ASHBURN, Va. —
On the eve of his first rookie minicamp, Washington Football Team third-round pick Benjamin St-Juste became the first member of the 2021 WFT rookie class to sign his contract.
And shortly thereafter … come the rest.
All signed up, as of Thursday evening:
- LB Jamin Davis
- OT Sam Cosmi
- DB Benjamin St-Juste
- WR Dyami Brown
- TE John Bates
- S Darrick Forrest
- LS Camaron Cheeseman
- DE William Bradley-King
- DE Shaka Toney
- WR Dax Milne
The St-Juste case is a good example of the sort of money we’re talking about. The Minnesota Golden Gophers cornerback gets a $1.069 million signing bonus along with base salaries of $660,000 in his rookie year, $891,853 in his second year, $1.123,706 in his third season and $1.355,559 in his fourth year, per the Washington Post.
It’s a total of $5,100,758 if he makes the life of the contract.
As for St-Juste, who we’ll see in burgundy and gold for the first time this weekend at the Inova Sports Performance Center — he was drafted to be a corner and there hasn’t been one coach or talent evaluator that we’ve talked to that feels he won’t be successful as such.
Why? Because he’s fluid and has good feet.
Of course, the WFT feels pretty good about Jamin and Cosmi and Dyami and Bates and all the rest …
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But let’s spent a moment on St-Juste, knowing we will have time all weekend for all of the kids …
He doesn’t appear to be really stiff in this hips and he’s good in-and-out of his breaks, something that a 6’3″ corner usually doesn’t possess.
He transferred from Michigan and worked his way up the depth chart at Minnesota, often having to go against first-round pick Rashod Bateman.
He should be very comfortable in man coverage because of his frame and long arms, with the educated guess here being that the WFT and Jack Del Rio will play more man coverage this year than last.
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In Del Rio’s first season, Washington was about 62% zone and St-Juste can play both well or even a tighter off-man coverage.
And now he doesn’t have his contract to worry about. The Montreal native can just go to work in Washington knowing that he’s locked in and taken care of. … and so can all of his classmates.