Redskins Draft, Part 2: H.B. Blades to Help Skins on D

By drafting talented safety LaRon Landry out of LSU, the Redskins hope to drastically improve upon an atrocious 5-11 performance in 2006.

 

Here, Hogs Haven blogger Will Allensworth breaks down Washington's draft pick-by-pick and tells you what to expect from the 'Skins during the upcoming season.

 

In Part Two of his analysis, Allensworth evaluates the Skins' final three draft picks.

 

Round Six: H.B. Blades, ILB, Pittsburgh & Jordan Palmer, QB, UTEP

 

I love this pick, as does Michael David Smith.

 

Blades was a First Team All-American, the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, and a semifinalist for the Butkus Award at Pitt. He also recorded an incredible 433 career tackles.

 

The knocks against him are his height and size—but Blades isn't that much smaller than London Fletcher, who by the way turns 32 this month. I view Blades as the kind of guy who can come in and challenge for a starting spot after a year or two in Gregg Williams' system.

 

Blades fell lower than he should have due to concerns about his height and a linger hamstring injury. Still, he proved himself to be an elite linebacker at Pitt, and like Dallas Sartz should be able to make an immediate impact on special teams.

 

Jordan Palmer is a surprising pick who I've warmed up too since the weekend.

 

Let's be clear about what Palmer is not: a replacement for Jason Campbell. He comes to Washington as a backup—and maybe one day he'll develop into a starter or valuable trade bait.

 

Back to that whole pedigree thing: Jordan is the younger brother of Cincy Bengals QB Carson Palmer—who happens to be a two-time Pro Bowler. If he's almost as good as his older brother, he could develop into an outstanding NFL quarterback.

 

Jordan is tall (6'6") and big (235 pounds). The negatives against him are mostly coachable errors: He throws too many picks, has some mechanics issues, and struggles to see the field. He's immobile by immobile QB standards—which, unfortunately, is not coachable.

 

The best news here for me is that, unless I've read it wrong, Palmer fits well into Football Outsiders David Lewin's Quarterback Projection, which is "based primarily on games started and completion percentage." Campbell, incidentally, also scored outstandingly under Lewin's system.

 

 

Round Seven: Tyler Ecker, TE, Michigan

With their final pick in the draft, the Redskins selected Tyler Ecker, a tight end from Michigan—this filling a need that didn't get a lot of notice before the draft.

 

The 'Skins current tight end are Chris Cooley, Todd Yoder, and Eric Edwards. Cooley is the clear starter. Todd had a respectable year in 2006 given that expectations weren't especially high. If you had told me that Yoder would have more TD receptions than Brandon Lloyd at the beginning of the year, I would have laughed...and the joke would have been on me.

 

Word on Ecker is that he's been bulking up to play either blocking tight end or offensive linemen. Scouting reports say he's a decent receiver on short routes, but that his limited speed keeps him from being a deep threat. 

 

At best, Ecker might be a red zone specialist in Washington. Last year, we had Mike Pucillo lining up in jumbo sets as a tight end near the goal line. Ecker is a good blocker with better hands than Pucillo—which could be surprise defenses. (Remember Mike Sellers' seven touchdowns in 2005.)

 

 

Rather than assigning a "grade" here—a meaningless endeavor without context...which I admittedly cannot provide given my pedestrian knowledge of the other 31 teams and their draft performance—let me just say that I am content with the 'Skins' draft.

 

There were no disasters, for starters. We arguably ignored the D-line—but Landry is a fine pick and after that there really wasn't much we could do. We filled some backup needs, and may have gotten a steal in Blades. We also got a guy with an upside in Palmer, and a seventh-round pick who could become a role player in the red zone.

 

And, really: How successful can a draft be when you only have one first day pick and five overall? The Redskins will get poor marks from the peanut gallery—but remember that you can't efficiently utilize your draft resources if you don't have any. The team deserves criticism for the draft picks it throws away, and we paid the price for it this weekend. I hope that Joe Gibbs was earnest at the predraft briefing when he committed to having more picks in the 2008 draft.

Overall, we didn't do anything flashy—which is fine by me. If I had to assign a grade for the team, it would be an 8.174b on an undisclosed scale metric. Take that grading systems.

One more note on the D-line: I think the franchise has more faith in the unit than it deserves, but I'm willing to acknowledge than Gregg Williams knows more about this team than I do.

 

His resume speaks for itself, with a continual record of defensive success over a number of years with a number of different teams. He was good in Tennessee. He was good in Buffalo. He has been good in Washington. I do not think that Williams simply forgot how to coach a defense (or a defensive line) in 2006. I am willing to respect his decision to take Landry, and if the coaches really feel as if the D-line is good enough to enter the 2007 season—I'm willing to see their best efforts to that end.

 

Am I confident in our D-line? No. But prove me wrong Redskins, prove me wrong...

 

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