Redskins 2009 Draft Prep - Part Four

Trade you my first Sierra Nevada for your first ESB and that bowl of pretzels

Admit it, when the Redskins had ten draft picks last year you thought they had finally gotten the point didn't you? Unfortunately it was the top of Dan Snyder's head. Curly R's five part series prepping for the 2009 draft continues.

Part One: The Offense
Part Two: The Defense and Special Teams
Part Three: The Contract Years
Part Four: The Draft Picks
Part Five: What the Redskins Must Do

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The way the NFL Draft works, each team gets seven draft picks, one in each round. Additionally, teams that lost free agents the previous offseason may get compensatory picks in return, this part of the system I do not understand.

For example in this year's draft, taking place Saturday and Sunday, the Redskins got an extra pick in the seventh round for the loss of Mark Brunell. Mark was demoted after game nine of the 2006 season against the Eagles, Jason's first NFL start was game ten against the Buccaneers. Mark spent all of 2007 as the third quarterback behind Todd Collins, the team voided his contract after the season and Washington had no desire to re sign Mark for 2008.

Similarly and inexplicably the Redskins got two compensatory picks in last year's 2008 draft, one in the third round and one in the seventh round, they were for the losses of Derrick Dockery, TJ Duckett, Warrick Holdman, Kenny Wright and the signing of London Fletcher. Washington was unable to match Buffalo's dollars to Derrick Dockery in the 2007 offseason so that is a legitimate loss, TJ Duckett, for whom the team traded away a 2007 third round pick and then was given the ball all of 38 times for 132 yards, a 3.5 yards per carry average with two touchdowns in all of the 2006 season. Fans and the team wanted to forget that decision. Warrick Holdman was forced into starting service in 2006 after the departure of LaVar Arrington, and was not terrific as Washington's middle linebacker. Warrick was not re signed after 2006 and retired. Kenny Wright was part of the Mike Rumph / Carlos Rogers / Kenny Wright cornerback by committee in 2006 and he was shown the door when Washington re signed Fred Smoot. And as for London Fletcher, Washington signed him, why the hell would we get compensatory picks for gaining a player?

Teams cannot trade away compensatory picks, the team selected guard Chad Rinehart with the third round pick and safety Chris Horton with the seventh rounder. One out of two ain't bad.

Anyway, I do not understand the compensatory pick system, it seems to me as though it is a system the incents teams to churn through free agents since it appears as though it does not matter if you wanted to re sign a free agent or not, if you did not and he signs with another team then you will be getting some compensation.

Back in the day the NFL Draft was 21 rounds, not seven and between the reserve clause keeping players indentured to a team and the never ending influx of young drafted players, star performers had a higher hurdle to clear in order to stay in the league. Then that pesky union came along and ever since then the players have been eating bon bons and living in high style. But I digress.

For this year's draft the Redskins have five total picks, here is how they break down:

1. First round, number thirteen overall. That is what 8-8 in the weaker conference will get you. No matter how badly every football fan quote wants unquote their team not to have high draft picks because high draft picks usually means you sucked last season, there is an electricity to having a top half first round pick. Never mind that I think NFL first round picks are over paid and there should be a rookie cap in place...

The Redskins do have a second round pick, that pick having been sent to Miami in the trade that brought Jason Taylor to Washington during 2008 training camp. Quick put your trade value hat on, one sub par season with aging veteran Jaston Taylor, perhaps sub par is too kind, how about sub basement season with Jason Taylor versus a second round draft pick where a team could expect to get an immediate contributor. Unless that second round pick is Devin Thomas or Malcolm Kelly. Wait was that my out loud voice?

2. Third round, number sixteen, number 80 overall. As Mel Kiper says there are good players in every round, Washington should be able to get a developed talent in the third round, one that could challenge to start in a position of poor depth. At a position of good depth the team can afford to sit a third round pick in the first year or two.

Washington does not have a fourth round pick, that selection having been sent to the New York Jets in the trade that brought Pete Kendall to the Redskins during 2007 training camp. That trade was necessitated after Washington lost boomerang Redskin Derrick Dockery to the Bills in free agency then made no meaningful moves to find a suitable replacement at left guard. The team tried to put Todd Wade aka Big Head Todd aka Eight Ball in at LG but Todd is too tall for the guard position and the whole experiment was a disaster, at one point almost getting Jason Campbell's leg torn off.

That said and by quote that unquote I mean that the trade might not have been necessary in the first if the Redskins had done a better job grooming a player like I don't know maybe through the draft at left guard or at the very least planned something at LG when Derrick left, in retrospect it kind of seems like the team just said fuck it things will work out no need to go crazy and sign a new left guard besides was Derrick that good anyway?

So that said and under those circumstances it was a good trade. Pete was solid for the Redskins, started every one of his 32 games with the team and my hope is he will come back and re sign as a reserve, the left guard spot would be set if he did. It is a bummer not to have that pick to be sure but Pete helped anchor the solidest part of a solid run blocking unit the past two seasons. Pete just should not run with the ball...

3. Fifth round, number 14, number 150 overall. This is where you can start to take a flyer on a player. The difference in draft team draft assessments begins to come into play as teams scramble to pick players they rated higher and therefore fell by that estimation. At this point the team is generally taking the best player available.

4. Sixth round, number thirteen, number 186 overall. Remember there are over one hundred schools that play top shelf college football and each team has sixty or more players so 186 players into picking the best of the best shouls still yield a good player. By this point teams are looking to draft for depth at solid positions or go for projects, the risk reward ratio is on its head by this point as it is no embarrassment in the grand scheme to cut a sixth rounder.

The Redskins do not own their allotted pick in the seventh round, that pick having been shipped to Minnesota in the deal to bring defensive end Erasmus James to Washington. Ninety days beforePhillip Daniels and Alex Buzbee both went down on the first day of camp Washington was facing a shortage of defensive ends so Washington sent this seventh rounder conditionally to the Vikings for Erasmus, a first round pick from 2005 that had two consective ACL tears, the second of which wiped out his 2007 season.

The three hilarous things about this deal are as follows: 1) Minnesota has released Erasmus the day before the trade happened, if Washington had just kept its trap shut for another few hours Erasmus could have been had off the street with no compensation to the Vikings; 2) this trade was conditional only on Erasmus making the roster. Despite not being able to practice nearly at all in the preseason the team kept him and he appeared in only five games, no starts and had no tackles before; 3) the team cut him in December, before the season was even over.

Bye bye draft pick, Washington might as well have rolled down the window going down the highway and tossed that one.

5. Seventh round number 34, number 243 overall. This is the aforementioned compensatory pick for the loss of Mark Brunell. I lust love how you can get free draft picks for getting rid of players you do not want. I wonder if it works with wives and kids as well. Anyway this is the seventh round, coaches and executives are plumbing their bloodlines and contacts, looking at players from programs they know and developed by coaches they know. At this point in the draft you do not have much to lose so you take what looks best.


Redskins 2009 Draft Prep concludes tomorrow with part six, What the Redskins Must Do.


Draft beer selection from here.