Vinny Cerrato, taken from the Washington Post

“We didn’t sit in that room all those hours to make a board to come to the [draft] day and go all over the place and ignore it,” Cerrato said at the evening’s end. “We’ve always followed the board. In the past, when we’ve made mistakes, it’s because [we] didn’t go by ‘take the best players, not fill a need.’ Take the best guy on the board.”

All things taken into account, my grade for the ’ Skins is a B/B+. They set out on a goal, and stuck to it despite it being uconventional. The biggest thing that stands out to many, is the lack of pass rush players drafted.

I agree that this is a need, but our defense wasn’t all that bad last year and it was our offense that couldn’t put teams away. Last year we averaged 20pts a game compaired to giving up 19pts a game. Everyone I’m sure is tired of all our games coming down to the last second, but with a offense that’s better at scoring TD’s instead of FG’s would inturn take pressure of our defense. I ask you all this question: Who’s defense do you think is better, the Cowboys or the Redskins? I say ours but Dallas(giving up nearly 21pts a game) had a better record because they put up the points and their defence was allowed to pin their ears back and go after the QB.

After all, “The Stiffmeister” even knows that “you don’t score until you score!”

“It doesn’t mean I’m going to be slap-happy throwing the ball every down,” Zorn said. “It can only help our running game. It could threaten what a defensive coordinator does as he tries to defend the weapons we have.”

In reflecting upon last season, the Redskins lost a lot of close games. Many fans, me included, felt the defensive pass rush was inadequate. More importantly, a good portion of the Redskins problems involved the year long injuries to the o-line translating into lack of ball control, poor run blocking, lack of consistent drives, and big time failures in the Red Zone.

Another issue, one that I had blogged about and even wrote to sports writers asking them to find out, was just how did the new coaching team and front office grade out many of the young players (Heyer, Montgomery, Alexander, Wilson, Doughty, et al) from last year. It seemed to me that information would have been crucial in understanding what the Redskins truly knew about their needs for this coming year.

Based upon above assumptions, I would have to say the following about the Skins’ draft, First is day one, then second day two. Day one: first three draftees really fit a need. A multiple weapon offense capable of countering the dictates (scheme) of the oposing defenses. My guess is that Malcolm Kelly may be the true find, if healthy. His upside potential is great. Kelly, with just one year, certainly shows potential. and natural receiver skills. Davis, is more of the puzzle, for me. He may have been rated the number one TE by many boards, but with other needs … Calais Campbell (though not my favorite d-lineman due to negatives) may have been a better long term pick (This is where the evaluations of Alexander, Wilson, etc come into play). Davis also has some large negatives – both in overall blocking ability and ability to learn plays.

Day two: Flexible o-lineman, Rinehart – something Bugel throughout his career has looked for and been able to coach – guys who can play several positions. Tryon has natural athletic skills, but his negatives involve run stopping support and some technique issues. He is a project that may pan out and be both a returner and nickle back. Picking the #1 rated punter and reading the different analyses on him, indicates he is a potential fix to our inconsistent punting game. Field position killed us sometimes last year. The hang time for a two step punter being mid to high 4 sec range and # of kicks inside 20 yd line are fenomenal. If this guy can kick under NFL pressure situations, then using a pick on him versus waiting to see if he became a free agent was inexpensive. According to reports the Redskins had indications another team was going to take him, so they did not want to lose him. Taking Colt brennan who was extremely effective in analyzing defensives and finding the right receiver and consistently completing 70% of his passes seemed a good pick to me. Zorn should know QB’s and this pick, as well as the receivers, probably bears his influence in those selections. The other picks, I have not had much time to read about.

The Redskins said they would pick for quality and quantity. Cerrato delivered, as best as one can considering the impression of analyzing talent and future successfullness of that talent. The Redskins picked the best receivers on the board, it appears (2 of 3 were rated #1 by many mock drafts. They picked up what appears to be a solid, capable interior offensive lineman, the #1 rated punter, and then got several DB’s and one DE.

If the 3 R’s pan out and even turn into great receivers, then you either have some veterans on the bubble, or trade material, or in a year or two trade material for taking care of other needs. If one pans out and is a tremendous receiver, then that is still success by NFL standards.

All this said, I still have concerns involving the d-line and the ability to consistently pressure the QB. That issue was not significantly addressed. Then, the Redskins were not in a strategic position to solve it without maybe having to give up more than it is worth in order to so, with the exception of passing on drafting Calais Campbell.

Time will tell how successful this draft went. My thought is offensively we will see immediate improvement. Now, we will have to see how effective Zorn is in improving Campbell’s analytical abilities of reading defenses and his technique on delivery of the ball. Collins should be excited. Brennan should be pleased to get to be coached by Zorn, whom many believe is the best the developer of QB talent in the NFL. Holmgren’s tree is replete with excellent head coaches. Many articles quoting players indicate a lot of enthusiasm about the new offensive scheme. Again, time will tell how well all this works out.