Daryl Washington's suspension passes anniversary mark

Daryl Washington's suspension could have ended a week ago, and while a timely return to football might not have been greeted with a parade, it would have been an indication the Cardinals inside linebacker had made changes in his life.

Instead, Washington remained suspended, increasing doubts that he will play in 2015 and beyond.

"I don't lose one minute's sleep or even think about it," coach Bruce Arians told azcentral.com last week. "Until he becomes a Cardinal again, it's a waste of breath."

On May 30, 2014, the NFL informed Washington he was suspended for at least a year. He was eligible to apply for reinstatement 60 days before the one-year anniversary, and in early April, Washington's agent, Jordan Woy, said the application would be filed "within the next week or so."

Upon receiving an application for reinstatement, Commissioner Roger Goodell has 60 days to render a decision.

If the application had been filed on the first day possible, Goodell would have made a decision by now.

Instead, there is no news on Washington's future, and it remains questionable if he has one in football.

Perhaps he was a little tardy in filing the paperwork, though it's hard to believe that someone who has met the criteria to return, and is eager to do so, wouldn't submit the application in the first minute he could.

Information is hard to come by.

NFL officials won't comment.

Cardinals officials are shut out of the process, per NFL policy.

Washington hasn't returned messages since the suspension.

Woy declined comment when asked this week if the reinstatement application had been filed.

The Cardinals learned last year that they couldn't count on Washington. He was suspended the first four games of the 2013 season for violating the substance-abuse policy.

In February 2014, General Manager Steve Keim gambled on Washington, agreeing to pick up a $10 million option in his contract, payable in two $5 million installments.

It must not have been easy for team President Michael Bidwill to write the first $5 million check to Washington last year. Imagine how he felt when he wrote a second one a few months ago.

The substance-abuse suspension is not the end of Washington's troubles. If he is reinstated, he faces suspension under the NFL's personal conduct policy. A year ago, Washington was sentenced to a year of supervised probation after pleading guilty to assaulting a former girlfriend.

There are three reasons the Cardinals haven't cut ties with Washington: talent, youth and money.

Because Washington possessed the first two, the Cardinals gave him the third, signing him to an extension in 2012, a month before Washington turned 26. Over the past two years, he missed 20 of 32 games due to suspensions.

Releasing Washington last summer didn't make sense for the Cardinals because it would have triggered a salary-cap acceleration of $7.5 million.

Releasing him this summer would be slightly less painful. The cap acceleration would be at least $6.3 million, but could be accounted for over two seasons.

So what do the Cardinals do?

In that same interview with azcentral, Arians provided an interesting answer when asked whether Washington should be with the Cardinals again.

"If he's reinstated by the league, I know this — our players want him back in the locker room. That's fine by me."

But Arians won't be making the final decision. It will be Keim, who picked up that $10 million option, and Bidwill, who is chairman of the NFL committee that oversees the conduct policy.

For now, the Cardinals are using the management technique of not making a decision until they have to.

Reach Somers at 602-444-8335 or kent.somers@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @kentsomers.