Armchair quarterbacks may have jumped up and screamed after the Washington Redskins made their first selection of the 2016 NFL Draft, but there’s no doubt in most experts’ minds, that they got the best player available on the board.
Back in April at the NFL Draft, Washington GM Scot McLoughan wasted no time rolling out his usual draft philosophy of trying to gain more picks and traded down one pick in the first round. The Redskins dealt their number 21 pick to the Houston Texans, who gave up their 22 pick and a 7th round pick for the right to move up one selection.
Then McLoughan surprised many, and didn’t grab a defensive player, but instead grabbed Josh Doctson. The 6’2″ wide receiver out of TCU was the top receiver on many to most sheets (for future reference, Houston selected wide receiver Will Fuller), and Josho was surely the best player available on the Washington Draft board at the time. But the Redskins do not appear to have much of a need at the position with DeSean Jackson, and Pierre Garcon already comfortably filling the one-two, and Jamison Crowder occupying the slot. So, was this a gamble?
Personally if I’m going to gamble, I try to take the best odds of winning possible and play online slots at All Jackpots casino; but when it comes to football, I prefer to see my draft gambling done in the later rounds.
But this wasn’t really a gamble at all, it was a calculated risk. You only see it as a gamble if you differ in drafting philosophies.
Both DJax and Garcon are only under contract through the 2016 season. Not only that, Doctson immediately provides something that Washington hasn’t had in a long time, a big receiver who can go up and win tough Red Zone catches. He’s two inches taller than Garcon and 4 inches taller than Jackson. The selection also gives options, in that Garcon can offer an almost $8 million cap savings if cut, to a team that only currently has $4 million in space.
Coming out of TCU, Doctson offers a mature and polished 23-year old player.
So while a draft day wouldn’t be a draft day without a good, “best player available” vs “best player that fills a need” conversation, that doesn’t make it a gamble. It’s that philosophical difference of opinion that I was referring to. Josh Doctson is not a gamble.
Just a couple more things for you to think about…
He broke his wrist in November and still blasted out 14 reps of 225 at the Combine. He’s a tough kid.
He has a 41 inch vertical. Serious hops. Grab a tape measure and see how high that actually is.
Of course the reality is, that there doesn’t seem to be any scientific way to determine wether a player’s particular skillset is going to translate or carry through to the pros. If there were, then Doctson would surely possess many-to-most of the attributes that you would want to see at the position. He’s arguably the best receiver in the draft, and that’s a good deal at number 22.
And that’s a calculated risk, not a gamble.
Hail to the Redskins.
Agree? Disagree? Hit me up on Twitter @TheHogsdotNet and let me know what you think.
You’d think we’d have learned our lesson by now about getting overly excited about Washington Redskins draft selections of wide receivers over 5’11”. Leonard Hankerson. Aldrick Robinson. Terrence Austin. Marko Mitchell., Devin Thomas. Malcolm Kelly. I’m not saying Josh Doctson is any of those players but history certainly isn’t on our side. While the pick was sensible on several levels, including but not limited to the fact that both starters are free agents after the 2016 season, receivers are historically a huge boom or bust pick. Having said that, I defy anyone to name a consistently successful NFL franchise that never takes calculated risks. I just hope he sees enough snaps this season to develop quickly.