I was pretty confident Washington would let payne walk for many reasons early in the season. They hadn't tried to extend him, how much they already had allocated to DT with two big DEs to extend as well, they drafted a replacement for payne out of Bama last year.
But I think payne had too good of a season for them to let him walk unfortunately. If he'd had a 5 or 6 sack season I think they let him walk and I'd have been thrilled to sign him too, because contrary to unpopular belief (
@Enasic) he is very good against the run and has also been decent in passing situations as well