Redskins Insider: Draft Review

Slingin Sammy 33

JLC did that to himself. If he's going to make a point in a major media outlet, get your facts straight. Don't blow this off, how can you write opinions about the Redskins, say the Front Office screwed up, and not understand something so basic as this? You wouldn't use any of those players in his scenario because it would be going back 5 yds every time you line up.

To your point, Kelly and Thomas will probably not both be ready as a # 1 & #2 WR on day one, they will need to develop and learn the NFL and WCO. Here's what I envision this year as a few personnel packages:

I-Form: Moss - Z, Thomas - X, Cooley TE, Sellars FB, Portis will be RB is all formations.

I-Form or Split-Back (hands): same as above with Davis / Cooley at FB & TE, not sure who is where depends on what Zorn wants to do.

3WR: Moss - Z, Thomas - X, ARE - Slot, Sellars or Cooley FB
3WR (Singleback): same as above Cooley at TE

Singleback, 2TE - Moss - Z, Thomas - X, Davis & Cooley TEs
Singleback, 2TE wide - same as above with Davis & Cooley either wide or in the slots

4WR - Moss, ARE, Kelly, Thomas.

4WR, TE - add Cooley to above

Moss will probably not get through the year healthy.
ARE is a good slot WR, not much more.
Cooley & Davis can create a lot of mismatches unless a team has very good coverage LBs. If a D brings in a nickle package against a 2TE formation for coverage they will get smashed on a run. If a D stays with LB coverage they better have some good cover LBs to account for Cooley & Davis.
Sellars will be a traditional blocking FB.

The 2nd round picks are going to be very "cap friendly" for at least three years. By 2010 Moss & ARE will be able to be released and will probably not be effective at that point anyway. From a skill player perspective we are set at WR, TE, RB for at least 3 years. These guys give Zorn many formations to go to and many potential mismatches against the D to exploit. Kelly and Thomas are also bigger WRs, gives Campbell bigger targets as he develops his accuracy.

Now how about you come up with a point better than: They should've gotten OL / DL or Campbell won't be able to throw if he doesn't have time.

__________________
...[If] an angel fairy came down and said, '[You can have anything]....you would like to own,' I wouldn't be surprised if you said a football club and particularly the Washington Redskins.'' — Jack Kent Cooke, 1996.

Schneed10

My knowledge is more knowledgeable than your knowledge.

__________________
Skins' Salary Cap Status | CrazyCanuck's Cap Figures by Player | Salary Cap 101

Beemnseven

I'd like to see some evidence that Malcolm Kelly was falling down others teams' draft boards. Somehow I don't think he would have lasted much longer than where we picked him. As for La Canfora's point of a 'self-fulfilling prophecy', all teams have their own draft boards and they rank players where they think they should be. Sometimes they're wrong, sometimes they're right.

Some of you know that I've been very critical of Cerrato and Snyder over the years, but based on the pre-draft information available to everyone leading up to Saturday, it looks like we got some top-rated guys much later than they were expected to go. And when you can pick up extra selections in the process, then I must give credit where credit is due and say bravo to Vinny.

I also like the mentality of restocking the wideout department. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if both Moss and Randle El aren't here in 2009 unless cap constraints make it impossible for that to happen. But just like any other draft, you can't possibly address all your needs on one April weekend.

This offense simply doesn't score enough points. Overhauling the receivers was something this team was going to have to do at some point. They will have to rebuild the foundation of the offensive line too, no doubt. But it's not like it's falling apart before our eyes. If these guys can get us into the endzone more often this season, nobody will be complaining.

sjp21

I know how we all love to speculate about the upcoming season and wait in earnest for September to roll around so we can see a glimpse of greatness from recent draft picks and free agent pickups. All I want to say is it is impossible to accurately assess how the Skins will fair each season because we have two morons at the head of our organization. Snyder and Cerratto have been a plague to this team for as long as I can remember. Blown draft picks and absurb free agent signings are a common phenomenon in this town. Just rattling off a few names: Adam Archuleta, Brandon Lloyd, TJ Duckett, Bruce Smith, and Ade Jimoh. All these players with the exception of Jimoh were given enormous salaries and bonuses and yielded little or no production. They actually in reality hurt us. Duckett was famous for losing yards, any deep ball would fly over Jimoh's head, Archuleta couldnt cover a cripple, and Lloyd has about 20 catches in 3 years...

I have been a fan of this team for 20 years and I love them to death. I just want people to understand that in D.C. no one can know how each season will pan out...

On a good note, our draft was relatively successful. We could have used an aggressive, quick, strong DE but you can never get what you want with the team all the time.

Slingin Sammy 33

.....and the Skins have two morons at the head of the organization? Not a great first post. Have you heard of ExtremeSkins?

__________________
...[If] an angel fairy came down and said, '[You can have anything]....you would like to own,' I wouldn't be surprised if you said a football club and particularly the Washington Redskins.'' — Jack Kent Cooke, 1996.

SmootSmack

Never mind Santana Moss, Clinton Portis, Chris Cooley, Casay Rabach, Randy Thomas, Mike Sellers, Rock Cartwright, Marcus Washington, London Fletcher, Sean Taylor, Shawn Springs, Laron Landry, Corneluis Griffin, Anthony Montgomery...

__________________
You're So Vain...You Probably Think This Sig Is About You

FRPLG

This goes back to what I have said recently about JLC and his "sources". He seems to value thier opinion over all else. Who they are and what their motivations go out the window. I know he has guys he trusts but maybe the "self-fulfilling prophecy" is that he seeks out nay sayers. I'd like him for once to just say "I don't agree with this" Rather than "League sources are skeptical". Of course they are. They have reason to support the decision and don't even know what the process was in making the decision. In fact in some cases they are keenly motivated to disgaree for no other reason other than to simply disagree because it is an opponent. I am sure the Skins look around and make judgements of other teams. Their opinions matter(or don't) as much as anyone else's.

JWsleep

For what it's worth, Boswell also had his doubts about our day 1 choices, and for the same reasons, pretty much:

washingtonpost.com

I don't think Boswell is an off-the-wall nay-sayer. He's pretty straight up about these things. And while it may well turn out just fine, it's not off-the-wall for JLac to point out that this is not how other teams are doing things, from the coaching selection process to the draft. And it's not like this is the first time Danny and Vinny ahve done things their own way--it's what they do. Maybe it'll work out. But it's not the conventional wisdom. Sure, Kiper and other network and internent pundits liked it. But that's not the only legit opinion on drafting.

Think back to when we made the TE and 2nd WR pick. How did you react then? We can go look at the draft thread. I was unsure, as were many of you. So we've now come round and convinced ourselves that it's ok. Fine. Maybe that's right. But JLac isn't being overly negative to bring up the contrary view. His coverage has been excellent, in the following sense: he's ALWAYS working that beat. He puts in tons of time on the paper and the blog, AND he answers emails. So you don't agree with his opinion; that's part of the process. But to say he's off his rocker and just being negative is too harsh in this case, IMHO.

__________________
Hail from Houston!

chrisl13

Yeah, Kelly looks pretty good because of his height, but Devin Thomas looks more complete. I love his Anquan Boldin-like strength. He is really strong and has good speed.

Also, JLC has been pretty good to me. I like his posts but this one really pisses me off. I hate when people judge things before they perform. He'd be mad if the Redskins had the same receivers from last year. We get more receivers and he's still complaining. pathetic.

Mattyk

I think you're painting things with a pretty broad stroke there. It's not that black and white.

I think everyone has their gripes from time to time, you just tend to be overly pessimistic. It's hard to take people serious that are like that all the time, and on the other hand it's hard to take people serious who are always optimistic. I think a lot of people fall somewhere in the middle, probably more often than you realize.

__________________
Support The Warpath! | Warpath Shop

SkinEmAll

hmmmmm, I like the way you broke these scenarios down. It makes a lot of since, and seems very realistic. I like it.
brillant!!!

GTripp0012

Great post.

__________________
Shanahan: “The bad thing is he's [Sav Rocca] probably our best offensive weapon and that’s not good.”

SmootSmack

One of my biggest issues with JLC is how his Insider info tends to come after the fact, if at all. Case in point

"Inside the building, coaches were fretting that upper management was pushing grades higher on players like Malcolm Kelly, inflating their worth as the draft approaches, while Kelly was dropping down other boards. Teams I spoke to before the draft had him rated in the lower half of the second round, and no one seems shocked he was still on the board at 51. The Redskins kept coming up with high grades on this slumping receiver class, thus ensuring a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you simply follow the board, and the draft plays out as expected, and you sit there with a bunch of second round picks, of course you're going to have wide receivers "sticking out like a sore thumb."

Maybe I missed this, but did he talk about this stuff before the draft? Or did he just wait until afterward? If he waited, then why?

__________________
You're So Vain...You Probably Think This Sig Is About You