Washington Redskins Quarterback Options Look to be Feast or Famine

The Washington Redskins don’t have time to rest this offseason. There is more work to do than ever before, especially at the QB position.

Mock Drafts have already been coming out for months. Most of the established mock experts have begun their revisions in earnest. A lot of them are embracing the annual QB delirium and elevating some of the quarterbacks to lofty status generally reserved for more highly regarded and proven potential NFL franchise quarterbacks. Other mocks see things differently and have projected these QBs to be drafted closer to their actual value.

Of course, we can only speculate about how each team is evaluating these QBs. But, this year was supposed to be a down year for QBs. Now mocks are popping up that have four of them going in the top 10.

It’s hard to believe the Redskins would have to trade up to get one of these QBs. In fact there is a chance that when the Redskins pick at 15 all four of the QBs are still on the board.

There can be no debating that the NFL is a “Win Now” league. Rebuilding a team is nice to imagine but if most coaches go out and stink up the place with a 3 or 4 win season their role in the rebuild will likely have come to an end. You can count on one hand the number of NFL coaches that would feel secure in their jobs were their team to go out and lose a dozen games.

It’s easy to convince yourself, as a fan, that one of this year’s quarterbacks is the franchise savior that will take your team to the promised land. It’s much harder to feel the same way if your betting your job on it. I can’t imagine any GM has lost sight of the fact that next year’s QB class is expected to be stellar. No GM wants to draft a QB in the 1st round this year and have to turn around and do it again next year. This requires GMs and coaches (the selection committee) to be cautious when taking a QB in the first round much less trading up to do it.

The number of tremendously talented football players on draft boards is going to weigh heavy on the minds in the various war rooms. No matter how much anyone likes one or all of the top 4 QBs there is no way to look at the draft board and not see at least 20 players that deserve a higher position on the list than any of the quarterbacks. The sheer quantity and quality of the first couple dozen guys is going to make it really difficult to take a chance on one of the QBs unless you absolutely have to have a quarterback. The only team, (after free agency), that has to take a QB in round one is Washington.

The Redskins have been rumored to be enamored with Duke’s Daniel Jones.

But, would they be just as excited about him if Dwayne Haskins, Drew Lock, and Kyler Murray were still sitting there undrafted at pick #15?

While this is an unlikely scenario it is not an impossible one. In today’s win-now NFL I can’t convince myself that the Giants, knowing that future Hall of Famer Eli Manning is going to be their quarterback, are going to draft a kid to sit for a year when it means passing on the likes of an Ed Oliver, a Rashan Gary or a Quinnen Williams.

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The top 20 players on many current draft boards boast 4 or 5 D linemen, 3 or 4 edge rushers, 3 or 4 DBs, a couple dominant O linemen, an ILB that is ranked as high as 4 on some boards, some freakish TEs, a WR or three that would be day one starters for most teams and a RB that is just impossible to dismiss as a day one pick. Then you have the quarterbacks.

Is a team really going to pass on a Devin White or a Greedy Williams to draft a 5’10 quarterback? Is a QB with questionable arm strength a safer pick than a WR that runs a 4.2? Now that the future perennial pro bowl O lineman is there for the picking is a team going to go instead with someone with one year worth of film? Is there a team picking before Washington that is willing to forego one of the several plug-and-play edge rushers for a QB whose footwork makes you wonder how he doesn’t fall down when he throws the ball?

I don’t see it happening. It’s too easy to justify not taking one of these QBs because of who will be available in the 2020 draft. And it’s almost impossible to explain why you passed on 3 or 4 guys that went to the pro bowl as rookies. I won’t be too surprised if the Redskins find themselves in position to take whichever QB they want.

Even then, although their hand is being somewhat forced, when Washington selects Daniels or Haskins or whoever, there are still going to be some players on that board that are going to make taking a quarterback a bitter pill to swallow. But again, the Redskins really have no choice. The other teams do and that’s why I think a lot of them are going to steer clear of this group of signal callers and opt for the sure thing. And there seem to be a lot of sure things in the first half of this year’s draft.

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