Perry Riley is a player to watch in 2011...or not?

There  has been a certain amount of buzz about Perry Riley all year, all of it seemingly positive. The question I want to ask to all of you out there-what are you seeing that I am not?

 This is not a post hating on Riley, it's just that I don't see what everyone else is excited about other than YouTube clips from his college days. After the jump, I'll put up his career statistics in the NFL and show you how they compare to other Redskin  linebackers and maybe a few linebackers from other teams. I'm not really seeing even an average linebacker here-come on people convince me I'm wrong.

 Riley was picked in the fourth round at 103rd overall. Here are Riley's stats from 2010-8 games played, seven tackles. None of those tackles were for loss or even on the opponent side of the  field. No Starts, no passes defensed, no sacks, no forced fumbles, no assists. now I know this was his first year and that the defense was in the middle of a scheme change. But you have to admit, this is very low production even without comparing it to other first-year linebackers.

Some examples:

Darnell Young-16 games, 12 tackles and one assist

Chris Wilson-16 games, 11 tackles, two assists, and four sacks in his rookie year of 2007. In his first year under Shanahan and the 34 defense, he played in 16 games, had 12 tackles and six assists along with two forced fumbles.

Rocky McIntosh-played 16 games and started two in his rookie season. He had 25 tackles and three assists that year. I don't think it's fair to compare his 2010  statistics as a fifth-year player, but here they are: 15 games played and started, 73 tackles and 37 assists. Along with this were three passes  defensed and one forced fumble.

Rob Jackson in his rookie year of 2008-got into three games and made one tackle. In 2010 Rob got into two games at the end of the season. In his first game against Jacksonville he went wild; three tackles, one sack, and a forced fumble. Unfortunately in his last game of 2010 he was not able to equal or exceed that performance and had no tackles.

HB Blades-in his rookie year of 2007 played in 16 games, and had 16 tackles and five assists. In 2010 Blades again played in 16 games and started one, 11 tackles and seven assists.

I am going to leave Lorenzo Alexander out of this, because he played so many positions and is a star on special teams that it would be hard to fairly compare him to linebackers. But, Lorenzo has been a consistent contributor since he started getting action in 2007.

Robert Henson has played only one season in 2009: he got into six games with two tackles.

Now for some other linebackers taken in the fourth round or later behind Riley.

Eric Norwood: Eric got into 15 games for the Panthers and got 13 tackles and one sack and one forced fumble. He was picked as the 124th pick overall.

 Sylvesterr Stevenson: got into 16 games in his rookie season of 2010 with the Steelers. He had 13 tackles, one assist, and one forced fumble.

Roderick Muckelroy: was taken by the Cincinnati Bengals at 131st overall. In 2010, he had four tackles, six assists, and two forced fumbles in 14 games.

Philip Dillard: was drafted by the New York Giants at 115th overall. In 2010 he got into seven games with three tackles and one assist to show for it.

Dekoda Watson: was drafted by the Buccaneers at 217th pick  overall. He got into 15 games for Tampa Bay, starting one of them. His stats for his rookie season are 25 tackles, and six assists along with one pass defensed.

Kavell Conner: was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts at pick number 240. He suited up for 12 games, starting nine of them. His stats-36 tackles, 21 assists, and one forced fumble.

And finally, the one that sticks in my craw the most…

at  pick 210 going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cody Grimm; son of Hall of Famer Russ Grimm and a local product out of Virginia Tech.

In 2010 Cody suited up for 11 games and started nine of them-look at this production!

43 tackles, 14 assists, two passes  defensed, two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown), and one forced fumble.

Now considering the Redskins play a 34 defense which requires a lot of linebackers, why did  Reilly only get into eight games? his production was surely below most of the people I listed, but especially in the last four games when the Redskins were out of the playoffs, you would expect to see at least one flash or a start.

So, Perry Riley promoters, what am I missing? We have plenty of potential openings at the linebacker positions. If Riley was showing anything in practice, I would think that the Shanahan's would've given him more playing time. I honestly would not be surprised if he didn't make it out of training  camp this year.