Draft Strategy after the first round

[KI Skins Fan]

Mike Shanahan has said that the last minute cap space reduction penalty imposed by the NFL had a negative impact on the Skins' FA plans. He gave no specifics, but I'll make the mental leap and assume that we weren't able to fill as many needs as we wanted to fill in FA. In my mind, that has to affect the way we draft this year.

I had the idea that we would load up in FA and fill the remaining needs with far fewer drafted players than we added last year. The idea would be to try to move up in the draft and grab higher-rated players at fewer positions.

But now I think that the draft landscape has dramatically changed for the Skins. We're going to be adding a top prospect at QB who will play as a rookie, we traded away our 2nd round pick, and we got hosed in FA by the NFL. All of this means that the Redskins' timetable for world domination has been pushed back and that Mike Shanahan has bought at least one more year beyond 2012 as HC, assuming that he doesn't flop miserably this season.

Now, I'm thinking that our 2012 draft may look a lot like our last draft with the Skins trading down for more picks and trying to find some diamonds in the rough.