Cincycowboy
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Draft Review
Anyone who tries to tell you they can judge a draft immediately is full on bunk. It'll be a couple of years - or at least one - before we can really start to see who hits home runs and who struck out. But, once again, the Commanders raised eyebrows around the league with their approach. Maybe they'll end up being brave iconoclasts - smarter than everyone else; defying conventional wisdom - but here's an examination of why they are being questioned for taking three pass catchers with their top three picks at a time when even they admit there are also pressing needs at OT, DT, DE, C/G, S, CB, OLB, FB, QB.
Vinny Cerrato and Dan Snyder established the idea that they needed help at wide receiver, above all else, before they had a coach, or an offensive system, or anything. They were talking with coaching candidates about the need to get Chad Johnson when interviewing coaches in January, according to numerous sources with knowledge of those conversations, making it abundantly clear that was where they would be making big moves. This was the direction of the franchise, clear to all in this building, and it played out as expected offering multiple first round picks to the Bengals and chasing Chad right up until the draft, and, ultimately, taking Devin Thomas, Fred Davis and Malcom Kelly within the span of 16 picks in the second round.
The Commanders made it obvious that, as it became clear they would not get Johnson or Anquan Boldin, wide receiver was a focal point. Snyder watched the private workouts of players at the top of the board. Even as the rest of the league was talking about all receivers sliding out of the first round, and this draft lacking a legit stud candidate at WR, the Commanders were devoting more and more attention to receivers.
Inside the building, coaches were fretting that upper management was pushing grades higher on players like Malcolm Kelly, inflating their worth as the draft approaches, while Kelly was dropping down other boards. Teams I spoke to before the draft had him rated in the lower half of the second round, and no one seems shocked he was still on the board at 51. The Commanders kept coming up with high grades on this slumping receiver class, thus ensuring a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you simply follow the board, and the draft plays out as expected, and you sit there with a bunch of second round picks, of course you're going to have wide receivers "sticking out like a sore thumb."
If the deck is stacked towards receivers, and that's what the owner is most enamored with - those are the players he keeps swinging and missing on in the trade front - well, how do you think the draft going to unfold? And, if you feel like you have to take multiple receivers in the draft, you could get a player they had rated highly, like Arman Shields out of Richmond, at the end of the 4th round (he went one pick after Washington's 4th round selection, at 125 overall).
Just look at the recent history at this position - the blockbuster trade of WR Moss for WR Coles, then making David Patten a key free agent in 2005, then giving $10-million guaranteed to Randle El and Lloyd in 2006, then watching the owner covet receivers like Edwards and Calvin Johnson and Ted Ginn in the draft, then watching him chasing Johnson and Boldin in 2008 ....
That's an amazing amount of time and resources sunk into one position group. Again, all play dependent positions - if the line and the QB and the running game aren't right, your stable of receivers ain't going to be doing much, no matter how good they are. Cerrato spoke as if defensive coordinator Greg Blache was doing cartwheels over the selection of three pass catchers on Saturday, and maybe he was. But I can assure you that some other coaches were scratching their heads.
No team can go four wide receivers and two tight ends all the time. Just can't be done. Unless they plan on running a whole lot of empty backfield, it's going to be tricky utilizing all of these guys and the existing one. Yes, they certainly have great depth at pass catcher now, but at the expense of how much else?
And, frankly, how much can this new staff - there are only three holdovers on the offensive side of the coaching staff - know about how these players fit into the system, having never seen them in it? With the Commanders hiring a new coach, they could have utilized an extra mini camp as awarded to them by the league. They could have had 21 practices total in the spring, with teams not hiring new coaches able to have just 18, but the Skins said no thanks.
When Joe Gibbs was hired in 2004, he wisely used that first mini camp in March, before the draft, to get some film on his own players running his system prior to the draft, to get a better exact feel for needs. The Commanders went gung ho on receivers this time without bothering to use pre-draft mini camp. Zorn has said he does not want to tax the players too heavily, with the Commanders opening camp early due to playing in the Hall of Fame Game in July, but the Skins played that Hall of Fame game in 2004 as well and opened early and Gibbs was anything but a taskmaster, yet still used both mandatory mini camps available to him in 2004. Just food for thought.
And the fact that taking 32 days to hire a coach seems to loom a little larger now. Zorn has been pulled in a million directions getting that late start as a rookie head coach in February, working essentially as QB coach, offensive coordinator (in terms of setting the system, devising a playbook, etc) and head coach. He had to go the combine, prepare for free agency, learn his players, teach the system to the other coaches (with help from Sherman Smith and Stump Mitchell), get a playbook together, learn the rest of the league, set a scheduled.
All of a sudden it adds up to Zorn admitting he was crunched for time putting everything together and still trying to meet with the QBs at 11 am during the week, and the Commanders will be issuing a stripped down playbook before next week's mini camp, gradually integrating it. Even the two weeks between when Zorn was hired as coordinator, then again as head coach, could have helped now and given him more of a buffer to work on the playbook or anything else.
As for the draft, it will be interesting to see in years to come how these pass catchers fare compared to other players who were still on the board at pick 21 and later. Numerous teams had first-round grades on CB Mike Jenkins (with him playing Dallas it'll be easy to follow his career, for better or worse) and S Tyrell Johnson, who no doubt could have helped here. I'll keep an eye on the career of C Mike Pollak as well, a player the Skins were high on. He went to the Colts at pick 59.
The Commanders claim that their rating on Kelly was so high at 51, that he stood out to such a degree, that it was the most obvious thing ever. Now, the Colts front office is about as good as it gets. They already have a stud Pro Bowl C, Jeff Saturday, but he's aging, and their best WR, Marvin Harrison might be done. The Skins have a great center, Casey Rabach, but their entire line is on the wrong side of 30 and they have nothing close to a proven back-up center on the roster.
Maybe the Colts reached on Pollak, and no team is close to perfect, no one hits on all their picks and to expect any team to is crazy. Maybe time will tell that the Colts blew it, and Davis and Kelly are two of the best players to come out of his second round.
But to me you look to fortify your trenches when you can, and especially if it's needed to the extent it is in Washington. The Commanders ended up taking a lineman with the 96th pick, guard/tackle Chad Rinehart of Northern Iowa, but it's hard to believe that between the 36-51st picks of this very deep draft that taking all pass catchers was the best course of action from a team-building standpoint. They did not address the D Line until the draft was almost over, with a 7th round comp pick. You can't convince me that years from now there wont be some very good DT and DE who were selected in rounds 3-6 of this draft.
The Commanders might become the beasts of the NFC East. This might prove to be the draft that catapults the franchise forward. I give them all the credit in the world for pulling off the trades to move down and stacking assets and being proactive in that manner.
But if the first-day gamble does not work, then those moves in the second round could be long remember as well, for very different reasons.
By Jason La Canfora | April 28, 2008; 8:21 AM ET
Previous: Final Odds And Ends |
Anyone who tries to tell you they can judge a draft immediately is full on bunk. It'll be a couple of years - or at least one - before we can really start to see who hits home runs and who struck out. But, once again, the Commanders raised eyebrows around the league with their approach. Maybe they'll end up being brave iconoclasts - smarter than everyone else; defying conventional wisdom - but here's an examination of why they are being questioned for taking three pass catchers with their top three picks at a time when even they admit there are also pressing needs at OT, DT, DE, C/G, S, CB, OLB, FB, QB.
Vinny Cerrato and Dan Snyder established the idea that they needed help at wide receiver, above all else, before they had a coach, or an offensive system, or anything. They were talking with coaching candidates about the need to get Chad Johnson when interviewing coaches in January, according to numerous sources with knowledge of those conversations, making it abundantly clear that was where they would be making big moves. This was the direction of the franchise, clear to all in this building, and it played out as expected offering multiple first round picks to the Bengals and chasing Chad right up until the draft, and, ultimately, taking Devin Thomas, Fred Davis and Malcom Kelly within the span of 16 picks in the second round.
The Commanders made it obvious that, as it became clear they would not get Johnson or Anquan Boldin, wide receiver was a focal point. Snyder watched the private workouts of players at the top of the board. Even as the rest of the league was talking about all receivers sliding out of the first round, and this draft lacking a legit stud candidate at WR, the Commanders were devoting more and more attention to receivers.
Inside the building, coaches were fretting that upper management was pushing grades higher on players like Malcolm Kelly, inflating their worth as the draft approaches, while Kelly was dropping down other boards. Teams I spoke to before the draft had him rated in the lower half of the second round, and no one seems shocked he was still on the board at 51. The Commanders kept coming up with high grades on this slumping receiver class, thus ensuring a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you simply follow the board, and the draft plays out as expected, and you sit there with a bunch of second round picks, of course you're going to have wide receivers "sticking out like a sore thumb."
If the deck is stacked towards receivers, and that's what the owner is most enamored with - those are the players he keeps swinging and missing on in the trade front - well, how do you think the draft going to unfold? And, if you feel like you have to take multiple receivers in the draft, you could get a player they had rated highly, like Arman Shields out of Richmond, at the end of the 4th round (he went one pick after Washington's 4th round selection, at 125 overall).
Just look at the recent history at this position - the blockbuster trade of WR Moss for WR Coles, then making David Patten a key free agent in 2005, then giving $10-million guaranteed to Randle El and Lloyd in 2006, then watching the owner covet receivers like Edwards and Calvin Johnson and Ted Ginn in the draft, then watching him chasing Johnson and Boldin in 2008 ....
That's an amazing amount of time and resources sunk into one position group. Again, all play dependent positions - if the line and the QB and the running game aren't right, your stable of receivers ain't going to be doing much, no matter how good they are. Cerrato spoke as if defensive coordinator Greg Blache was doing cartwheels over the selection of three pass catchers on Saturday, and maybe he was. But I can assure you that some other coaches were scratching their heads.
No team can go four wide receivers and two tight ends all the time. Just can't be done. Unless they plan on running a whole lot of empty backfield, it's going to be tricky utilizing all of these guys and the existing one. Yes, they certainly have great depth at pass catcher now, but at the expense of how much else?
And, frankly, how much can this new staff - there are only three holdovers on the offensive side of the coaching staff - know about how these players fit into the system, having never seen them in it? With the Commanders hiring a new coach, they could have utilized an extra mini camp as awarded to them by the league. They could have had 21 practices total in the spring, with teams not hiring new coaches able to have just 18, but the Skins said no thanks.
When Joe Gibbs was hired in 2004, he wisely used that first mini camp in March, before the draft, to get some film on his own players running his system prior to the draft, to get a better exact feel for needs. The Commanders went gung ho on receivers this time without bothering to use pre-draft mini camp. Zorn has said he does not want to tax the players too heavily, with the Commanders opening camp early due to playing in the Hall of Fame Game in July, but the Skins played that Hall of Fame game in 2004 as well and opened early and Gibbs was anything but a taskmaster, yet still used both mandatory mini camps available to him in 2004. Just food for thought.
And the fact that taking 32 days to hire a coach seems to loom a little larger now. Zorn has been pulled in a million directions getting that late start as a rookie head coach in February, working essentially as QB coach, offensive coordinator (in terms of setting the system, devising a playbook, etc) and head coach. He had to go the combine, prepare for free agency, learn his players, teach the system to the other coaches (with help from Sherman Smith and Stump Mitchell), get a playbook together, learn the rest of the league, set a scheduled.
All of a sudden it adds up to Zorn admitting he was crunched for time putting everything together and still trying to meet with the QBs at 11 am during the week, and the Commanders will be issuing a stripped down playbook before next week's mini camp, gradually integrating it. Even the two weeks between when Zorn was hired as coordinator, then again as head coach, could have helped now and given him more of a buffer to work on the playbook or anything else.
As for the draft, it will be interesting to see in years to come how these pass catchers fare compared to other players who were still on the board at pick 21 and later. Numerous teams had first-round grades on CB Mike Jenkins (with him playing Dallas it'll be easy to follow his career, for better or worse) and S Tyrell Johnson, who no doubt could have helped here. I'll keep an eye on the career of C Mike Pollak as well, a player the Skins were high on. He went to the Colts at pick 59.
The Commanders claim that their rating on Kelly was so high at 51, that he stood out to such a degree, that it was the most obvious thing ever. Now, the Colts front office is about as good as it gets. They already have a stud Pro Bowl C, Jeff Saturday, but he's aging, and their best WR, Marvin Harrison might be done. The Skins have a great center, Casey Rabach, but their entire line is on the wrong side of 30 and they have nothing close to a proven back-up center on the roster.
Maybe the Colts reached on Pollak, and no team is close to perfect, no one hits on all their picks and to expect any team to is crazy. Maybe time will tell that the Colts blew it, and Davis and Kelly are two of the best players to come out of his second round.
But to me you look to fortify your trenches when you can, and especially if it's needed to the extent it is in Washington. The Commanders ended up taking a lineman with the 96th pick, guard/tackle Chad Rinehart of Northern Iowa, but it's hard to believe that between the 36-51st picks of this very deep draft that taking all pass catchers was the best course of action from a team-building standpoint. They did not address the D Line until the draft was almost over, with a 7th round comp pick. You can't convince me that years from now there wont be some very good DT and DE who were selected in rounds 3-6 of this draft.
The Commanders might become the beasts of the NFC East. This might prove to be the draft that catapults the franchise forward. I give them all the credit in the world for pulling off the trades to move down and stacking assets and being proactive in that manner.
But if the first-day gamble does not work, then those moves in the second round could be long remember as well, for very different reasons.
By Jason La Canfora | April 28, 2008; 8:21 AM ET
Previous: Final Odds And Ends |
hboy:
