The Redskins' Future: Now AND Later - Part One

Fill er up

Today The Curly R begins a seven part series on the changing draft philosophies of the Washington Redskins. If the 2008 draft was any indication, the Vinny Cerrato Redskins are drafting more, smarter and later. And while the effects of this draft may not be felt immediately in the 2008 season at all positions, the team is positioning itself for the future in the draft more than at any time in the Dan Snyder era.

Part One: Draft Picks Are Free But Not Without Cost
Part Two: The Y Axis
Part Three: Round Two
Part Four: Round Three
Part Five: Round Four
Part Six: Round Six
Part Seven: Round Seven and Wrap Up

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The draft is the most economical way to maintain an NFL team. Below the top half of the first round players get affordable and can be signed to long deals with little downside. Wise teams like the Eagles identify the keepers as early as possible and sign them to long term deals that while perhaps smaller than a rising stock player may get if he chose to wait until closer to the end of his rookie deal, represent money in their pockets now and many young players choose a guaranteed payday now over a possible one or two or more years with an every down risk of injury.

In this way these teams manage a more conservative payroll, with expenses coming more predictably and player cuts hurting less.

Often the Redskins have pursued the antithesis of this strategy, ignore the draft as a critical pipeline for player development and try to stock every year with free agents at key positions, players in their prime yes but perhaps overpaid relative to production and due to human nature and fat wallets not always hungry. And certainly no continuity, the rise of the free agent in the NFL has created a generation of hired guns and if you are like me then you still believe football is a game best played with the same group of players over the course of years.

For Washington, the result over the past four seasons has been generally disappointing: watching Mark Brunell wheeze out his last noodle arm, Brandon Lloyd and Adam Archuleta cratering, uneven play recently from Clinton Portis and other injuries sidelining key free agent acquisitions and not even a down from Micheal Barrow. Going back further, how did those Jeremiah Trotter and Trung Canidate things work for you guys?

When the money bet of big free agents does not pay off, there is little infrastructure behind those players on which the team can lean. A team that drafts smartly and builds that way primarily and secondarily through free agency may have a lower competence level at any given position, but a higher overall team competence. Or maybe not.

Moral of the story: quit getting rid of your draft picks and overspending on veterans that may or may not work out. Research the draft harder and fill needs for the long term, quit giving up on your drafted players.


The Redskins' Future: Now AND Later continues tonight with part two, The Y Axis



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