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Om Field: Redskins first-round draft picks "that got away." Or did they?

Om

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Not sure who the hell this guy is, but ...

Redskins first-round draft picks "that got away." Or did they?

"Since 1984, a span of 31 drafts, the Redskins have taken 20 players in the first round. Only two of them, 2000 first-round picks LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels, have signed second contracts with the Redskins. Some, like Brian Orakpo, have stayed on the franchise tag. Carlos Rogers, the team’s top pick in 2005, was kept around another year as a restricted free agent. But for the most part the Redskins’ first rounders have moved on when their rookie contracts were up if not sooner."

Initial reaction to the Rich Tandler piece excerpted above? Damn, this team needs to learn to hang on to its young talent.

Second thought, based on memory of the last 30 years? What young talent?

Clearly, retaining only two out of 18 first round selections over 31 years does not sound too good. But the implied conclusion of the piece—that the Redskins need to get better at retaining their home-grown young talent—may not be the right one. For one, it pre-supposes those picks were worth re-signing in the first place. And, if they were not, it points to a very different conclusion ...
 
Hopefully, now that Mcloughan is here, we'll have less "what in the hell are they doing" moments during draft weekend than what we're normally used to.

Thanks for the read Om, enjoyed it. :)
 
Mmmm. No 1st rd picks from 1984 to 1990.

All traded away, for what? Vinny wasn't GM, was he?

Anywho, nice dissection of a flawed article, Sir Om.

If's and but's. Candy nuts.
 
Awesome read as always brother. And great analysis.
 
People blame Snyder, but the truth is the draft stopped being a place where the Redskins found core players when Beathard left.

Things really declined when Gibbs left and you had guys like Shuler, Westbrook, Andre Johnson, etc taken high and none of the late round gems Beathard used to find.

Free agency was rarely kind either.

Carl Banks, Dana Stubblefield, Stanley Richard, James Washington, etc.

Trades for guys like Dan Wilkinson ended up as busts as well.

At one point we had the highest paid DL in the league but never ranked among the top units.
 
Whenever I open up a thread or article that analyzes or breaks down the history and patterns of the Redskins' past drafts, I have to brace myself, because I know it's not going to be good news, no matter what angle they analyze it from
 
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There are any number of angles to further explore ... like breaking down the picks (and non-picks) by administrations ... getting into the 2nd and 3rd round picks ... comparing the Skins hit-or-miss percentages over some or all of that period against other teams in the league, etc.

But I agree. It's really hard not to come away from any of these "studies" with nothing more than further confirmation that the last 25 years have really sucked.
 
People blame Snyder, but the truth is the draft stopped being a place where the Redskins found core players when Beathard left.

Things really declined when Gibbs left and you had guys like Shuler, Westbrook, Andre Johnson, etc taken high and none of the late round gems Beathard used to find.

Free agency was rarely kind either.

Carl Banks, Dana Stubblefield, Stanley Richard, James Washington, etc.

Trades for guys like Dan Wilkinson ended up as busts as well.

At one point we had the highest paid DL in the league but never ranked among the top units.
Of course people blame Snyder, me included and I see no reason why that's an unwarranted opinion. Who hired Cerrato? Who kept him on and even rehired him year after painful year of shitty drafts and FA signings? Who decided that "cash saves cap" was the best policy and stuck with it year after year even though it was clear that it wasn't working out? Of course you can argue that maybe FA could work, but only if we bring the right players into a non-toxic environment. But other than the non-toxic environment which is directly Snyder's fault, the rest all goes back to the Snyder backing Cerrato thing.

We've made a lot of poor decisions during the Snyder years, and there is some blame to go around. However the vast majority of those poor decisions are attributable to Mr. Belt Buckle.
 
Of course people blame Snyder, me included and I see no reason why that's an unwarranted opinion. Who hired Cerrato? Who kept him on and even rehired him year after painful year of shitty drafts and FA signings? Who decided that "cash saves cap" was the best policy and stuck with it year after year even though it was clear that it wasn't working out? Of course you can argue that maybe FA could work, but only if we bring the right players into a non-toxic environment. But other than the non-toxic environment which is directly Snyder's fault, the rest all goes back to the Snyder backing Cerrato thing.

We've made a lot of poor decisions during the Snyder years, and there is some blame to go around. However the vast majority of those poor decisions are attributable to Mr. Belt Buckle.

BD's point was that the problem predates Snyder buying the team. The truth of the matter is that while Caserly was servicable as a GM he is was never in Bethard's league but then who is? There might be another half dozen GM's in the league who are/were as a good as Bobby was when he was with us. JKC just promoted Charlie to the position and hoped for the best but in reality he should have hired outside the organization as Charlie wasn't really up to the job.

Consider how things might have been different if The Squire had hired Ron Wolfe when Beathard left and Ron had been running the team when Snyder took over? It is very possible that we would have had a winning club then with no need to for the radical Free Agent pickups that marked the early Snyder years. No Vinny. No Spurrier. No Stubblefield or Wilkinson. No wasted picks on Shuler and Westbrook.

Of course, all that is just wishful thinking now isn't it?
 
I was in high school when Bobby Beathard was at the end of his term as GM with the Redskins. If I talked about high school as much as you guys talk about Bobby Beathard EVERYONE would roll their eyes at me like I'm starting to roll my eyes at the Bobby Beathard talk. Add that to the cacophony of nicknames for our "haven't done a GD thing yet" GM and I'm starting feel a retreat from offseason talk is the best scenario for me.
 
BD's point was that the problem predates Snyder buying the team. The truth of the matter is that while Caserly was servicable as a GM he is was never in Bethard's league but then who is? There might be another half dozen GM's in the league who are/were as a good as Bobby was when he was with us. JKC just promoted Charlie to the position and hoped for the best but in reality he should have hired outside the organization as Charlie wasn't really up to the job.

Consider how things might have been different if The Squire had hired Ron Wolfe when Beathard left and Ron had been running the team when Snyder took over? It is very possible that we would have had a winning club then with no need to for the radical Free Agent pickups that marked the early Snyder years. No Vinny. No Spurrier. No Stubblefield or Wilkinson. No wasted picks on Shuler and Westbrook.

Of course, all that is just wishful thinking now isn't it?
Point well taken. I certainly wasn't a fan of Casserly's job and I think his subsequent performance with the Texans bore that out. I can still see him in my minds eye saying "You don't punt at the QB position" when bringing in Brad "Limp Arm" Johnson. :sad: The only problem with this line of reasoning is that we went from a mediocre personnel organization under Casserly to a piss poor overall organization, personnel and everything else, under Snyder.

We can only hope that McLovin' has some level of initial success and is able to become the guy Snyder thought Cerrato was and is given the keys to remake the franchise. If, as he's warned, it takes a few years for the team to turn around, I think we might be back on the Snyder Klown Merry Go Round.
 
I was in high school when Bobby Beathard was at the end of his term as GM with the Redskins. If I talked about high school as much as you guys talk about Bobby Beathard EVERYONE would roll their eyes at me like I'm starting to roll my eyes at the Bobby Beathard talk. Add that to the cacophony of nicknames for our "haven't done a GD thing yet" GM and I'm starting feel a retreat from offseason talk is the best scenario for me.
I'm dead money...


And I'm peaked in high school dead money, and I have cable
 
It's also not a 'plug and play' world. Put Bruce Springsteen in Iowa growing up, maybe he ends up playing at hoe downs and Moose Lodge shindigs his whole life. We assume that if Beathard and Gibbs had stayed we'd have continue to go to Super Bowls. Maybe not. Ron Wolf? Maybe he comes to DC and never has the success he had elsewhere. Timing, chemistry, luck - a lot of factors go into success. And lots of things have to go awry to be as consistently irrelevant as the Redskins have been for the past 20 years. And yeah, we were already in a downward spiral before Snyder got here. But that's hardly a defense of the guy. I could care less if Snyder is super fan - he has been, in practice if not intent, awful for this team. And I dislike Mike Shanahan, but some of his recent comments (if true) seem to indicate that hoping he and Bruce Allen stay out of the football decision-making may be nothing more than a pipe dream.
 
It's also not a 'plug and play' world. Put Bruce Springsteen in Iowa growing up, maybe he ends up playing at hoe downs and Moose Lodge shindigs his whole life. We assume that if Beathard and Gibbs had stayed we'd have continue to go to Super Bowls. Maybe not. Ron Wolf? Maybe he comes to DC and never has the success he had elsewhere. Timing, chemistry, luck - a lot of factors go into success. And lots of things have to go awry to be as consistently irrelevant as the Redskins have been for the past 20 years. And yeah, we were already in a downward spiral before Snyder got here. But that's hardly a defense of the guy. I could care less if Snyder is super fan - he has been, in practice if not intent, awful for this team. And I dislike Mike Shanahan, but some of his recent comments (if true) seem to indicate that hoping he and Bruce Allen stay out of the football decision-making may be nothing more than a pipe dream.
All true.

I would only add that Mike Shamahan's credibility is no better than Snyder's. He was here long enough to learn that all you have to do is sling some shit at Snyder, and that based on his reputation, and the discontent of the fan base, lots of it will stick. Whether true, or not.
 
I hear you. But it doesn't alter the fact that he may well be telling the truth.
 
That is correct.

But if even if true, in my mind, 100% of the fault still lies with Shammy.

If he had the final say, and didn't exercise it? All his fault.
If he took the job, knowing Snyder's reputation, and didn't get the power written in to his contract? All his fault.

Snyder being an asshole doesn't exonerate Shammy from being a failure here.
 
Om Field: Redskins first-round draft picks "that got away." Or did they?

Snyder being an asshole doesn't exonerate Shammy from being a failure here.

Who said it did? The problem is, if Snyder really was meddling and imposing his wishes on Shanahan - he may well have pushed back. Shanahan got fired, remember? It may have been as much about telling Snyder what he thought about that kind of meddling as it was job performance.

I don't care really. It's history now. But I do think the Shanahan comments may call into question what a lot of fans speak as 'truth', that the meddling Snyder is the 'old Snyder' and that he has learned and has stayed out of football and roster decisions for a long time now.
 

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