The Redskins Are Primed to Screw Up Yet Another Draft

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As the assembled masses of marquee players, NFL brass and league movers & shakers descend on Nashville, TN to take in the 2019 draft, 32 fan bases around the country will look on with varying levels of anticipation, fear and ambivalence.

If you’re a part of Redskins nation, it will likely be the latter two.

Currently holding the no. 15 pick in this year’s draft, the Redskins have several glaring holes on their roster that need to be addressed, chief among them at quarterback.  Case Keenum and Colt McCoy are short-term solutions and the long-term need under center has to be addressed somehow, whether it’s via draft or moving on the rumored interest in Josh Rosen.

But, if 106.7’s Grant Paulsen can be believed, the Skins are setting themselves up for a face-plant not unlike the infamous 2012 gambit that brought about the ruin of RG3.  You remember that, right? Four total picks to move up to no. 2 to draft a Heisman-winner out of Baylor only to watch first his knee collapse followed swiftly by the rest of his career.  By the way, the Redskins haven’t sniffed a division title since.

So, imagine Dan Snyder twirling his mustache, knowing full-well that the Redskins will make a jump up to a top-5 pick to nab either Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins or gasp Daniel Jones out of Duke.  Haskins has a potentially high ceiling and was very productive during his time in Columbus but he is not, I repeat, NOT, worthy of that kind of jump.  Then there’s Jones, who was famously unproductive during an ACC career where he never averaged more than 7 yards per throw.

Beyond Paulsen, several draft analysts from CBSsports.com predict that the Redskins will in fact sell off part of the farm to grab Haskins at no. 3.

Am I saying be worried?  Yeah, kind of.  The Redskins front office might be denying the claim that Snyder is in full control of the first round pick but isn’t this the same front office whose go-to play is to save face by denying rumors only to turn around and do exactly the thing they profusely denied?

Read the tea leaves.  Haskins is a bright and shiny object in a draft that is allegedly devoid of top-end quarterback talent and it would be the most Redskins thing ever to sell off valuable draft stock to reach for a player that has trouble throwing a quick out on an RPO.

If the Redskins really, truly want new blood in the quarterback room that isn’t named Josh Rosen, do the smart thing and spend your first pick on best-available talent on an edge rusher like Brian Burns out of Florida.  Then go do the most un-Redskins thing ever and draft a quarterback in round two that you can develop.  Go get Will Grier from West Virginia, who was wildly productive in college, has great leadership qualities and plays a Baker Mayfield-esque game.  Jay Gruden, who at this point might only speak to Dan Snyder and his ilk via messenger pigeon, has already shown a high level of interest in the NC native and it would be worth it for him to sit a couple of years behind Keenum or whomever the Redskins bring in next to acclimate to the pro game.

Grier is battle-tested.  He has good measurables.  He’s a married man currently raising a child.  The professional pedigree is already there and, what’s more, you won’t have to sell off anything to get him.

No matter what I say, there’s an ill wind blowing near Ashburn, VA and I think we all know what it means.  Maybe the Redskins do move up and draft Haskins and maybe he turns into an all-pro and I’ll be forced to apologize for the next decade.  Maybe the Redskins sit at 15 and go with Daniel Jones and he turns out to be more than just a 6’5″ log in the pocket with no visible flashes to his game.  I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

It might be too much to ask that Dan Snyder and his gaggle exercise some measure of self-control and think long-term.  Whatever happens tonight in Nashville, for better or worse, will kick off the 2019 season of football in DC.  Buckle up.

 

CATEGORY: NFL