Redskins Draft Prospect Interests Roundup

I have been trying to keep a list of the various meetings, rumors, interest, visits and workouts that have been reported going back to the East West Shrine game a few months ago.  Interactions at events like the East/West and Senior Bowls don't necessarily mean a lot, because teams like to talk to a majority of the players during the practices.  At the Combine, teams are allowed to set up interviews with up to 60 draft prospects, and there are also informal meetings that are reported with players.  Teams are also allowed to schedule 30 pre-draft visits with draft prospects at the team's facilities.  Team's can also host an unlimited amount of local prospects.

Last year the Redskins hosted David Amerson, Bacarri Rambo, and Phillip Thomas for visits and all three were drafted by the team.  Pre-draft visits, workouts and interviews are often nothing more than smokescreens to hide what the team is really interested in.  They can also be used to become more familiar with players for future use for when they are available in free agency or insight on an opponent.  Does the frequency of certain positions(RB, OLB, OT, WR) show the direction the Redskins will go in this year's draft, or is this just a waste of time?

It’s always good to find numbers to back up a gut feeling.  “Last season, I crunched the numbers and learned that of the 495 widely announced pre-draft visits, only 33 players were drafted by a team they visited, a 6.7% hit rate,” wrote Mike Tanier on Sports on Earth. “Thirteen teams drafted zero of the players they interviewed. Reporting interviews does little but work reporters to exhaustion covering meaningless procedural minutiae.”