports refuting the contention, that the Patriots hadn’t made such an offer.

Now, with Washington trying to scrounge a first-round pick for Williams on the eve of the deadline for making deals, it’s even more obvious, in my opinion, that Washington deliberately planted #fakenews in an effort to kick start a market for Williams.

It never materialized. And now that the Browns, who had been trying to pry Williams free from Washington, are 2-5, it may not make sense to surrender a pick that could end up being in the top half of the first round of the 2020 draft.

Here’s the likely reality, assuming that the league’s most dysfunctional front office finally has had a moment of clarity that lasts for at least a day: Washington has decided to trade Williams, and Washington eventually will take the best offer it gets, and move on.

If Williams isn’t traded, the definite reality is that dysfunction prevailed in D.C., yet again.