Make no mistake about it, the Redskins have been getting younger overall the past couple of years. Better draft picks mean more younger players staying on the roster and starting to build their NFL careers.
Gone are the days the team drafts 8 or 9 players and a year later only one or two of them are still on the roster.
What the Haskins pick means to me and a number of people I talk to is the Redskins and Snyder are now playing the 'long' game and not looking to make noise right away but rather are finally showing some patience in roster construction and the willingess to look at this as a 2-3 year exercise to get back to real relevance in the NFL.
Haskins is not going to be a 16 game starter in 2019, I think we all know that. Younger guys like Sweat, Moreland, Holcomb that may very well be future starters and stars for this team are still babies.
Almost everywhere you look from Guice to Trey Quinn, Terry McLaurin and the raw younger receivers like Sims and Davis on offense this team is about building not contending.
The starting DL averages 24 years of age which is among the youngest group in the NFL.
Except for Josh Norman there is really no established member of the backfield group that is over 25-26 yet alone 30. DRC may be a nice backup at 33 but his roster spot is not guaranteed at this point.
So, the net of this is the Redskins are likely looking at a third place finish in 2019, behind the Eagles and Cowboys and a bit ahead of the Giants who made some head scratching moves in the offseason to trade away younger talent.
The least I can do as a fan now that I see the plan that has been laid out, perhaps without much media fanfare and mea culpas by the team, is to follow it and take the measure of the players we now have that will bridge this team to much greater success in 2020 or 2021.
That's one reason I stopped awhile ago in worrying about Trent Williams. At 31, Trent is more past than future and his contract, the richest OL contract when signed in 2016, should be something he lives up to.
But if he doesn't he needs to be traded because a 31 year old tackle really doesn't fit into the plans of a team going forward with that kind of timeline for success.
In reality, I think Williams sees that and wants out and is using his current pretext as leverage.
Will the Redskins need to acquire a LT capable of protecting Haskins into the future if Williams leaves or even if he stays at his age?
Yes. But that's what the 2020 draft is for. If other younger investments across the roster pay off for the club, we may be in the position to draft a LT with our first pick next year and have that player grow with Haskins the way that Erik Williams grew up with Troy Aikman in Dallas.
It's all about timing.
2019 is the time to watch some of the younger players that Kyle Smith and Co. found in the draft that perhaps other teams overlooked.
It's not the time to worry about Colt McCoy or Trent Williams. These guys along with Josh Norman have short half-lives on this roster because of age and injury history but also in the case of the latter two because of their respective cap hits.
$29M in cap hit for Williams and Norman? That's way too much for where these guys are in their careers.
Gone are the days the team drafts 8 or 9 players and a year later only one or two of them are still on the roster.
What the Haskins pick means to me and a number of people I talk to is the Redskins and Snyder are now playing the 'long' game and not looking to make noise right away but rather are finally showing some patience in roster construction and the willingess to look at this as a 2-3 year exercise to get back to real relevance in the NFL.
Haskins is not going to be a 16 game starter in 2019, I think we all know that. Younger guys like Sweat, Moreland, Holcomb that may very well be future starters and stars for this team are still babies.
Almost everywhere you look from Guice to Trey Quinn, Terry McLaurin and the raw younger receivers like Sims and Davis on offense this team is about building not contending.
The starting DL averages 24 years of age which is among the youngest group in the NFL.
Except for Josh Norman there is really no established member of the backfield group that is over 25-26 yet alone 30. DRC may be a nice backup at 33 but his roster spot is not guaranteed at this point.
So, the net of this is the Redskins are likely looking at a third place finish in 2019, behind the Eagles and Cowboys and a bit ahead of the Giants who made some head scratching moves in the offseason to trade away younger talent.
The least I can do as a fan now that I see the plan that has been laid out, perhaps without much media fanfare and mea culpas by the team, is to follow it and take the measure of the players we now have that will bridge this team to much greater success in 2020 or 2021.
That's one reason I stopped awhile ago in worrying about Trent Williams. At 31, Trent is more past than future and his contract, the richest OL contract when signed in 2016, should be something he lives up to.
But if he doesn't he needs to be traded because a 31 year old tackle really doesn't fit into the plans of a team going forward with that kind of timeline for success.
In reality, I think Williams sees that and wants out and is using his current pretext as leverage.
Will the Redskins need to acquire a LT capable of protecting Haskins into the future if Williams leaves or even if he stays at his age?
Yes. But that's what the 2020 draft is for. If other younger investments across the roster pay off for the club, we may be in the position to draft a LT with our first pick next year and have that player grow with Haskins the way that Erik Williams grew up with Troy Aikman in Dallas.
It's all about timing.
2019 is the time to watch some of the younger players that Kyle Smith and Co. found in the draft that perhaps other teams overlooked.
It's not the time to worry about Colt McCoy or Trent Williams. These guys along with Josh Norman have short half-lives on this roster because of age and injury history but also in the case of the latter two because of their respective cap hits.
$29M in cap hit for Williams and Norman? That's way too much for where these guys are in their careers.