Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Conversion Failed: Skins Won ' t Invite Hoopster

In the NFL success breeds imitations and the success of San Diego tight end Antonio Gates, a college basketball player who became an NFL star at tight end is no exception. The Redskins certainly aren't shy about hopping aboard that bandwagon, inviting Pittsburgh hoopster Chevon Troutman to their combination rookie minicamp and tryout this weekend. Troutman, 6-7, 240, last played football in high school.

And that likely will stand as his last gridiron action as it was announced that Troutman will not be invited to training camp in August.

As an NBA 'tweener, not quick enough to be an effective small forward and not quite big enough to be a power forward, Troutman was pursuing alternate means of employment as an athlete. The Redskins looked at his size, watched tapes of him grabbing the ball in heavy traffic, envisioned a few dozen pounds of bulk added to his frame and sent him an invite to come to the tryout portion of the rookie camp.

Troutman had a bit to say after being told that his tryout was over after one day:

When they first threw everything at me, it looked like Spanish or something. I feel like I can play in the NFL. I just need a little bit of time to learn everything.

If you're going to Spain, it's probably a good idea to study up on a little Spanish. If you're going to be a football player, it's probably a good idea to learn a little NFL lingo.

At least one writer who knows Troutman well called the result of Troutman's dalliance in the NFL earlier this week.

In a column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ron Cook tells of a brief chat he had with Troutman during the recent NCAA basketball tournament:

It was in Boise, Idaho, last month, during a quiet moment between the time Chevon Troutman was panting over the Boise State women gymnasts and turning his attention to Pacific, Pitt's opponent the next morning in the NCAA tournament. There was a sense this might be it for Troutman as a college basketball player. Pitt wasn't playing well and had lost four of its previous six games. The next loss would send the players scattering. Just in case, I took the opportunity to wish Troutman well in his football career.

'Football? I'm not going to play football,' he said. 'I don't like football. I'm going to play basketball.'

It's hard to play NFL football because you want a high-paying job. There has to be a love for the sport, a willingness to prepare endlessly for those three hours on Sunday. In short, you have to have a passion for the sport and it doesn't appear that Troutman has that. From Cook's column:

Troutman tried football his junior year of high school in Williamsport only after insistence from friends and coaches. By all accounts, he was a fine defensive end, raw but so athletic. But he played just that one season. Sure, he wanted to concentrate on basketball. But he also has said he got tired of getting "dirty."

Tired of getting dirty? Doesn't sound much like Donnie Warren or Terry Orr, does it?

Gardner: 50-50 Chance He ' ll Be Back?

Rod Gardner may not be running from town after all.

After the dust settled following the NFL draft, the Redskins had not selected a wide receiver. They also had not disposed of one. More than three months after telling Gardner he was free to seek a trade and making it clear that the receiver is not in the team's 2005 plans, Joe Gibbs and the Redskins were unable to swing a deal to send Gardner to another team. With another sticky wicket to deal with, Gibbs said:

We're trying to craft what we think, going forward, is best for the team and for Rod.

"In that order," Gibbs no doubt was thinking but left unsaid.

Gardner's agent Joel Segal was realistic about the situation. Explaining why Gardner was still a Redskin, he said:

The lack of a trade right now is a combination of three things: Number one, compensation, differences of opinion. Number two, the player has a one-year contract left. That's tantamount to renting Rod. Some clubs don't want to pay a large sum to rent a player for one year. And third, value is always more to the club you're with than another club.

Oh, and one more reason, added Gibbs:

He has a contract.

So will Gardner be a Redskin when training camp rolls around? That remains to be seen. It doesn't appear that Gibbs wants to let Gardner, a 2001 first-round draft pick, go without any compensation. However, as long as he's on the roster the Redskins can't take advantage of the $2.1 million in cap savings that cutting or trading him would bring, money that the Redskins could use to sign a their draft picks or bring in a player following the June 1 cuts. In case you're wondering, the Redskins gain no advantage by waiting until after June 1 to trade or cut Gardner as he is in the last year of his contract and his allocated bonus charge will remain regardless of when he's cut.

One possible destination for Gardner is Tampa Bay. They failed to get a top-shelf receiver in the draft and are looking for a veteran wideout. From an article on FoxSports.com:

The Bucs picked up a couple of intriguing wide receiver prospects in Brackins and Paris Warren but still lack quality, depth and experience at the position. The team still might try to work a deal for a veteran such as Rod Gardner before the start of training camp.

Will he stay or will he go? Just like you don't know if Gardner's going to catch a soft spiral to him when he's wide open (after he just made a spectacular, diving catch), it remains to be seen.

Skins Big Media Bias: Caught Red Handed

I'm not one to whine much about media bias against the Redskins. Yes, there is a lot of negative reporting about the Redskins. It's hard to find a Skins draft grade out there above what I got in high school physics (and there's a reason I'm not a rocket scientist). My line of reasoning has been based on the fact that until they make the playoffs again or at least post a couple of consecutive winning seasons, the critics will be out there.

Sometimes, however, the critics get caught in a biased moment. When something they said in a context that doesn't involve the Redskins suddenly does pertains to Danny Snyder's team, the positive spin becomes inoperative and turns negative, or vice versa depending on the situation.

Read the following statement and tell me who made it:

Campbell looked really good -- so good that you find yourself wondering: How can a scout watch this kid and not label his arm, athleticism and field presence all first-round gifts?

Was it Joe Gibbs or Vinny Cerrato? Auburn coach Tommy Tubberville? Some homer Redskins blogger out there?

No, it was said in this article by Peter King. Yes, the very same Peter King who annually draws the ire of Redskins fans when he leads to charge to block Art Monk's entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The very same Sports Illustrated writer who hasn't had anything good to say about the Redskins since the Norv Turner era.

To say that he is ga-ga over Campbell in the article, which was published two weeks before the draft on April 11, would be an understatement. You have to click over to the third page before you find the nut of the story:

Next I watched Campbell. My first question was: Where's this guy been hiding? The simple answer: Behind Brown and a very big Cadillac. Campbell is 6-4 3/4 and 230 pounds. His pass-drop is quick and textbook perfect. He sets up well in the pocket, bouncing athletically until he finds his receivers. He never flinches against a pass rush, moving deftly this way or that to avoid traffic. He throws on the run better than Rodgers or Campbell. On one throw against Kentucky last fall, he rolled out from his 46 to his right, then flicked a sideline throw 19 yards downfield for an in-stride completion. That's the kind of throw he'll be asked to make 100 times a year in the NFL.

He concludes in regards to what quarterback the 49ers should draft among Alex Smith, Aaron Rogers and Campbell:

I hope they take another look at Campbell. I sure would if I were Mike Nolan.

But, hey, if you're Joe Gibbs, you're a fool to make the trade for the 25th pick in the draft in order to take a quarterback who is in the writer's view an equal to the #1 overall pick, according to King.

On Monday on PTI, King literally laughed at the Redskins for drafting Campbell, saying that it was obvious that the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. He made absolutely no mention of the fact that he thought that Campbell was Smith's equal. If he did, then that would have blown the whole media template established that the Redskins are the gang that can't shoot straight.

If you're trading a couple of mid-rounders for a shot to get an guy who's as good as the best quarterback in the draft, that's a pretty shrewd deal. That's something that, to the Peter Kings of the world, the Redskins can't make. So, just like in the Nixon White House, previous statements become inoperative. Campbell's talents are first-round gifts when another team might be looking at him. When the Redskins take him in the first, they're bumblers.

We're always suspected it, but now we have the goods on at least one of them.

Redskins Turn To Lunch Pail Types on Day 2

Skins Take Lunch-Pail Players on Day 2

After spend a pair of first-round picks on players in glamour positions on Saturday and took a pair of linebackers and a pair of fullbacks on the second day.

Of the four picks—Robert McCune of Louisville (5th round) and Jared Newberry of Stanford (6th) are the linebackers and Manuel White of UCLA (4th) and The Citadel’s Nehemiah Broughton (7th) are the FB’s—McCune is by far the most interesting. He’s 26 and came to Louisville on a National Guard scholarship, not a football scholarship. Without checking, I’d have to guess that he’s the oldest player the Redskins have drafted since George Allen drafted Moses Denson, a CFL veteran, in 1973. McCune is a veteran too, but of tours of duty in Kuwait and Korea, not of a sports league.

Again with the caveat that it takes a few years to judge a draft, why draft these players? The last time I checked, Gibbs’ offense didn’t use a fullback and even with the departure of Antonio Pierce the field is rather crowded there.

The nose-in-the-dirt nature of all four of these players indicates that Joe Gibbs is furthering his efforts to improve the Redskins’ special teams. In the Scout.com reports of each player, a role on special teams is mentioned prominently.

That would be nothing new to McCune. As a non-scholarship player he earned his way onto the Louisville roster as a special teams guy. At 6-0 and a well-chiseled 245, McCune was hand timed at a 3.37 40 at the combines (his official time was 4.5). You look up “wedge buster” in the NFL glossary and there’s a picture of a guy like McCune there.

If you can tell that I like McCune despite never having seen him play save for a video clip here and there, you’re right. How can you not like a guy who has earned the nickname The Hammer. Not Hammer, not the Hammer, but The Hammer. If you think that this is a distinction without a difference, all I can say is that you’re wrong.

These selections didn’t cause nearly the consternation among the Redskins faithful as did the selection of Jason Campbell (although their “failure” to pick up local faves such as UVa’s Chris Canty and Elton Brown did). As the selection of Carlos Rogers, in my view, bordered on a no-brainer, the Campbell pick is the only one that warrants much further discussion.

The odd thing about this pick is that Campbell doesn’t even have to take a snap in order to be a good selection. Here’s a little story that might seem familiar: A young quarterback drafted in the overall early 30’s. In the early going he shows equal parts of promise and struggle and a veteran is brought in. When the vet can’t get it done, the team drafts a QB in the first round. And all of a sudden Drew Brees goes to the Pro Bowl. Without seeing any significant action, Philip Rivers plays a major role in the Chargers making the playoffs while Doug Flutie rides off into the sunset.

Patrick Ramsey is easy to root for. By all indications he’s a great guy, he says all the right things, he’s smart, he’s tough. But the cold, hard fact is that he still has yet to establish himself as an NFL quarterback. So does Joe Gibbs just work with him and wait and see if he develops? Or does he scare the hell out of him by spending a first, a third, and a fourth to draft his potential successor?

There’s one more important thing to remember. Ramsey was the selection of the previous administration, ie the one with Dan Snyder in charge. Quarterbacks are to head coaches as Secretaries of State are to the president—they serve at the boss’ pleasure. A new administration is not bound by the decisions of the previous one (although salary cap considerations, of course, are meaningless in the federal government).

Too Early to Judge the Draft

To start out with, I have to state that it’s been my firm belief ever since I knew what an NFL draft was that it takes at least three years, probably four, to judge a draft. You have to see how the players who were selected actually play on the field for an extended period of time before you can say if the player’s performance justified the pick.

Even in the days where the analysts weren’t so plentiful and so instant, everyone ink-stained wretch out there still had to come up with an immediate judgment on what had just been concluded. These days, with so many out there calling themselves draft experts and with an ability to offer an opinion for all the world to see within seconds of a pick being made, it’s gotten truly out of hand.

That being said, there is a legitimate case that can be made for analyzing what a team was thinking about when it made a given pick, what they might do with a particular player drafted and what effect it might have on the players currently on the team. Those aspects are in the here and now.

In this draft, the Redskins shattered two myths about the team, although this will certainly not make the mainstream media change their template they have used for the past five years in their coverage of the team. First, they did not go for the big splash or the flashy player. Certainly, a move up to nab Braylon Edwards would have been a headline-maker. They passed on that move. Mike Williams would have been the sexier pick at #9, but they weren’t swayed from their convictions and took Carlos Rogers. The cornerback didn’t have as much spectacular footage as did Williams, but isn’t the whole idea of being a great cover corner to stay out of highlight films?

Second, despite what was said in this space a few days ago, they are not necessarily gunning to win now at the expense of the future. Jason Campbell may or may not become a stud NFL quarterback, but if he does it will likely be after Joe Gibbs is back in NASCAR. He made what he thought was the best choice for the future of the franchise.

There is only one legitimate argument against the selection of Rogers and that’s the presence of Williams on the board. The former USC receiver would have been a good compliment to the team’s current corps of receivers, which lacks a red-zone go-to move-the-chains kind of receiver. Apparently, Gibbs (who to repeat is the decision-maker here) believed that the hole at corner was more critical than the lack of a big receiver.

There’s a lot more room for discussion about the selection of Campbell. After a few hours of trying to digest it, I just can’t figure it out. Ramsey is a good QB prospect, perhaps a very good one, they type of signal caller that Gibbs has built into Super Bowl quarterbacks. The Skins spent a first-round pick on him three years ago. Why not make him your main guy and then take your project QB later in the draft?

It’s hard to see how Gibbs is going to spin this to Ramsey, who he says is his starter at QB. It wasn’t as though they were just sitting there at #25, minding their own business when Campbell, who they had rated as the best QB in the draft, just fell into their laps. It’s obvious that the Skins wanted Campbell enough to make the deal with Denver to get a pick where he’d almost certainly be available. And certainly you can say that it takes a quarterback a couple of years before he will be ready to start in the NFL, but that would put Campbell as being ready right in the middle of what should be Ramsey’s prime. Sure, you need two QB’s in today’s NFL, but two first-rounders?

To his credit, Ramsey came out a couple of days ago and said that it didn’t matter to him if the Skins drafted a quarterback, that he just wanted the team to do what it thought was best. In retrospect, all but the most thick-headed among us (including yours truly) probably took this as a signal that the Redskins were indeed going to take Campbell as they probably wouldn’t have let Ramsey say something like this unless it was pretty certain that this would happen.

Big Media didn’t have a very good handle on this in the past few days. Many, including the Washington Post, drank the Braylon Edwards Kool-Aid, in fact they gulped it down with great glee. Such a move would not leave them with the means to take Campbell so all but ESPN, who seemed to be circling the wagons around its writer Len Pasquerelli since he broke the story that Gibbs had visited Campbell last week, had abandoned that line for the most part.

This space had a good take on the #9, saying that Rogers would be the pick albeit with some serious qualifiers about the possibility of taking Williams if he was on the board or trading down. Again, Campbell at #25 was not on the radar screen here at all, thinking that it was either a smoke screen or just the prudent exploration of very outside possibilities.

Skins MUST Make Edwards Deal If. . .

It’s not all that complicated, really.

If the Redskins are 100% convinced that Braylon Edwards will be the next great receiver, the next Rice, the next Monk, the next Don Hutson, they have to make a deal to move up to draft him. Trade the two firsts, throw in Rod Gardner, Tony Stewart and Redskins One if you have to.

If they are much less than dead certain, say 98.6% certain or less, they have to pass on any trade that would involve their two first-round draft picks. This team is not one very good player away from a title.

That’s just one of the possibilities for the Redskins entering this draft, of course. Here’s one viewpoint on what might transpire.

While there’s a lot of stuff swirling around, there is one thing that can be stated with a high degree of certainty (and even this starts with an “if”): If the Redskins don’t use the #25 pick that they got from Denver earlier this week as part of the ammunition to trade up to take Edwards, they will use it as is. If they trade down out of 25 the trade value charts get all out of whack in regards to their original deal to get the pick and they don’t have the assets to move up. A corollary here is that they can’t trade up from #9 without using the #25 also. Without a second or third, again, they don’t have anything to deal with.

So that breaks down to three possibilities for the first round; use both picks to trade up to the top three and take Edwards, use both #9 and #25 as they are or trade down the #9 and use #25 as is.

We’ve dealt with the first possibility, so moving on to the second one; this seems to be the most likely of the three. They’ll try to move down but it takes two to tango and while it’s certainly possible that they’ll be able to find a partner, chances are that they won’t find a buyer who’s willing to pay an acceptable price.

Should the Skins draft at #9, the pick likely will be Auburn cornerback Carlos Rogers. Barring any real stunning moves by teams drafting in front of them, he will be the best player left on their board and since he is at a position of need, that would make him a strong favorite to take the stage in New York with the Skins jersey with the number 1 on the back.

One of the possible causes of an upset here could be the presence of USC wide receiver Mike Williams on the board. He seems to be slipping on some draft boards because he’s a big receiver without a whole lot of speed. Such a receiver would give the Skins a nice balance of speed with Santana Moss and David Patten and size with Williams.

A wild card here is Maryland defensive end Shawne Merriman. He has the potential to be a disruptive pass rusher the likes the team hasn’t seen since the heyday of Mann and Manley.

A trade back that moves them back about a half a dozen slots could net them any of those three plus some picks in later rounds to replenish their depleted supply. If any or all of these players are gone, Wisconsin DE Erasmus James and Georgia DE David Pollack would come into play as could South Carolina receiver Troy Williamson. It’s also possible that West Virginia CB Pac Man Jones, long thought to be the target of the Skins’ #9, could still be there in the middle of the first round.

The further back they go, the closer that pick gets to the #25, so they would be choosing from a very similar pool of players. Oklahoma WR Mark Clayton, his Sooner teammate DE Dan Cody, Nebraska CB Fabian Washington, Notre Dame DE Justin Tuck, and Clemson CB Justin Miller.

So, what’s going to happen? The talk of moving up to take Edwards has some credence to it, but in addition to the huge gamble it would be in terms of using so many assets for one player there would be salary cap issues caused by trying to fit a contract with a $15 million or so signing bonus under a cap that has just about $2 million of room.

The chances of them keeping the #9 are about 50/50. If they do, Rogers is the pick with Williams being an outside possibility if he’s there.

There is a myriad of possibilities for a trade back, but let’s say that Kansas City at #15 wants Merriman badly enough to send the Skins a third and fifth to move up. At #15, the Redskins would take Jones if he’s there or Pollack or maybe Williamson if he’s not.

One more trade back possibility to throw in there is the Redskins trading that #9 pick in a deal that does not return a 2005 first-rounder but one next year and a second rounder this year and a nice haul of middle round picks as well. The chances of this are slim, but it has to be considered one of the reasons why they got the other first-rounder from Denver.

The pick at #25 has too many variables to focus in on with any degree of certainty, but we’ll take a stab at the pick being Fabian Washington if a corner hasn’t been drafted or UAB receiver Roddy White if one has been.

Buckle your seat belts. It’s going to be a wild ride.

Media Money Moving Towards Moving Up

It's beyond a buzz, it's starting to become a deafening roar. Voices in the media claiming that the Redskins made the trade to acquire Denver's first-round pick in order to package it with their own pick and #9 and move into the top few selections. Their target there is supposedly Michigan WR Braylon Edwards.

This buzz is not eminating strictly from the rumormongering draft Websites rags (although it's at a fever pitch there), but some of the more mainstream media are jumping on the Edwards to the Skins bandwagon. Jay Glazer at FoxSports.com, who was among the first to have the story of Gibbs' return as coach, wrote the following:

FOXSports.com has learned that the Redskins phoned teams in the top four on Wednesday, including the 49ers , who own the first pick, to inquire about moving up to one of the crown jewel selections of the draft. While the Redskins have not told teams who they covet, front office sources said they are trying to make a move for Michigan WR Braylon Edwards.

The Redskins have long been wheelers and dealers, so attempting to make their second move into the first round this week should come as no surprise.

Wheelers and dealers? In the draft? Well, let's see. They traded down a couple of times in '2002, the year they wound up with Patrick Ramsey with the last pick of the first round. In 2000 they dealt a couple of first rounders to move up to #3 and took Chris Sameuls. They've dealt the pick away for veterans a couple of times, notably for Laveranues Coles in 2003 and for Sean Gilbert in 1996.

But other than '00, the last time they made a major move up in the draft was in 1992, when Gibbs pushed for a deal that spent two first-round picks to ensure that they would get another Michigan receiver, Desmond Howard. Sure, the rational side of you says you should ignore what happened 13 years ago and make decisions based on today. But something tells me that Joe Gibbs (again, he's the one making the decisions here) would have a very, very difficult time pulling the trigger on a move up for another Michigan WR given the bust that Howard turned out to be.

Oh, and where are these "front office sources" that are feeding the information that Edwards is the apple of the Redskins' eye from? On a first, quick reading, you think that he'd talking about Redskins team sources. But he doesn't say that. If they are Redskins team sources, might they not be engaged in the disinformation campaigns we're so accustomed to seeing this time of year. If they're from another team, how in the heck do they know what the Redskins are up to? And if they did, why would they tell Glazer?

Certainly, Glazer isn't alone in thinking that this will happen. From an online chat with the Post's beat reporter:

Washington, D.C.: Will Braylon Edwards be a Washington Redskin on Saturday?

Jason LaCanfora: My gut feeling is yes.

It's important to note that this was a chat and LaCanfora has the freedom to give more opinion and less fact. Still, it was a pretty strong statement.

But look at what's being "reported" here; we have gut feelings, inquiries, sources, "no surprise". Not exactly cold, hard facts we're dealing with here.

The last time we heard this much move-up talk was in that '02 draft when the Skins were supposedly trying to move up to take Joey Harrington despite the fact that they lacked the ammunition to do so. Or was it last year when they were going to jump up a couple of spots to take tackle Robert Gallery, despite the presence of two Pro Bowl calibre starters at that position?

And what were these stories based on? You guessed it, gut feelings, inquiries, unnamed sources and an alledged reputation as wheelers and dealers. Some of the actors change, but the stage is the same and the plot line varies only slightly.

Draft Chart Value

Thanks to a few alert readers, I must stand corrected on one point I made in the last edition of this blog. I stated that the trade with Denver doesn’t equal out on any draft value chart you can find. That was incorrect.

On the standard draft value chart, which assigns points based on the position of a draft pick and that a lot of NFL teams use as a quick way to calculate the worth of a deal while they’re on the clock during the draft, picks in future years are discounted. The point value of the first-rounder the Skins gave up for next year is considerably less than the value of the first-rounder they got from Denver. According to no less an authority than Vinny Cerrato, the Redskins gave up picks worth 715 points to get a pick worth 750.

We’ll have to wait a few years until after we’ve seen the players picked with the draft selections involved in the deal perform to truly judge this trade. And, of course, in the eyes of many in the local and national media the Redskins can do no right. But based on the only objective standard available right now, it appears that the Redskins didn’t severely over pay for Denver’s pick.

Gibbs Goes For It

First of all, before you read a word of what's to follow, you have to realize one thing. Since January 4, 2004 all of the decisions in player personnel matters for the Washington Redskins, including the dealing of and use of draft picks, have been made by one Joe Jackson Gibbs. Love it or hate it, the trade for Denver's first-round pick, #25 overall was not made by Danny Boy or his racquetball partner Vinny. Sure, he gets advice from them and from others, including his coaching staff and yes Snyder and Cerrato were at the press "roundtable" yesterday. But when it comes to nut-cuttin' time, when it's time to hold 'em or fold 'em, it's Joe Gibbs making the call. Period.

The deal wasn't exactly George Allen like in its nature, but it did indicate a sense of urgency to win now. What they did essentially was give up a third and a fourth round pick in order to have the use of a first-round pick for an extra season. What they want is a player who by the time the '06 draft rolls around will have already worked out a contract, gone through a season and gotten rid of his rookie kinks and is ready to star in 2006 rather than starting that whole process a year from now.

Certainly, whether or not such a tradeoff is worth the a fourth and a third, plus whatever difference there may be between the #25 this year and the position of the Redskins '06 pick, is debatable. What's not debatable is that Gibbs is in a win-soon frame of mind.

The team needs to get better to enter the elite in the NFL and that's where Gibbs wants them to be. You do that by getting impact players and you get impact players in free agency and in the first round of the draft. With his hands tied in free agency the the $9 million cap hit taken in the Coles trade, he had to do something to move forward this year. Getting the extra first rounder this year has the potential to do that.

All of this is said with the caveat that the Redskins may not end up using that #25 pick or their #9 for that matter. They have let it be known that are willing to move up, move down, or stand pat. There has been talk that the #25 could be used to trade for a veteran player, perhaps Buffalo cornerback Nate Clemons. All of that will be explored in this space in the next 48 hours or so.

No matter what happens, however, will be aimed towards the goal of winning it all in the next couple of years. Gibbs ain't getting any younger and if he's going to get it done, now's the time.

Skins Deal for Another First Round Pick

In case you haven't heard, here's the trade that the Redskins and Broncos completed on Tuesday evening, complete with editorial comment in what's supposed to be a news story by the AP's Joseph White:

Paying a hefty price for a short-term gain, the Redskins on Tuesday acquired the No. 25 overall pick from the Denver Broncos. In exchange, Washington gave up its third-round selection (No. 76 overall) in this year's draft and picks in the first and fourth rounds in 2006.

A first round pick is a "short-term gain"? This is supposed to be news story, Joe, not a place to share your views on a particular deal. If the Skins use the pick, the player acquired at #25 will be around for at least the next five years at a very reasonable price. Bruce Smith was a short-term gain; the #25 is not.

But I digress here. The real question is: Why?

By any draft value chart you want to look at, even if the Skins have the last pick in the first round next year to give up that much for the 25th overall doesn't make much sense in and of itself. It's even harder to figure out since it's several days before the draft and there's not a specific player that the Redskins just have to have staring at them from their draft board. We've been talking about the #9 overall being tough to figure out. The 25th is even harder to figure.

Still, it has to be considered that the Redskins made that deal for the 25th because they're certain that a player that they value highly, so much that he's their 2006 first-round pick and then some, will be there. And that they're making the trade at this early juncture because they don't want any competition for him.

Is that player Auburn QB Jason Campbell? That's the company line at ESPN.com. First reported by John Clayton and now by Len Pasquarelli:

Even before their most substantive predraft review of the position late last week, Redskins coaches and scouts had regarded Campbell as on par with Alex Smith of Utah and California's Aaron Rodgers, generally regarded as the top two quarterback prospects. A lengthy film study of Campbell further strengthened Washington's resolve to move on the Auburn quarterback.

It's also possible that this was a precursor to more dealing. It's not likely that they gave up all of those picks for Denver's first just to be able to turn around and deal that pick for a veteran player such as Oakland CB Phillip Buchanon. They could offer next year's first alone for him and the Raiders would jump at it.

The thinking here is that this deal gives the Skins some options with their #9 pick. With the 25th ensuring that they will still have a first-round pick, they could deal their original pick for a boatload of selections in the second and later, or they could move back a dozen spots or so and still get a good player and recoup some of the mid-round picks they gave to Denver.

But, then again, they would have had all of these options whether or not they possessed the 25th or not. So the question is still out there: Why?

No matter why and no matter what the Skins ultimately do with that pick, on thing is certain: This trade was made by Joe Gibbs. Not by Snyder, not by Cerrato. A lot of folks out there still want to praise Gibbs the coach and then blame any faulty personnel moves on Snyder and Cerrato. But this trade was Joe Gibbs' doing. Talks don't get started without his OK and they don't get completed without his seal of approval.