Redskins Second Pick: Cornerback Kevin Barnes

When you have depth you can stop digging

Washington had no pick in the second round and therefore had plenty of time to watch and think. When their first pick of the second day came around the Redskins selected University of Maryland cornerback Kevin Barnes in the third round. I would love to hear the team braintrust explain this one to me.

From NFL.com's pre draft profile:

Height: 6 feet zero inches
Weight: 187 pounds

Pros: a huge hitter, good height for a corner, can focus body into point of attack, good hands, solid cover corner, can also play offense, can be valuable on special teams, good downfield tackler.

Cons: coming off four injuries suffered simultaneously, may play stronger than his body, may struggle covering outside in run game, does not always wrap up tackles, does not always pay attention at the point of tackle and can get juked.

Curly R quick take: the Redskins already have two first round picks in Carlos Rogers and DeAngelo Hall and a second round pick in Fred Smoot at corner so I guess this pick is about what the team really thinks last year's fourth round pick cornerback Justin Tryon can do which is probably very little. This pick also tells me the team thinks they are good enough to go at tackle with four players already on the roster, Chris Samuels, Stephon Heyer, Jon Jansen and the newly signed Mike Williams.

That said Kevin was a solid coverage corner, probably more like Carlos Rogers than DeAngelo Hall. Kevin only played seven games in 2008, a collision with a receiver causing four shoulder injuries, a torn labrum, fractured shoulder blade, a broken collar bone and an injured rotator cuff. Kevin came back in time for the NFL combine and most scouts do not think he will have lingering problems as a result.

My guess is that this would be a quote value based unquote pick, the team had Kevin rated proportionately higher than any player on the board at a position of need, those being linebacker and tackle.



University of Maryland cornerback Kevin Barnes from here.