Kevin, I, and a fan out west named Brandon (@myfriendsftw) have had been participating in a unique mock draft this week. It is a War Room centered draft where the three of us act as a democracy in picking for the Redskins. It has been a lot of fun (trades are allowed) and I wanted to give everyone some insight and also get your opinions on the job we've done so far. The whole draft is twitter based and can be followed by searching #MockThree or you can go to the website.
Pre-Draft: The first thing that happened for the Skins GMs was to meet online and agree on a general draft plan. We we're lucky in this regard because we all had similar philosophies and we decided to focus on quantity over quality for this draft. Second, we put together a big board and ranked over 625 college players.
1st Round: Like I said Kevin, Brandon, and myself all shared the same philosophies and we wanted to trade back in the first. I have taken on the responsibility in contacting other GMs and working trades. We had a couple of trades fall through but had an outstanding offer from the Broncos (who traded the #2 overall to SD, for a TON of picks). So we traded with Broncos, we gave our 1st (#10), 2nd (41), and one of our fifths for their 1st (#18), 2nd (36) and 3rd (89). The player we wanted at #10 was Tyron Smith, Smith ended up lasting to #17 so we took our second ranked tackle Anthony Castonzo out of Boston College. Creating bookend tackles with Trent Williams for the future.
2nd Round: In the 2nd, I wanted to try to trade back again and gain another pick. This became the biggest War Room moment where we had an offer from the Saints or we could take Christian Ballard, it really felt like we were doing this for real and after a spirited debate we traded with the Saints for their 2nd round pick (#56) and picked up another 3rd rounder (88). When it came our turn to pick at #56 TCU QB Andy Dalton was still sitting on the board and we gladly took him. (Newton, Mallett, Locker, Ponder, Kaepernick were already gone)
3rd Round: We had back-to-back picks in the 3rd #88 and #89. Immediately after the Dalton pick we decided in the third we were going to target the best defensive lineman or OLB available AND the BPA at guard or center. When it came our turn we quickly grabbed Jerrell Powe, NT, out of Ole Miss and Kris O'Dowd, C, out of USC.
The draft is still going on and is currently in the late 3rd Round, you can follow it here: http://mockthree.wordpress.com/
At the conclusion of the draft an expert panel will be reviewing and grading every team's performance in the draft.
To summarize, Redskins Picks:
1st Round: Anthony Castonzo, OT, Boston College
2nd Round: Andy Dalton, QB, TCU
3rd Round: Jerrell Powe, NT, Ole Miss
3rd Round: Kris O'Dowd, C, USC