Redskins S Su’a Cravens Says He’s Hoping To Return Next Year

Redskins S Su’a Cravens said that he is hopeful to return to playing football around “this time next year.”

“I would just say God has a plan for everybody and right now he’s putting me through something he knows I can handle,” Cravens said, via John Keim of ESPN. “It will make me stronger. Hopefully, around this time next year I’ll be back on that field.”

Cravens was contemplating walking away from the NFL but the Redskins elected to shut him down for the season last week by placing him on the reserve/exempt list.

Keim reports that a “big reason” the Redskins placed him on the exempt list was because they were worried that Cravens would leave the team midseason if they decided to activate him.

According to Keim, sources said Cravens is dealing with “personal issues“, while some teammates don’t think it is a matter of him loving the game.

“It’s tough. I grew up loving football and grew up loving to play football,” Cravens said. “So the fact that I’m in the middle of my career and I’m not playing, it’s different. It’s difficult.”

It’s worth mentioning that Cravens is still dealing with a health issue, though he declined to provide insight as to why he stepped away from the NFL.

Cravens, 22, is a former second-round pick of the Redskins back in 2016. He’s currently in the second year of his four-year, $4.430 million contract that included $2.523 million guaranteed and stands to make base salaries of $450,000 and $651,408 over the next two years of the agreement.

In 2016, Cravens appeared in 11 games for the Redskins and recorded 34 tackles, one sack, an interception and five pass defenses. Cravens was limited to playing 294 total snaps last year.