Junior Galette felt invincible. Wouldn’t you? He’d had his share of knocks, many of them self-inflicted wounds, but he was an undrafted player who had grown into one of the best pass rushers in the NFL.
Nothing, it seemed, could stop his ascent. Conflict with his former Saints teammates and coaches, plus accusations of domestic abuse, led to his release from New Orleans in the summer of 2015 only after he’d been guaranteed $23 million in a contract restructured before those events. The Redskins signed him to a one-year deal and Galette could reasonably figure that, with a third-straight double-digit season in sacks, another big contract would follow.