I heard this on Sirius this morning and Gil certainly acted like he knew something...
One respected talent evaluator can imagine Sam Bradford with Redskins - Peter King - SI.com
One respected talent evaluator can imagine Bradford with Redskins
When rumors get thrown out at this time of the draft year, you have to take them with not a grain of salt, but with a salt-shaker. I usually do. But not when Gil Brandt speaks. He is money on the draft, and he knows things the rest of us don't. And he said something today on our Sirius NFL Radio show that made my eyelids hit the ceiling regarding Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who most of the western world has already assigned to St. Louis with the first pick in the April 22 first round.
"I think there's a 49-percent chance he ends up in Washington,'' Brandt told me and Randy Cross.
Hmmmm. The Rams, desperate for a quarterback, pick first. The Redskins, desperate for a quarterback, pick fourth. Sound familiar? 2004 draft, Chargers picking first, Giants fourth, and they both need quarterbacks of the future (though, in retrospect, that might have been an invented need for the Chargers, with Drew Brees on the roster). San Diego picked Eli Manning number one, and the Giants chose Philip Rivers number four, and while the Rivers pick was being walked up to the commissioner in New York, the two teams were finishing work on a trade. They swapped quarterbacks, and the Giants sent a third-round pick in 2004, and first- and fifth-round picks in 2005, to San Diego as part of the trade.
The Redskins have an owner willing to do anything to help his team, so he's not going to stand in the way of dealing a ton to St. Louis for the pick -- if football braintrust Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen think it's a smart idea. But if the Rams were to do this, they'd have to be sure Jimmy Clausen (or Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy) would be an adequate replacement for Marc Bulger.
For the record, the Redskins don't have a third- or sixth-round pick this year, and they have no compensatory choices. They have their first-round pick (fourth overall), second (37th), fourth (103rd), fifth (135th) and seventh (211th) in house.
My money's on the 51 percent of Brandt's prediction here. I can't see the Rams passing on a player I hear they absolutely love -- unless the treasure trove they get in return could set them up with the first- and second-rounders here, plus a one next year, and they'd also have to love Clausen. Those are some very big ifs.
But I'll also have my antennae up in the coming weeks, because Brandt is Brandt, the godfather of the draft.