Redskins Draft Prep Round Four: Dwight Bentley or Chris Rainey

For the fourth round, I'm going to assume the Redskins have already addressed their needs at quarterback and at least one player along the offensive line. So the two players I'm proposing for round four are running back/receiver Chris Rainey, and small school cornerback Dwight Bentley.

Dwight Bentley, coming out of Louisiana Lafayette, is largely unknown to the masses. However, Bentley out-shone most of the corners at the Senior Bowl last week. He displayed an ability to play physical press coverage, play off-man coverage with a cushion and does a good job flipping his hips to run with a receiver on deep routes. He had a good season at the college level, showing up big against national championship winners Oklahoma State in Louisiana Lafayette's opening game this season, intercepting quarterback Brandon Weeden twice. The big knock on him is that he's a small school player and has to prove that he can play against a higher level of competition, but he did just that this week at the Senior Bowl. Bentley could come in and compete for the slot corner spot and eventually develop into a solid rotational guy in the secondary.

Chris Rainey would be somewhat of a luxury pick and come April his stock could rise to as high as the second or third round, but right now I see Rainey as a fourth rounder. At 5'8", 174 pounds, Rainey isn't going to be an every down back. He's not a guy you would want to run between the tackles all that often anyway. He's already started to draw comparison's to Darren Sproles and while he's not the runner Sproles is (Sproles is tough as a rock for a guy of his frame), I would use Rainey in similar ways. You can line him up in the slot as a receiver, or just as a running back coming out of the back field on screens and passing downs. You do whatever you have to do to get the guy 10-15 touches a game because if he gets the ball in space, he becomes an explosive weapon. Rainey is a former track star, and believes he can run in the 4.1 second range in the 40 yard dash at the combine. To help explain just how fast that is, Titans running back Chris Johnson, widely thought of as one of, if not the fastest man in the NFL, ran a 4.24 in the 40 yard dash at his combine. With that kind of speed, Rainey will burn slot corners all day long, and could take a simple screen play 50 yards for a touchdown. He can also return kicks, which would allow him to replace Banks and save us a roster spot. An explosive weapon like that on offense would be something the Redskins haven't had in quite some time.