An awful draft.

[Baculus]

Simply awful.

I can't believe, after months of waiting, pondering the prospective players, reading, and hoping...this is the best we can do? I am actually happy with the Ramsey pick, but I thought we were in position to draft some decent players--an OG, DL, or WR--in the following rounds.

But, we did we draft? "Reaches." Is it me, or does it seems like every player we picked in the first day was a reach? Not only that, but they didn't even fill any of our needs! And, on the second day, the nightmore continued--FINALLY, in the 6th freaking round, we picking an OL!

We had a draft of projects. Besides Ramsey, a pick I am happy with, every player we have picked could end up being cut by the time the season begins. EVERY ONE.

...This sad fact makes me unhappy to no ends....

And, what's worse was watching the freaking Cowboys picking the players that WE should have been picking.

I can't express my disappointment in this draft. After the last few drafts, it seemed like we were starting to get on a roll. Then this catastrophe. How pathetic.

Alright, I know I seem pessimistic, and some of you may think I am "whining," but I could care less. Like many of you, I have been waiting for this draft with a bit of anticipation, seeing its end results is just too disappointing.

I hope I am proved wrong--my normal optimism has been tarnished--and perhaps we will have a surprise or two waiting for us. (I think the surprise is going to be Ramsey--I really like this kid. And if he DOES work out, then this entire draft almost would have been worth it.) I actually have more hope that we will find some more gems in undrafted players. And hopefully we have an ace up our sleeves with a FA DT and OG somewhere's about.

It's...just...so...sad!

~B.

HTTR!

[Art]

Please list the players we missed on that you'd have taken at defensive line, guard, etc. I have noted Weaver was a miss and I view Metcalf as the same. Other than those two, who do you view we missed on.

[Henry]

Well, the Redskins have been having fantastic offseasons for years now, but I've learned that wonderful drafts and nice FA signings don't mean squat if we finish 8-8 every year. So our draft was ... a bit odd. Let's wait until we actually have a crappy season before we completely lose faith in the front office.

[Yomar]

I can't comment on the level of talent of the guys we picked, I didn't even pay attention to the RB and CB talent pool for this draft leading up to it. But the lack of immediate help is very disappointing no matter how good these players may be. Now in three years Ramsey and Betts may be leading the offense, but I am tired of waiting for the future and as it currently stands we have a pretty good RB and a pair of good CBs, all of whom are pretty young.

The optimist in me says that we only have three holes to fill, DT/DE, OG and S, so we still might be in good shape for this coming season, but instead of answering any questions this draft only created more, like what is going on in the Jansen and Davis negotiations and is Marvin Lewis not as high on Smoot as we are?

[Yomar]

Originally posted by Art

Please list the players we missed on that you'd have taken at defensive line, guard, etc. I have noted Weaver was a miss and I view Metcalf as the same. Other than those two, who do you view we missed on.

Personally, add those two with Ramsey and I am happier than a pig in ----

[Art]

I hear you Yomar. I agree it would have been nice to get those guys too. I don't think safety is a need position though, as we got solid play out of the safeties last year. I think we'll hit the other spots you point to in free agency and we'll see how it feels then.

[Dr. D]

WE just signed ANOTHER TE?

what gives?

[riggins44]

I heard an interview with Trotter where he said he told Marvin

Lewis that with him they don't need a defensive line.:hammer:

[Art]

Yeah. And Lewis told Snyder, if he could get Roy Williams, he would play with nine guys on defense. It's called hyperbole and it's pretty funny stuff .

[riggins44]

The draft didn't go the way I would have liked, but the Redskins

didn't ask my opinion either.

I consider getting Trotter like a draft pick, so overall I think we'll

be okay.

[mardi gras skin]

we only have three holes to fill, DT/DE, OG and S, so we still might be in good shape for this coming season

OG can be filled well by spending near vet minimum. I would think that, with all the corners on the roster now, we can find a free saftey somewhere on our roster. The only spot where we need to spend real cash is on the DT. Add Adams, and I'm more than content.

[NavyDave]

Isnt the rookie minimum smaller than the vet minimum?

Isnt drafting a lineman in rounds 2 thru 7 cheaper?

drafting Weaver for a hole on defense is better than passing on portis for a Betts.

At the least he would be in a rotation on the line.

Please dont let this guy shine when playing on the Ravens while Betts turns ot to be a bust cause I dont wanna hear about our bone head moves on base

[mardi gras skin]

I haven't read all the draft threads, but I have to say, ND, that you are taking this WAY better than I thought. Maybe you're throwing furniture around the house, but you haven't gone postal on the board.

[88Comrade2000]

I'll give the draft a D+. Thought it would move up from my grade yesterday, but it didn't.

Sorry but in this era of salary cap and free agency; you need to draft at least one, maybe two players that will be starting by the end of the season.

Right now, I don't see that. This draft will go to a C+ if Ramsey is starting by the end of the day.

Nothing wrong with depth, but you'd rather have depth at the positions where you can really use it. You can always use extra HOGS. One Cb is fine but 2? Why two TE?

Oh well, how long until June 1st?

[NavyDave]

Trust me Mardi if my gurl had instituted the swear jar yesterday and today she'd have her own SUV and I was smart enuff to keep projectiles away from me

[ncSKIN]

I understand that everyone has opinions. Let's trust the coaches on the draft. They made what they thought were the best choices in real-time. You guys are Monday morning quarterbacking. Give them a chance.

[Art]

To be fair ncSkin, we weren't Monday morning quarterbacking them at all. It's not Monday yet. That's yet to come. We were quarterbacking in nearly the same time they were making the picks . Some of these were good. Some bad. All were mildly questionable as you could clearly point in another direction with each pick and make a reasonable argument that we could have done something else.

Now, I like Ramsey and I think he gives us a very sound building block, but, I think most of us felt an immediate need would have been nice to have filled and Ramsey's immediate payoff is somewhat questionable yet.

[The Dark Horse]

:hammer:

"But, we did we draft? "Reaches." Is it me, or does it seems like every player we picked in the first day was a reach? Not only that, but they didn't even fill any of our needs!"

QB, receiver, and someone to backup Davis aren't needs?

"And, on the second day, the nightmore continued--FINALLY, in the 6th freaking round, we picking an OL!"

Betts, Bauman, Lott and Russell were all projected third rounders.

Royal was projected in the fourth and Coleman was projected in the fifth round.

Grau was drafted to replace our deep snapper, Albright, who we already cut.

Betts was a round early but everyone else seems to have been taken where they were projected or we got them later than they were projected.

"We had a draft of projects."

Aren't they all prospects?

"Besides Ramsey, a pick I am happy with, every player we have picked could end up being cut by the time the season begins. EVERY ONE."

This is where you have really gone off the deep end. Try reading up on our draftees before posting crap like this.

[Fitz]

Well said, DHorse. I can understand disappointment that the most obvious need at DT wasn't addressed at all in this draft, but there's no reason to dismiss these guys as busts. In fact, the brain trust seems to have gone out of their way to *not* draft players higher than they should simply to fill a particular position. When you peruse the profiles in TSN and Pro Football Weekly, you see a pattern of trying to get players that dropped below their projected rounds; Greg Scott was even projected to go in the fourth round, pretty good value for your second seventh round pick. That's not reaching, it's the exact opposite. This draft may not have been a fan's ideal draft, but it could well be more productive than the crapshoots that brought us Quincy Sanders, Mario Monds, Lloyd Harrison, Ethan Howell, et al.

We are a couple of June 1 FA signings away from filling our holes and having decent depth as well. When you look around the league, you can see that's not so bad. While I'm not overjoyed about this draft, I'm not going to sweat it very much either. For my part, I'm going to save my anxiety attacks for other things, like our inexperience at the offensive skill positions

[Nighthawk]

I don't know if I can put it any better than Dark Horse but thank you for correcting my old friend "bac1"

There wasn't one player that the Redskins selected that was a reach with the one exception being the TE from UCLA who was selected strickly for his long snapping duties.

Every other pick was a quality pick taken where the player was projected to be selected. We even made out in getting DE Greg Scott from Hampton in the 7th since every projection I saw had him going no later than the 5th round. I understand everyone wanting us to take an OG or DT but just because we didn't take one doesn't mean the guys we took were bad picks.

The Redskins didn't reach with any of their guys unlike the past few years when the team took players earlier than they should or selected players that should have been UFA's.

Believe me, there were some teams in this years draft that were reaching like never before.

I can see each and every one of these guys making the team based on what they have to offer this team. I could never say that in the past.

One thing most of these players have is speed. Bauman, Lott, Russell, Cartwright. Each one has 4.4 speed.

I'll wait until after training camp before I judge this draft a disaster as so many others have.

[bulldog]

no matter how the Redskins managed it, in a year chock full of offensive and defensive linemen we eneded up with a draft class of running backs, tight ends and quarterbacks.

in case anyone remembers those were labeled as thin spots in this draft.

that to me means that players at RB, TE and QB that would normally be taken in say round 5 or round 6 may end up rising to round 3 or 4.

in that environment, wouldn't the smart play be to avoid these 'false' values and concentrate on taking the best player available?

certainly, Betts was not the best player available in round 2. Either by staying at their original spot or after the trade there were better candidates to be taken here.

personally, I would have preferred Antonio Bryant to Cliff Russell in round 3.

how about Fred Weary? we passed on him a number of times.

how about following up the Ramsey pick by trading up in round 2 and taking either Fonoti or Gurode or Caldwell?

Why sit in the 50's and then allow Baltimore to move in front to take a guy they want to rebuild their defensive line.

With a sharp GM like Newsome looking to take Weaver that should have been an indication the Skins should have taken him THEMSELVES.

except for Scott the picks in round 7, although longshots on a regular basis, were uninspired.

a 5'7 235 pound fullback? This pick reminds me of the Wizard's picks of Mugsy Bogues. :laugh:

And Grau? a 6-3 and 245 long snapper who doesn't play a regular position.

Didn't we make the mistake of using a draft choice on a long snapper, Joe Zelenka, just two short years ago?

Grau would have been available for nothing as a free agent after the draft. There was no need to rush that pick.

[fansince62]

sorry DH.......and he's my friend all!!!!.........but i have to agree with bulldog on this one. the bottom line is that relative to other teams, and most especially the boys....we did not use the draft to add a single starter. we are not a championship team drafting to repair minor flaws. we have some glaring holes that the team should have positioned itself to address. i think these guys bet the farm on harrington/stalworth/top 4 dt, lost out and immediately shifted into conservation mode: quantity over quality, thrift over expense. we all know that this draft wasn't buffoonery, there are some fine tactical moves. it just doesn't add up to anything that will help us beat the Pukes this year!!! we still need a guard, we still need a DT and we still need a youthful DE. we aren't going to get all of these types in FA. this team still has some very exploitable weaknesses some of which the draft could have helped solve. instead, we now muct rely on a more expensive approach that doesn't inspire long term stability.

[The Dark Horse]

Don't get me wrong. I agree with having a need for a starting guard and a defensive tackle.

I do not agree, however, that we absolutely, positively have to draft these two players. Free agents can work, too.

[Ernie5]

Personally, I'm not a Weaver fan. He's a good 2nd round pick, but not a draftmaker or breaker. I thought he was a little over-touted. As for Metcalf, drafting guards in the second round is OK, but hardly necessary. As the Skins proved last summer, you can get good guards right before the season starts. Good draft.

[Art]

Bulldog,

I think it may be time to take the Norval icon from you, because I get disturbed seeing a normally reasonable poster who seems to have such good knowledge post such utter nonsense as you have here. It can be said I'm less than thrilled with this draft. If GM Art was on the clock on Day 1, we would have had Ramsey, Weaver, Metcalf and Johnson, but, hey, I'm not gonig to obsess.

What I'm also not going to do is make statements like, "personally, I would have preferred Antonio Bryant to Cliff Russell in round 3." Hey, me too. It's a damn shame though Bryant went in Round 2, isn't it? We didn't have a Round 3 shot at him. So, you're fuming about this when this wasn't even a possibility and this is the kind of thing that boggles my mind. There's enough to be angry about in reality that you don't need to create further anger by making up other mistakes we actually didn't endure.

You wrote, "how about Fred Weary? we passed on him a number of times." How many is "a number"? When I read that I think three, or four, or even five. What I don't think about is, two. I don't read a number and think two. What do you think because we that number was two? We don't agree with the second round pick of Betts, that's fine, but, you are now taking it to other rounds to validate your distaste.

You wanted to trade up in the second for Fonoti or Gurode. Not a horrid idea perhaps. But, it's also not horrid to listen to Mendes say, "''If you jump around for a need, that's when you can become disappointed. If you keep an open mind and let good players come to you, things will work out for the best.'' That's a fair point.

Also, Houston, Carolina, Detroit and Buffalo almost certainly had their sites on pretty good quality in the second round and they wouldn't have traded down for anything reasonable. We weren't going to trade with Dallas. Really, you're talking about Minnesota as a real shot at Fonoti. Is Fonoti a good fit? And if he is, how do we know we didn't try to make a move up and find it too costly to justify, prompting a quote like Mendes produced?

I had no idea you needed to be "inspired" by seventh round draft picks. And if you did, you seemed to have missed the fever on the Rock, because the rest of us see the evil genius in that selection. What are you missing? All I ask, Bulldog, is that you listen for a moment, process actual facts to form your opinion and give it another stab here. You and I agree that Betts was not the best selection. Both of us would probably have gone differently there. But, really, it does appear to me that the main complaint you can make is that and you refuse to see any happiness after that.

I'm not thrilled, mind you, but, we're not always going to be thrilled picking in the middle of every round.