Sports Daggers

Lloyd Harrison, Mario Monds, Cliff Russell, Taylor Jacobs and Gibran Hamdan, Mark Wilson, Manuel White, Kili Lefotu, Dallas Sartz, Durant Brooks, and Cody Glenn. Sounds like a group of car mechanics at the neighborhood gas station right? I wish I could say that was true, but this list of talent is actually names of players drafted by the Washington Redskins in each year of the NFL draft between 2000 and 2009. No, I'm not kidding. I didn't even have to go back as far as the 90's to rattle off the disappointing names of first round busts Heath Shuler, Michael Westbrook, and Andre Johnson (the offensive tackle).

I was hoping it would have been a little bit more difficult to prove that the Redskins drafts often end up in disappointment for us loyal fans, but I guess the facts are the facts.

I know that the draft has more to do with luck than anyone in an NFL front office wants to admit, so there has to be a time when the Redskins send a pick to the draft table that turns out to be a hall of fame caliber superstar right? In 2000 do you know who the Redskins got with their last pick before the Patriots drafted Tom Brady in the 6th round? Neither does anyone else because with the 155th pick in the draft the Washington Redskins selected Quincy Sanders. No not Bob Sanders, Quincy Sanders, a safety from UNLV.

In 2001 the Skins spent the 15th pick in the NFL draft on Clemson WR Rod Gardner, at least he played a few seasons in DC, right? I guess we needed a big play guy in the offense so it couldn't have been that bad of a pick, could it? Here are just the wide receivers that were selected after Gardner in the draft that year......Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne, Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson, Chris Chambers, Steve Smith, and TJ Houshmandzadeh. There's only about 15 Pro Bowls between those guys.

More recently, in 2006 the Denver Broncos used their 4th round pick on stud WR Brandon Marshall with a pick they acquired from, you guessed it, the Washington Redskins. Later on in that same draft the Skins picked the previously mentioned Kili Lefotu while Super Bowl champion Marques Colston and 2009 breakout star Miles Austin were still on the board. I could do this with almost every single draft and it's frustrating so I'll move on.

Admittedly the burgundy and gold have had some good picks over the last decade but the list is a lot shorter. We all thought Lavar Arrington was going to be a star for at least ten years on the defensive side of the ball, but shocker that didn't work out after just a few short seasons. We also had the tragedy with Sean Taylor, who was in most people's opinion the best player by miles on the Redskins roster. This is tragic by real life standards, but just more unlucky news from a football standpoint.

I need to stop being so negative. We do have guys like Chris Cooley and Brian Orakpo who were drafted by the home team, and I'll continue to believe and argue that guys like Devin Thomas and Chris Horton will become a Pro Bowler each and every off season; especially the ones with whatever new coach has been hired to come in and turn things around.

This year the Skins have the 4th pick in the draft and the debate will rage whether the pick should be used on Sam Bradford, Russell Okung, CJ Spiller, or whichever guy jumps up two rounds based on the combine. Personally I don't care which guy is picked as long as he gives us more than a few productive seasons and some hope for helping the team get to the play-offs. With 2010 being the first draft under new general manager Bruce Allen and new head coach Mike Shanahan, hope and excitement will surround all the rookies that are brought in. Maybe in ten years we'll all look back to the 2010 draft as the year we drafted our Tom Brady.