Redskins 2009 Draft Prep - Part Three

Some times we can't decide if we want to change brands

Drafting a player is one thing, developing him is another and deciding to keep him is yet another. Rinse repeat. Curly R's five part series prepping for the Redskins 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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As the Washington Redskins prepare for the 2009 NFL Draft, the team has two key starters each entering the final year of his contract. Why does this matter three days before the draft?

It matters because teams need to get more than five years out of their first round draft picks. Like with Chris Samuels.

It matters because if they cannot they need to get some value back in trade. Like with Champ Bailey.

It matters because the team should not lose them with nothing in return. Like with Kenard Lang.

The first step to losing them with nothing in return is to let a first round pick into his contract year with no extension. It tells the player the team is not convinced the player is part of the future with the team. Perhaps he is not, perhaps the team is trying to coax a strong performance from the player. And perhaps the team really does not know and wants to check around for other options. A little like high school dating.

Set aside for a moment that the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement will affect how these two players can move or sign. With the two major players in their contract years in 2009 the team is playing one exactly right and one exactly wrong.

Carlos Rogers
Carlos was drafted with the ninth overall pick in the 2005 draft, a cornerback out of Auburn University. He started the season as third cornerback behind Shawn Springs and Walt Harris, Walt having been elevated to starter after the the departure of Fred Smoot in the offseason. In a curious case of the snake eating itself, the team would never have needed to draft Carlos if the team had negotiated an extension with Fred Smoot, an extension that was not reached over as it turns out, (pauses pinky to mouth best Dr. Evil impression) one million dollars. Or about ten percent of the signing bonus (op. cit.).

Carlos appeared in twelve games his rookie year, starting five, two in place of Walt with a calf, one in place of Shawn with a shin and two more for Walt with an ankle. Carlos pulled in two interceptions in the second half of the season and looked poised to be a solid player.

Then 2006 rolled around. Walt Harris was cut and signed with San Francisco and Shawn Springs waited until training camp to realize the abdominal hernia he had been dealing with all summer was going to prohibit him from playing football for half the season and Carlos was thrust into a starting spot. It did not go well for him.

In the first place Carlos was playing along side Mike Rumph and Kenny Wright, both one year players in Washington, there was simply no depth at corner. One could wonder aloud how a team employing a player with Shawn's injury history could have let that happen, but that is beside the point. Except not really.

Carlos seemed overmatched as the primary cornerback all season as the Redskins sunk to the number 31 overall defense. Takeaways were so rare that year that I promised, right here on Curly R, to deliver dessert personally to the entire Redskins defense if someone, anyone took a takeaway back for six points in the final three games. Carlos finally scored his first interception of the season in his thirteenth game, all starts. I was a little disappointed when Carlos did not take me up on my offer of flan.

Into 2007 the tandem of Shawn Springs and Carlos Rogers seemed to be working, the team actually added some depth by bringing back boomerang Redskin Fred Smoot, Washington was 4-2 through six games. Then in game seven at New England Carlos collided with linebacker London Fletcher and tore his knee up bad. Carlos was not on the field to help the team get into the playoffs.

Carlos rehabbed quickly and was on the field for the season opener last season in 2008, there is simply no question Carlos was playing at a Pro Bowl level for the first six or so games, then like the rest of the team he started to drop off, finishing with no great distinction. He managed two interceptions while appearing in all sixteen games, fourteen of them starts. At the end of the season Carlos lost his starting spot to DeAngelo Hall, something he was unhappy about, but I really think that had to to with the team needing to see what they had with Shawn and DeAngelo, it seemed to me at the time unlikely the Redskins could keep both Shawn at an eight million dollar cap number and sign DeAngelo to a long term deal, and I was right, Shawn was let go early in the offseason.

Now it is 2009 and Carlos is staring down a contract year. And that is a good thing.

Carlos needs to play angry. He needs to play with purpose and live up to his first round pedigree because so far he has not. He has the moves, he is a pure cover corner and will make a great tandem with zone corner DeAngelo Hall, but he tends to disappear, fades in his tackling and quarterbacks do not fear throwing toward him because he cannot catch the ball.

If he plays well in a contract year then he gets big money, from Washington or another team. It would be bad to lose him but that is the risk the team is taking by not giving him an extension now. If he plays well and the Redskins lose him it will be another example in hindsight of mismanagement but you know what? We will have had that great season on this year's veteran team, and who knows what could happen if everyone plays to their potential?

The default recourse next year will be Fred Smoot and DeAngelo Hall absent another upgrade. The Redskins could do worse.

The team is handling Carlos the right way, make him earn that contract.


Jason Campbell
Jason was also drafted in the 2005 draft, also in the first round, at number 25 (op. cit.). At Joe Gibbs urging Washington traded three picks, their third rounder in 2005 and first and fourth rounders in 2006, to Denver to secure a second first round pick to use on Jason. It is of note that Denver used the fourth rounder from Washington in 2006 to draft outstanding receiver Brandon Marshall.

At the time of the trade, Washington's 2002 first round pick quarterback, Patrick Ramsey, was only 26 and still under contract, and coach Joe insisted that Jason's selection did not mean anything to Patrick which was technically true since it was Mark Brunell that replaced Patrick, not Jason.

Jason did not take a snap, throw a pass or hand off even once in 2005 as Washington rode Mark's spaghetti arm, Santana Moss' groin and Clinton Portis' costumes to the playoffs. In 2006 as the team went into the tank coach Joe pulled the trigger before game ten against the Buccaneers, on the road, it was not a pleasant outcome. Jason finished 2-5 as a starter that year, threw six interceptions and fumbled one time (did not lose it).

Heading into 2007 Jason was the named starter, he showed flashes of big game ability, including a 54 attempt, 348 yard game ten at Dallas. Mostly though he seemed to be trying too hard, afraid of failing and not evolving into the position. For the year, thirteen starts and twelve finishes Jason was 5-7 as starter, threw eleven interceptions and fumbled thirteen times, losing eight of them. It seemed as though Jason really needed better position coaching.

And so it was to be in 2008. After Joe Gibbs' retirement and a torturous search for a new coach, Washington went and hired a professional quarterbacks coach in Jim Zorn.

And the change in Jason Campbell was dramatic. And quick. We can say what we will and maybe agree to disagree about whether Jason grasped the offense or even had time as the line deteriorated in front of him over the season, there is simply no way to deny that Jason grew as a quarterback in 2008. His mechanics, patience and decision making all improved, Jason was 8-8 as a starter, threw six interceptions and fumbled seven times, losing only one. That is the same number Jeff Garcia threw in four fewer games and over a hundred fewer pass attempts.

So the next logical step is for Jason to merge with the offense, to take the lessons he learned from Jim Zorn the quarterbacks coach and apply them to the lessons of Jim Zorn the offensive coordinator. I was a leading skeptic on the notion that Jason Campbell could be a good quarterback for the Jim Zorn offense, now I believe after last season that Jason Campbell can do anything.

Which is why not giving him an extension and locking him up for starter money is exactly the wrong way to approach it. And not because Jason is hurt and will whine like Jay Cutler and not because he will go somewhere next season just to spite the team like Jeff Garcia after taking the Eagles to the playoffs in 2006, no Jason is a bog boy.

But rather because it instills a lack of confidence in the team overall. Is it Jim Zorn that Dan Synder does not trust? Waiting until a better candidate shows up to throw the whole offense, Jason included, out the door? Or is it Jason? All the Jay Cutler and Mark Sanchez talk, this is the chatter of a team ownership that is high on the idea of the quick fix, that more position players is more better and some day we well get out from behind this curve.

This team does not need another quarterback, it needs a quarterback who can sit back and concentrate on getting better. Do the coach, the player and the team a favor and get Jason an extension for starter money.

And so back to the draft. As we consider Carlos Rogers and Jason Campbell and whether and what they are worth to the team after this season, think on this: Derek Smith, Shawn Barber, Greg Jones, Cory Raymer, Stephen Alexander, Fred Smoot, Kenard Lang, Derrick Dockery are all examples of productive Redskins players selected in the top three rounds of the draft that were permitted to walk after their rookie contracts. In each case permitting the player to depart caused the team to spend money or picks to fill the hole, money that could have been spent building other areas of the team if the player had been kept. It is all about the opportunity cost.

It matters because the first round pick the Redskins will select on Saturday will come up for a new contract around 2013 or so.


Redskins 2009 Draft Prep continues tomorrow with part four The Draft Picks.



Draft beer selection from here.