Om Field: Redskins Feeling a Cold Draft

[-Om-]

Apologies for posting and running yesterday, got caught up in real-life "stuff."

As I was careful to note in the piece, I'm not professing to breaking any new ground here. The notion that the Redskins have badly mismanaged the draft for several years now is hardly new or original. So why write the piece? Two main reasons:

1) The finality of Vinny's statement caught me off guard. It probably shouldn't have, given that apparently there had been indicators I'd missed, but for me it crystallized the reality of what they were doing. In what smacked of desperation or just plain questionable judgment, they were going to move what I view as a fatally miscast player into a new position to cover up previous negligence.

Maybe five years ago I could have seen trying out JT as a SAM in the NFCE, with a Plan B in place in case he got run over a lot ... but at 34? Coming off serious injury? If there's ever been a 34 year old, 6'6", 240 lb, finesse edge pass rusher successfully transitioned to SAM in a smashmouth cold-weather division in NFL history ... I've missed it.

I'm the last guy to pretend he knows more about scouting than the professionals, but this one just sets off too many alarm bells in my head to ignore.

2) Because I plan to keep hammering the notion that the team needs to shift its draft focus for the forseeable future from skill position players to big men, until they either actually do it or I lose interest and take up nude ice body-surfing.

It kills me that my two favorite football teams, the Redskins and my alma mater VA Tech, have both adopted a philosophy of not drafting/recruiting big men in favor of drafting/recruiting "skill position" players to a noticeably disproportionate degree. Far as I'm concerned, the next 3-4 Redskins drafts, at least, need to be as lineman-heavy (allowing for LB's as well) as the past ten drafts have been on everything else.

I have no illusions about my voice making the slightest bit of difference in what the team actually does, but at least I'll feel better for having tried.