Redskins’ Draft Hype: Dont get too excited…

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

At 4pm today the Redskins will host their annual draft week media briefing. This will surely begin a very miserable week for Redskins fans and will be an ominous precursor for the season to come. What are they gonna tell us this year? Do they want Landry or Okoye? Do they want to have even less picks so they can trade up for Calvin Johnson, a wide receiver, who would fit well on a team that already has at least 4 signed for the next 4 years? Who knows. Yes, this is a week of misery, not because we know what they will do but because the history of this franchise’s draft picks for the last 5 years tells us whatever they do, it will usually not work out.

From the drafts 2000-2005 the Redskins have just 9 players they drafted, by my count, still on their roster…out of the 34 players selected, the fewest amount of total players drafted in the NFL in that period. One of those 9 just resigned with the team through free agency this off season (Fred Smoot). That is, 26% of the players that they can get relatively cheap and that they can teach their own system for several years, actually stay with the team.

The Redskins’ #1 draft pick success might be considered a bit better. They’ve had seven #1 draft picks in that period…Chris Samuels (’00), Sean Taylor (’04), Carlos Rogers (’05), and Jason Campbell (’05) are still on the team. 4 out of 7, that’s not too bad? That’s great until you realize in the decade prior to 2000 the Redskins have zero #1 draft picks on their team…most of them failing spectacularly. #1 picks are supposed to be franchise players, ones that can last for several years and be impact players for a sustained period of time…the Redskins have one in the last 15 years that could be talked about in that respect, Chris Samuels, and he is by no means a Hall of Famer.

The biggest indication of the Redskins scouting failures and lack of draft success is their mid to low round selections. These are the players the scouting staff needs to hit on so that the team can get talent to fill out the roster, at a cheap price for several years in contract length, occasionally hitting a “home run” with a player that was undervalued at the draft. Denver, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New England, all good teams who repeatedly make excellent late round, 2nd day, draft picks. The Redskins again, fall short.

Since 2000-2005, the Redskins 2nd day picks have numbered 21…the number of players still on their roster is numbered 2. Rock Cartwright (’02) and Nehemiah Broughton (’05)…both 7th round picks. That number, again, is way too low.

No wonder they feel they can do better in free agency and trades, their draft history is horrible!

At first glance that argument makes a bit of sense, until you realize that the reason the Redskins go nuts in free agency is because the scouting staff is not capable enough to determine the skill level or value of a player that plays 3 or 4 years in college and needs to see how a player does with 3 or 4 years in the pros to determine if the player is good or not.

They admit their shortcomings! Sadly, even with this extra body of history they have on players, they still make monumental mistakes in selecting their roster (a blog for another time, but Brandon Lloyd and Adam Archuleta immediately come to mind in that discussion).

So with all that being said, enjoy the pre-draft media hype. Enjoy hearing Saint Joe talk about what he feels would be prudent for the team. You could even go out to FedEX and watch this draft debacle. Me, I’m gonna be at a baby party because I’m old…but I’ll still be checking my cell phone for what we’re doing. Why? Because as much as I hate the Redskins, I still love em.

Draft history from redskins.com

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