Vinny Cerrato, Boneheaded GM
Yes, Redskins fans, we do have the bone-stupidest General Manager in all of football, and I’m including the CFL, NFL Europe, and the now-defunct Arena League. Here’s how he explained why he didn’t draft any defensive linemen – a definite need for his team – in the last draft.
You know, so you’ve gotta go with how you have them ranked, how you have them graded, and you can’t just go take a need. The way that you can screw up your team is if you go draft a need, you’re gonna get a bunch of guys at those positions but you’re not gonna be happy with the results.
As Steinberg proved in his post, Cerrato is just wrong, unless he’s saying that he wouldn’t have been happier with the same level of production from rookies Philip Merling or Calais Campbell that he’s gotten from Jason Taylor (who is at the end of his career and cost the Redskins two draft picks and 8 million dollars this year). Problem is, he had no idea how productive Merling or Campbell are. No GM in this league should be that ignorant about the personnel in this league. Not ever.
Look, drafting for need is the only reason the NFL doesn’t automate its drafts, like a Yahoo fantasy league. If drafting the best player possible was the best strategy, then every team would just submit their ranked lists to the league, who’d dump them in a database, then run the draft by computer and send the results out to the teams later that evening. Teams don’t do that because their strategy varies from round to round, depending on what they need and on who is available. Going to the “whoever’s available” strategy in the second round is tantamount to surrendering the entire draft, unless you have a specific plan to flip the player you do get for someone to fill the need you have.
So the Redskins needed offensive and defensive linemen. What did they draft? Two wide receivers, a tight end, a safety, and a punter. And Cerrato never did try to fill any of the holes he already had on the lines, even with trades of low-level free agent signings (Taylor excepted). Now, I think that the Taylor deal was a decent deal given what the team spent for him. But don’t you think it would have been wise to have someone like Calais Campbell working with him in practice every week with an eye toward taking over the starting spot in a year or two, when Taylor finally retired? I know the team could have used him when Taylor got hurt and missed half the season.
I get that Cerrato is Snyder’s BFF, which means that we’re stuck with him until someone, somewhere convinces Snyder to sell the team. We ‘Skins fans might as well get used to more of this rampant idiocy from a guy who, at this point in his career, seems barely competent enough to run a fantasy football team.
And now, some Air Supply.
Other Posts of Interest:
- You Can’t Win if You Can’t Block
- Excitement – Good and Bad – At Redskins Training Camp
- Get Aboard the Redskins Bandwagon!
Category: My Beloved Redskins
As a fellow Redskin fan, I feel your pain. We DID draft Rinehart last year. Supposedly he is slated to take over for Kendall.
Outside of that… We need a new right tackle and at least two new contributors in the defensive front seven in the draft and free agency.
Don't see it happening. HTTR.