Pick # 10: Washington Redskins

A case could be made that Washington D.C fans are the most tortured fan base in America. Yeah they have the Caps but the Caps never do anything when it really matters, and I love hockey but if you're hockey team is your only good team it's kind of weak. The fact of the matter is that the Wizards suck, the Nationals suck even worse, and the Redskins are the Yankees of the NFL without the winning. Daniel Snyder’s reign over this team has been classified by trading away drafts picks, signing high-priced under-performing free agents, and crippling his team’s chances of winning in new and original ways every season.

Last year was supposed to be different. Mike Shanahan was supposed to restore order and sanity but his first major move was completely insane. He traded for Donovan McNabb when he could have just stayed at pick #34 and drafted Colt McCoy, who played in only half the Browns games this year due to a few lingering injuries but actually posted better numbers than McNabb in Washington and is 10 years younger. The Skins addressed their offensive line issues early in the draft last year, but even then they outsmarted themselves, taking Trent Williams out of Oklahoma instead of Russel Okung, the consensus best lineman in the draft, out of Oklahoma St. Once again, Russel Okung had the better year of the two. So they’ve made some mistakes, but they have taken chances and done what they thought was best, not what anyone else thought was best. They are going to do the same thing in a few weeks at the draft, and shock people with a player people think won’t even go in the first round.

(INSERT OFFENSIVE NAME) #10 OVERALL MOCK DRAFT PICK:
JAKE LOCKER - QB, WASHINGTON

Wait, didn’t I just say yesterday that there were only 2 top 10 worthy quarterbacks in this draft? I most certainly did, but I’m not predicting what teams should do, I’m predicting what I think they will do. Of the 7 teams in the top 10, I think one falls in love with one of the “second tier” QBs behind Newton and Gabbert and takes a surprising chance on one of them. Of the second tier guys, Locker has the best chance to turn into an elite pro and I think Shanahan moves on him and buys Redskins fans with a few more months/years of hope before Locker turns out to suck as well. Honestly, at this point it seems like Peyton Manning or Johnny Unitas or however in their prime could go to the Redskins and instantly suck. That's what Locker's fighting against, but the kid has moxy and Shanahan needs a QB.

The bottom line is that Redskins since Shanahan and Bruce Allen have taken over football operations have demonstrated that at the very least, they have balls. Shanahan basically told Albert Haynesworth to go fuck himself right off the bat, then made the above mentioned personnel decisions. These guys will rock the boat and take serious chances, this is the latest one and maybe the riskiest. Shanahan is going to coach for 3-4 more years at the most before he turns the reins over to his son Kyle. He needs to find his quarterback now, not next year, this year, right now, especially because it’s going to take him 1-2 years to develop the kid. Jake Locker is a bit rough and his accuracy has been questioned but he’s a physical specimen with all the tools an elite NFL QB needs. He could have been the #1 overall pick, yes even over Sam Bradford, if he had come out after his junior year, but he elected to come back for his senior season at Washington, which as far as decisions go was probably not the best one ever made (if costing yourself literally millions of dollars because of the new rookie scaling system that will be in the new CBA) can be classified as a bad decision. Regardless, he finds a new home in Washington and starts afresh. We will see how it works out.

Entire Mock Draft:

1. Carolina Panthers - Marcell Dareus
2. Denver Broncos - Patrick Peterson
3. Buffalo Bills - Cam Newton
4. Cincinnati Bengals - A.J. Green
5. Arizona Cardinals - Blaine Gabbert
6. Cleveland Browns - Julio Jones
7. San Francisco 49ers - Von Miller
8. Tennessee Titans - Nick Fairley
9. Dallas Cowboys - Prince Amukamara
10. Washington Redskins - Jake Locker