Redskins and Draft Picks

Another year, another set of wasted draft picks. The Redskins have their strengths and weaknesses as an organization under Dan Snyder. I think on balance they are poorly run given the amount of money they have to spend, and how well they could do if they used it more wisely. The one thing that drives me nuts is the way they blow draft picks. It's like they don't even care about the things, when they are the easiest way to get cheap players in their prime on your team. Almost all of their starters are former 1st or 2nd round picks, it's just that they choose to sign them when they become free agents and cost more. If they didn't constantly blow them they would be able to get them when they don't cost so much, and they would have some depth. The Redskins have an amazing lack of depth for 2006. They have pretty much one player that could play at each position. And they continue to throw picks away that could rectify the situation in the future. The most recent example was the trade for Brandon Lloyd. Yesterday a ton of NFL teams signed players. Lots of team got quality players at needed positions. Lloyd wasn't any better than most of them, and yet the Redskins are the only team that had to give away picks to get him. A 3rd rounder and a 4th rounder. It's not like Lloyd is that good of a player, and he's a head case to boot. I don't mind acquiring him, but I wish they exercised a little prudence with their higher picks. They threw away a third last year and a first this year to draft Jason Campbell (a 2nd round talent at best who they didn't need), threw away a 2nd last year in the Champ-Portis deal which should have been straight up, and the trend continues. Compounding the problem is with so few high picks, they almost always draft for need rather than talent, and thus rarely get value. Sigh. It's frustrating, because being more careful with their drafting would give them so much more flexibility in free agency and make them a much better team.