The NFL lockout could force the Redskins to do something they haven’t successfully done for years: build through the draft. At least for this season.
If the lockout lasts as long as some fear — deep into August — then free agency will be greatly impacted and teams that have drafted well for the past few years will be rewarded. The Redskins are not in that latter group.
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It doesn’t mean they can’t improve this season. It does mean they won’t have as many options as originally hoped when the season ended, making the job much tougher. And it also means they had better hit on this year’s seven draft picks. It will be difficult to add more choices as teams can’t trade players for picks during a lockout (of course, one of those players, Albert Haynesworth, is doing his best to make himself untradeable).
The lockout also means if they draft a quarterback, it will be tough for him to make an immediate impact. Of course, none of the quarterbacks in the draft are considered ready to play right away. Regardless, if there’s a lockout and the Redskins have a rookie quarterback, he might not get any practice time with his new teammates until late August.
If the lockout goes that long, free agency will look different — if it even exists. And if it doesn’t, then one avenue of improvement evaporates.
At that point the drafting sins of the past will haunt Washington, starting with the 2008 class. Ten players picked, only one starter produced and five players already gone. This group should have been the foundation of the future. It’s not.
The 2009 draft produced one starter in Brian Orakpo and, perhaps, one other one in corner Kevin Barnes. The rest? Three others are no longer in Washington and a fourth, linebacker Robert Henson, spent last year on injured reserve.
Last year’s draft yielded one starter in Trent Williams, but with five players selected in the fourth round or later, the true value of this class won’t be known for another year or two.
So the last three drafts combined have so far produced three starters out of 22 selections.
The Redskins had better hope there’s not a long lockout.
