G Fiume/Getty Images

Washington has granted tackle Trent Williams permission to seek a trade but reportedly want "fair draft compensation" in return.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported teams have contacted Washington since it became public the team is willing to trade Williams, though hurdles remain. The franchise continues to view him as a franchise left tackle and wants to be compensated as such, and the seven-time Pro Bowler has expressed a desire for a new contract.

The 31-year-old is under contract through the 2020 season and is slated to earn $12.5 million in base salary.

Connor Hughes of The Athletic reported the New York Jets are among the teams interested in trading for Williams, while colleague Ben Standig noted the Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans have both "expressed interest" in the left tackle.

The deterioration of Williams' relationship with Washington stems from the medical staff's handling of a cancerous growth on his head. According to Oklahoma product, Washington's staff told him for several years that the growth was a non-cancerous cyst. After receiving outside consultation, he was told the growth was cancerous and dangerously close to reaching his brain.

Williams told reporters:

"We literally caught it within weeks of metastasizing through to my brain to my skull. Extracting it was the only thing they could do. Doing radiology on it would have put a cap on my life. I think 15 years was the most I would have had after I started chemo. So I had to cut it out.

"It was a lot of emotions. I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't. I almost lost my life. Seriously, I almost lost my life. You're 30 and coming off seven straight Pro Bowls and a doctor tells you to get your affairs in order, it's not going to sit well with you. It still doesn't. It still, even thinking about it, it's a scary thing to go through. Think how you describe to your 9-year-old, your 5-year-old that daddy might not be here. It's tough."

Williams held out until late October over his displeasure with the situation before reporting in order to accrue a year of service time. Washington then placed him on the non-football injury list, withholding game checks for the remainder of the season. Williams took particular exception with his treatment by team president Bruce Allen, telling Les Carpenter of the Washington Post "he still tries to use that money to hold it over black athletes."



"I don't see how it can be reconciled," Williams said. "At the end of the day I'm a human being, I ain't like a dog and you can slap s--t out of me and I'm going to come back the next morning with my tail wagging. This was a conscious decision; they didn't burn the bridge by accident. This was something they felt comfortable doing, so I got to feel comfortable with moving on, too."

Washington fired Allen at the end of the 2019 season, but it doesn't appear his departure is enough to repair the fissure in the relationship.