With their loss to the New York Giants, the Washington Redskins are currently placed at the bottom of the NFC standings, landing them at the second overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft. They have one more game, and they can have anywhere from the 2nd to the 5th overall pick.
With many personal changes coming like Josh Norman and Trent Williams just to name a few, the Redskins are going to have a clean salary cap if they choose to move off a lot of aging, high salary players.
Expect a full rebuild from all the huge contracts not named Landon Collins.
If they land within in the top 3 picks, they are almost surely going to land in the Chase Young/Jerry Jeudy sweepstakes, which makes the most sense no matter which player they land.
Chase Young: The considered “prize” of this year’s draft, Ohio State EDGE Chase Young is many people’s top-ranked prospect, and with the Cincinnati Bengals almost surely taking LSU QB Joe Burrow, the Redskins are in line to take the Ohio State edge rusher.
A Heisman finalist, unanimous All-American, Chuck Bednarik Award winner, Young has produced at an elite level in his junior season for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He had 16.5 sacks and 7 forced fumbles, so he has a knack of getting to the ball and attacking.
Ryan Kerrigan getting hit by the injury bug for the first time in his career, he is going into the last year of his contract, maybe this is the perfect time to move off of him. He’s projected to make $11.5M next season, and he is not getting any younger, turning 32 in August, replacing him is definitely an option.
This defense has struggled to have a consistent pass rusher outside of Kerrigan, and it has shown in the production over the last few years. Can you point to the terrible defensive scheme under Greg Manusky? Yes. There is an expected overhaul on the defensive coaching staff, maybe a switch to a 4-3 with Montez Sweat and Chase Young on the outside is what this team needs.
Jerry Jeudy: Considered to be one of the best route runners coming out of college, Jeudy is projected to be the first WR taken off the board. Jeudy in his last two years of production has racked up 139 receptions, 2274 yards, and 23 TDs.
At 6’1″, 192 pounds, Jeudy isn’t the biggest target, but he is an elite route runner and has the ability to get open makes him the best WR to come out in a few years. Outside of strength and elite size, he is a complete target for whatever team he falls to.
The only issue that some people may see with drafting Jeudy so high is the possibility of getting similar production from a WR later in the draft and getting more picks to add more young players to help round out this team overall. This might sound appealing but at the end of the day it’s about adding the best players to help you win games in the future.
With the kind of “out of nowhere” ability and surprising production of Terry McLaurin, adding another WR would do Dwayne Haskins and the Redskins very well in his development into a franchise QB. With a WR young WR core with Jeudy, McLaurin, Kelvin Harmon and Steven Sims Jr., this can be a HUGE upgrade from what the Redskins have gotten fro their WRs since the departure of Desean Jackson and Pierre Garcon in the 2017 offseason.
