A Look Back: The 2001 Draft

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by Bergman14

what do you notice about all of the players in the 2002 draft listed in the first post? all offensive players. Snyder has put too much influence and pressure and drafting offensive players, when we could have picked up D lineman. I still stand by Ladell Betts, Cliff Russell, and Taylor Jacobs being absolute wastes of picks. We could have taken Mike Doss with that Jacobs pick, and then we could have taken Winslow this year and have had SS and TE locked down.

It's way, way, way to early to say that Taylor Jacobs was a wasted pick. He was considered a mid-first round talent. Sure, Mike Doss would have been a nice addition to the team, but I agree with the philosophy that you take whoever is the best player on the board. Remember, people thought Ohalete would develop nicely and Bowen would be a solid addition. So, I don’t think criticism of the Jacobs pick is warranted.

Also, you are right that Snyder helped pick a lot of offensive weapons and few defensive weapons in 2002. However, we only had three picks, Taylor was a great bargain in the 2nd round, and Spurrier was an offensive-minded coach. Can you blame Snyder for wanting to give Spurrier the tools he needed to win?

Ladell Betts showed a LOT of promise in his rookie season. It is true that he was injured for much of last season, but I think we’re going to need him this year. Would you prefer Chad Morton or Trung Canidate as our backups to Clinton Portis? Gibbs is a run-first coach and he needs solid depth at RB. I feel safer with Betts backing up Portis. Plus, I don’t think you can say how good Betts really is. Have you seen enough of him? I sure haven’t.

Cliff Russell has the makings of a bust, but like Betts, what have we seen of him? He’s been involved in maybe a dozen plays in regular season games. Plus, I think he played alright in the preseason game against Jacksonville last year. People were giving him crap about not making a catch in the endzone in that game, but the game tapes clearly show defensive pass interference. I also remember Russell burning a corner in a preseason game last year but unable to catch the ball. People also gave Russell sh-t about that play. However, it is unclear whether Rob Johnson (who threw the pass) threw to the right area of the field or simply overthrew Russell. In any event, I have not seen enough of Russell to declare him a washout.

More importantly, we Redskins fans are a little spoiled. We have gotten Champ Bailey, LaVar Arrington, Chris Samuels, Patrick Ramsey, Sean Taylor, Fred Smoot, Rod Gardner, and Jon Jansen in our early picks the last several years. Of those, I can’t think of a single bust. Take a long hard look at the high picks of other teams and you will find a TON of busts. The ability to draft well in the early rounds is just as important as drafting in the later rounds. Sure, you can build a good, cheap team if you draft well in the later rounds, but for the most part, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th round picks are crap shoots. Conversely, if you screw up early round picks, you’re team is going to be hurting in more ways than one. You cap is going to be shot up (See Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith, David Terrell (of CHI-town), Gerard Warren, et al) and you’ve wasted an opportunity to draft an impact player.

I think we’ve done a damn good job of drafting over the past five years.