Please bear in mind that this is ALL idle lunchtime speculation!! LOL
Debating the QB position is.... what could we have done?
Firstly, here's all the Round 1 QB's drafted in the last 4 years.
2015 - Winston, Mariota
2016 - Goff, Wentz, Lynch
2017 - Trubisky, Mahomes, Watson
2018 - Darnold, Rosen, Allen, Jackson, Mayfield.
Here's who we got in Rounds 1 and 2 over the same period
2015 - Scherff, (Preston) Smith
2016 - Doctson, Cravens
2017 - Allen, Anderson
2018 - Payne, Guice
Look at the timeline:
2012 - We got RGIII who looked like the 2nd coming!!! Bosh! Jobs a goodun, we're sorted for the next couple of decades. HTTR!
Both RGIII and Kirk sign 4 year deals.
2013 - RGIII doesn't look the same... Plays 13/16. Kirk Plays a bit and looks ok as a backup.
2014 - RGIII definitely isn't the future. Him, Kirk and Colt share the games out 7/5/4
At this point RGIII Is benched and gone. We know they're not picking up his option. Jury is out on the other two.
2015 - Kirk is the future, still under contract. His numbers aren't bad and holds pretty much all the cards negotiation wise.
Probably too early to consider drafting... and I wouldn't give up Scherff and Smith for Winston or Mariota.
2016 - First Kirk Franchise tag. He's cool playing under it, all the leverage is now his.
At this point this is probably where we should have looked towards either drafting his successor or seeing if we could trade him.
Was this mismanaged? The low ball offer was where the seeds of his discord were planted, but did we know enough about him at that point to make a big money offer?
And consider the draft.
The top drafted QB's were Goff, Wentz and Paxton Lynch.
Lynch is gone as a starter, Goff looked awful in his first couple of years but has been brought alive by Sean McVay this year. You could say that Wentz was the surest of the bunch.
He went as the Number 2 pick... So what would the Redskins needed to give up to get him?
We don't know what the trade demands to get up that high in the draft were, but we took Josh Doctson in 1 and Sua Cravens in 2. I'd make that trade.
2016 was probably the sweet spot to grab a high ranked QB. I'd give up Doctson and Sua for Wentz. But As we know, QB's are a roll of the dice. What if we'd taken Lynch instead? Or Goff but not been able to develop him?
At this point it was probably too early to know EXACTLY how the Cousins drama would play out, but the writing was on the wall.
2016 was probably the missed opportunity.
2017 - Another Franchise tag for Kirk. At this point he seemed happy to know he'd get the big contract money on a year by year basis. He just had to gamble on not getting hurt and not be dreadful.
Top QB's this year were Trubisky, Mahomes and Watson. Trubisky shows flashes on a Bears team being carried by it's D. Watson doesn't look anything special so far. Mahomes is the real deal.
Issue here, is that in order to trade up and grab them, or even to just grab them if they fell to is in the first round, we'd be giving up Allen and Anderson. Allen especially has been instrumental in turning our D around. Anderson maybe not as impactful at first but this year seems to be turning the corner. These guys will only get better over the years, especially if they make a jump like Ioannidas did. So would we want to give up either or both of these guys to trade up to grab either of those 3 QB's?
There were certainly trade partners to get up in the top 10, San Fran or Tennessee might have let us sneak into the Top 5! and considering Trubisky was the top man taken we could have had Mahomes.
But was he such a certainty at that point that we'd give up Allen and Anderson for him?
2018 - Kirk is gone, team trades for Alex Smith.
In the draft were Darnold, Rosen, Allen, Jackson and Mayfield. No one truly knows if any of them will pan out.
We grabbed Payne and Guice, the latter was unfortunately injured and out for the season early.
There's no way we were getting into the top 3 in the draft, no way those teams were giving up those picks. Possibly number 4 would have been the best we could do. Which means we'd get the pick of Rosen, Allen or Jackson.
Not sure I'd trade any of them for Payne and Guice.
And if we had... We'd probably still have a busted up O-Line with Colt playing behind it. Possibly we'd get Guice still depends on how far he fell. We could grab him in the 3rd. Maybe.
Peterson might still be here, but our D would be missing Payne as a running mate to Allen.
Personally I'm HAPPY that we spent drafts over the last 5 or 6 years addressing the lines. Especially the D. I think these two things are fundamental and set us up for the future.
Hopefully Guice will show why he was so highly rated next year, I'm hoping he's at least as good as Peterson. (Wouldn't mind him staying too if we can figure it out, love to see him mentoring Guice!)
So drafting a QB was out for me. I don't think we were in the right position while Cousins kept us average, and we would likely have lost the players that have turned out D around.
Trades then...
I like Alex... but I think it was possibly the wrong trade. I hate that we lost Fuller, I think with Norman, Dunbar and Fuller back there and assuming we still made a move for Clinton-Dix... we'd have a solid pass defence. LB would then probably have been an area of need on D this draft.
On the flip side of the ball, we need WR's. I think Doctson might just work out after all, he's looking better lately, and I still have a sneaky suspicion that Quinn will be great for us. I wish they'd teach Chesson to catch as his speed down field would take the top off a D.
But we need a QB to orchestrate, and he needs to be young enough to be a Franchise man going forwards... problem is I don't know who is available out there that we could have got as it was clear that Kirk wasn't coming back.
A quick google gives me...
Garopolo (Yes, but how much would we have given up?), Tyrod Taylor (Nope), McCarron (Nope), Glennon (Nope Nope), Hoyer (Nopeitty Nope), Geno Smith (Nope), Fitzpatrick (LOL), Barkley (Nope), Keenum (Nope), Bradford (Hmmm) or Bridgewater (Possibly)
Any of those appeal?
Of course there are far more moving parts over the years, feel free to throw in speculation of your own
(I was really bored over lunch!)
Debating the QB position is.... what could we have done?
Firstly, here's all the Round 1 QB's drafted in the last 4 years.
2015 - Winston, Mariota
2016 - Goff, Wentz, Lynch
2017 - Trubisky, Mahomes, Watson
2018 - Darnold, Rosen, Allen, Jackson, Mayfield.
Here's who we got in Rounds 1 and 2 over the same period
2015 - Scherff, (Preston) Smith
2016 - Doctson, Cravens
2017 - Allen, Anderson
2018 - Payne, Guice
Look at the timeline:
2012 - We got RGIII who looked like the 2nd coming!!! Bosh! Jobs a goodun, we're sorted for the next couple of decades. HTTR!
Both RGIII and Kirk sign 4 year deals.
2013 - RGIII doesn't look the same... Plays 13/16. Kirk Plays a bit and looks ok as a backup.
2014 - RGIII definitely isn't the future. Him, Kirk and Colt share the games out 7/5/4
At this point RGIII Is benched and gone. We know they're not picking up his option. Jury is out on the other two.
2015 - Kirk is the future, still under contract. His numbers aren't bad and holds pretty much all the cards negotiation wise.
Probably too early to consider drafting... and I wouldn't give up Scherff and Smith for Winston or Mariota.
2016 - First Kirk Franchise tag. He's cool playing under it, all the leverage is now his.
At this point this is probably where we should have looked towards either drafting his successor or seeing if we could trade him.
Was this mismanaged? The low ball offer was where the seeds of his discord were planted, but did we know enough about him at that point to make a big money offer?
And consider the draft.
The top drafted QB's were Goff, Wentz and Paxton Lynch.
Lynch is gone as a starter, Goff looked awful in his first couple of years but has been brought alive by Sean McVay this year. You could say that Wentz was the surest of the bunch.
He went as the Number 2 pick... So what would the Redskins needed to give up to get him?
We don't know what the trade demands to get up that high in the draft were, but we took Josh Doctson in 1 and Sua Cravens in 2. I'd make that trade.
2016 was probably the sweet spot to grab a high ranked QB. I'd give up Doctson and Sua for Wentz. But As we know, QB's are a roll of the dice. What if we'd taken Lynch instead? Or Goff but not been able to develop him?
At this point it was probably too early to know EXACTLY how the Cousins drama would play out, but the writing was on the wall.
2016 was probably the missed opportunity.
2017 - Another Franchise tag for Kirk. At this point he seemed happy to know he'd get the big contract money on a year by year basis. He just had to gamble on not getting hurt and not be dreadful.
Top QB's this year were Trubisky, Mahomes and Watson. Trubisky shows flashes on a Bears team being carried by it's D. Watson doesn't look anything special so far. Mahomes is the real deal.
Issue here, is that in order to trade up and grab them, or even to just grab them if they fell to is in the first round, we'd be giving up Allen and Anderson. Allen especially has been instrumental in turning our D around. Anderson maybe not as impactful at first but this year seems to be turning the corner. These guys will only get better over the years, especially if they make a jump like Ioannidas did. So would we want to give up either or both of these guys to trade up to grab either of those 3 QB's?
There were certainly trade partners to get up in the top 10, San Fran or Tennessee might have let us sneak into the Top 5! and considering Trubisky was the top man taken we could have had Mahomes.
But was he such a certainty at that point that we'd give up Allen and Anderson for him?
2018 - Kirk is gone, team trades for Alex Smith.
In the draft were Darnold, Rosen, Allen, Jackson and Mayfield. No one truly knows if any of them will pan out.
We grabbed Payne and Guice, the latter was unfortunately injured and out for the season early.
There's no way we were getting into the top 3 in the draft, no way those teams were giving up those picks. Possibly number 4 would have been the best we could do. Which means we'd get the pick of Rosen, Allen or Jackson.
Not sure I'd trade any of them for Payne and Guice.
And if we had... We'd probably still have a busted up O-Line with Colt playing behind it. Possibly we'd get Guice still depends on how far he fell. We could grab him in the 3rd. Maybe.
Peterson might still be here, but our D would be missing Payne as a running mate to Allen.
Personally I'm HAPPY that we spent drafts over the last 5 or 6 years addressing the lines. Especially the D. I think these two things are fundamental and set us up for the future.
Hopefully Guice will show why he was so highly rated next year, I'm hoping he's at least as good as Peterson. (Wouldn't mind him staying too if we can figure it out, love to see him mentoring Guice!)
So drafting a QB was out for me. I don't think we were in the right position while Cousins kept us average, and we would likely have lost the players that have turned out D around.
Trades then...
I like Alex... but I think it was possibly the wrong trade. I hate that we lost Fuller, I think with Norman, Dunbar and Fuller back there and assuming we still made a move for Clinton-Dix... we'd have a solid pass defence. LB would then probably have been an area of need on D this draft.
On the flip side of the ball, we need WR's. I think Doctson might just work out after all, he's looking better lately, and I still have a sneaky suspicion that Quinn will be great for us. I wish they'd teach Chesson to catch as his speed down field would take the top off a D.
But we need a QB to orchestrate, and he needs to be young enough to be a Franchise man going forwards... problem is I don't know who is available out there that we could have got as it was clear that Kirk wasn't coming back.
A quick google gives me...
Garopolo (Yes, but how much would we have given up?), Tyrod Taylor (Nope), McCarron (Nope), Glennon (Nope Nope), Hoyer (Nopeitty Nope), Geno Smith (Nope), Fitzpatrick (LOL), Barkley (Nope), Keenum (Nope), Bradford (Hmmm) or Bridgewater (Possibly)
Any of those appeal?
Of course there are far more moving parts over the years, feel free to throw in speculation of your own
(I was really bored over lunch!)