WASHINGTON — Will Blackmon, the 31-year-old veteran defensive back picked up by the Redskins a week into the 2015 season to help on special teams and nickel coverage, who rose to the occasion and proved his value as a corner, safety, nickel- and dime-back, wants to return to Washington.

“I definitely do,” Blackmon told 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier. “Basically because they gave me an opportunity to play and I have made plays.”

“Coach [Joe Barry] definitely was a huge supporter of me and we had each other’s back, and this is the place I want to be,” he said. “We got here, we got comfortable. My wife enjoys it, my kids enjoy it. If you want to get technical, the school systems are crazy good here. I see a great opportunity here, but then again you never know. Obviously, at the end of the day, you do want to be able to take care of your family, you do want to be in a good situation.”

More than anything, after being kicked around the league mostly on one-year deals for the better part of the last decade, Blackmon hopes he’s proved he’s worthy of a multi-year contract.

“I’ve been in so many places where I had one-year minimum deal, one-year minimum deal, you know, one-year this deal, one on IR so I had a two-year split, so there’s been a lot of situations that haven’t worked out for me,” he said. “But I’ve been blessed where I am healthy, I was thankful that I did start 10 games this year and have made some plays, definitely could have played a lot better but did make enough plays for us to get into the postseason. I do want to be here. Obviously, you don’t know. You leave it up to the agent and the GM to figure something out, so that’s where I stand.”

Blackmon had enough standout performances in 2015 to show he’s more than a scrap-heap guy, several coming in unlikely scenarios. He was tasked with defending Julio Jones, the league’s best receiver with 478 yards and four touchdowns after four weeks, as a starter in only his fourth game with the Redskins.

“From you guys to the fantasy guys, like even if I didn’t know myself, I would have been like, ‘You know what? This is definitely a favorable matchup for the Falcons,'” Blackmon said in earnest. “No question, because I was a returner for half my career. That’s what I did. I returned punts. And I didn’t have the sexiest numbers playing defensive back.”

The 4-0 Atlanta Falcons were red-hot at the time, with many believing they would blow the visiting Redskins out of the water. The game played out much closer than expected, with Kirk Cousins leading the Redskins 46 yards — with 24 seconds of clock time — into position for a game-tying field goal to force overtime, only to throw it all away on a game-ending interception returned by Atlanta for a touchdown.

“But I think, why that game?” he said. “Because I had a chance to start, and obviously everyone had been talking about ‘Julio this,’ rightfully so. He’s a beast. No question about it. But I was like, ‘You know what, I know I can play and this is a chance for me to prove to myself and to everyone that I can play.’ I have the greatest supporter in my wife, Shauna, who knows when I’m healthy, I have the chance to do something pretty cool.”

Blackmon limited Jones to his third-lowest production total of the season, 67 yards and no touchdowns.

“I was just real thankful that [Redskins GM] Scot McCloughan, [Team President] Bruce Allen — who is an amazing person, he just loves football — and for [Director of Pro Personnel] Alex Santos, and coach [Jay] Gruden, for them to bring me in here,” he said. “That was my mindset going into that week.”

Originally a fourth-round pick by the Packers in 2006, Blackmon sees similarities between Green Bay and how McCloughan — a Ron Wolf disciple out of Green Bay’s scouting factory — has structured the Redskins in his first year with the organization.

“It always starts from the top,” he said. “You want to get the right people in here so you can build a football team that can sustain for a long time.”

“I think the fact they brought in Scot, who’s been around football his whole life, has been in that department of scouting and recruiting, and he’s truly a fan. He truly loves football; that’s his life,” he continued. “This isn’t a hobby for him. He’s not just doing it because he thinks it’s cool, he doesn’t know any other way.

“And then you have a football family with the Allens, who have a long history. So I think those two — that marriage alone — and then coach Gruden, and then who knows what they’re going to do with the quarterback. We have Kirk. I think it was cool to have one quarterback the whole year and I think that gave Kirk confidence that, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a starter no matter what, so let me just go ahead and do my thing without looking over my shoulder.’ So that’s where it matters, when you have a coach, you have management and you have your quarterback — when you have that nucleus right there, then you give your franchise the best chance to win and grow from there.”

Returning to play in the NFC East (he played in New York for two seasons), Blackmon became acquainted with Giants receiver Odell Beckham, Jr.’s “crafty” style of play.

“He is annoying,” he admitted. “There was one time, the play was over, I was trying to get back to the ball and he kind of like held me so I couldn’t get over there, just to be silly. I think it’s fun competing against him.”

“I think the tough thing with Odell is the play is never over,” he explained. “You can be in great position, you can wall him to the sideline. He has great balance where he might tip-toe the sideline and come back in, because ever since he made that catch, now he’s trying to highlight reel everybody. And he has that confidence and he has a quarterback who can give him the ball.”

But it’s not the smaller, crafty Beckham who was Blackmon’s largest nuisance: “The biggest pain in the butt? I think any of the big receivers — like Brandon Marshall, Mike Evans or Alshon Jeffery, those guys — because they’re not faster than me, but they have this move where they’ll grab you and they will pull through where the ref won’t see it, so it looks like they’re 30 steps ahead of you, when in reality, they tossed me.

“And I’m 206 pounds, you know, I’m not a little dude. And they straight tossed me behind. I’m like, ‘There’s no way. Like how do you not see that, that I’m getting flung 10 yards down the field?'”

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