“I’d love to be here,” Compton said. “I just had meetings, and I feel like they’d love to have me back. In my eyes, I’m coming back next year. For me, just get healthy now and get ready to put a good product on the field for them next year and be the same leader I have been.”

Compton, in his third season, climbed the ranks from an undrafted free agent in 2013 to a starter and team captain who finished second on the team with 106 combined tackles. He was the only defensive captain left standing at the end of the year, following season-ending injuries to safety DeAngelo Hall and Kedric Golston, but Compton finished the season with a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He missed just one game, but the Nebraska product was limited during the final two games of the season as he attempted to play through the injury.

Compton, 27, aggravated his knee injury in last week’s loss to the New York Giants, a game that would have sent Washington to the playoffs. Instead, the Redskins’ season ended earlier than they expected at 8-7-1.

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“We might’ve been more optimistic than we should’ve been this year, but I think rightfully so,” Compton said. “Injuries took place and some things didn’t go the way we wanted to. We didn’t execute like we wanted to, but I felt like the opportunities were there. You gotta go back, and you gotta correct those opportunities that we missed out on. You gotta live in those details, but I do think we’re on the right track. I think with the GM we have in Scot [McCloughan], it wasn’t gonna be a quick fix. I think we’ll have a lot to be excited about next year.”

While he notes it’s above his pay grade, Compton said the defense can certainly improve on all three levels. The Redskins will need to invest in their defensive line, both safety positions and add another inside linebacker to compete with Compton, Mason Foster and Martrell Spaight, once they finally find a defensive coordinator to replace Joe Barry, who was fired after the season. Washington lacked athleticism at the position, particularly in pass coverage, outside of rookie Su’a Cravens, who will shift to safety in 2017.

“You want it to be a quick fix, and you expect it to be as a player,” Compton continued when asked why he thought it wouldn’t be a quick fix. “You think you’re gonna get it corrected right away. But when it’s not, and you can take a deep breath, step back and look at it all, you can manage the thought. Maybe I’m just justifying it, but you’re like, ‘Okay, I guess it wasn’t meant for us to get it turned around in one year.’ For whatever reason, it wasn’t meant for us this year. However the ball rolled, whether we got caught sometimes, whether we played bad sometimes, whether we played great sometimes — lost the game, win the game, win a game, drop two, win two — for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant for us this year.

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“You take a step back again and know that you believe in the culture they’re trying to instill here and the progress we’re trying to make. You move forward, and you try to be part of the solution — not the problem.”