Bruce Smith joins Dana Stubblefield and Dan Wilkinson on the front four.

ime Pro Bowler, who had been asked to take a 50 percent pay cut, signed a deal that will pay him $23 million over five years and includes a $4.25 signing bonus.

"I've been through an emotional swing this last week," said Smith, 36, was born and still lives in Virginia. "This is like a homecoming for me."

Smith has 171 career sacks, second all-time in the NFL behind Reggie White.

He brings his ability to harass quarterbacks to a team whose only genuine pass rusher was third-down specialist Ndukwe Kalu.

"If you want to play good on third down, you've got to rush the passer," said coach Norv Turner, whose team had 40 sacks last season and ranked next-to-last in defense in the NFL. "Bruce has made a career of that."

Last season, Smith had only seven sacks, the lowest total since his rookie year of 1985. That doesn't count 1991, when he played only five games because of knee injuries.

"That's not enough," Smith said of last season's performance.

Smith's release by the Bills wasn't his only shock this week.

On Tuesday, Smith lost his friend, Derrick Thomas, the Kansas City linebacker who died 16 days after being paralyzed in an auto accident.

Smith had visited Thomas in a hospital in Florida and had been planning to visit him again next week.

Then Smith was released by the team he helped lead to four consecutive Super Bowls, in the first four years of the '90s. It was part of a salary cap housecleaning that also involved the last two Bills who played in four Super Bowls -- running back Thurman Thomas and wide receiver Andre Reed.

The Bills wanted Smith, who was due to make $4.6 million next season, to cut his salary in half.

"I don't know what's going to happen to that particular team," Smith said. "I know they're in bad shape. Looking back, it did hurt to a certain degree. I never would have thought it would have ended this way in my wildest dreams."

But he was so happy when he heard from the Redskins, that he told his agent, Leigh Steinberg, to deal with Washington before any of the other eight teams that contacted him when he was released by Buffalo.

The Redskins hope this deal will help validate what they did two years ago, when they made a big splash during free agency by signing Dana Stubblefield and trading for Dan Wilkinson. Neither of the high-priced defensive tackles has been the dominant defensive presence the Redskins had hoped.