Defining luxury in the draft

The article I wrote last Thursday about whether or not Julio Jones would be a “luxury” pick for the Redskins, as John Keim quoted an NFL GM as saying, got a reaction that brings up questions beyond the wisdom of selecting Jones with the tenth overall pick in the draft. First of all, just to make it clear, the view here is that the Redskins should take the top player on their draft board with the tenth pick. If that happens to be Julio Jones, so be it. They should not either reach for someone like Jones nor should they bypass him if he is the best player on their board. The discussion about Jones brought out two main issues. One is the importance of the wide receiver position. I’m not quite sure why adding a quality player at that position could be considered a luxury. Just look at the numbers. The Redskins passed on about 65 percent of their plays last year. While that’s probably more than Mike Shanahan wanted to pass, the league average is around 60 percent and the Redskins probably won’t throw much less than that going forward. And they line up with at least two and frequently three or even four wide receivers on each snap. That means that there are anywhere from 18 to 36 percent of the players on the field having a major impact on about 60 percent of the plays. Somebody who is smarter than I am probably could work up an index to figure out the importance of having quality players at the wide receiver spot based on those numbers. But it seems to me that the impact of the position is pretty substantial. Again, I don’t know if Jones is the best pick or if he isn’t. But, as I pointed out in the original article, it’s impossible to make the case that the wide receiver position isn’t in great need of an upgrade and it’s hard to make the case that the position is somehow less important than other areas of need. The second issue was best summed up in a tweet by my friend @fatpickled.

love Jones size/athletisism, but WR's generally take 3 yrs 2 have an impact.

This echoes comments that I have heard over the past few months from people saying that the Redskins need to draft a position that provides an immediate impact, perhaps a lineman on either side of the ball or linebacker. But many of those same people figure that it will take two or three years at a minimum for the Redskins to be serious playoff contenders. If that is the case, then why not get the players in the positions that take the longest to develop, like wide receiver and quarterback, in the house now and get the learning process starting? What is the sense in taking a few years to build up the lines if you then have to take a few more years to get the skill positions up to snuff? This goes back to what I’ve been saying about Redskins fans for a few months. Many of them say that they realize that rebuilding the team will take [caption id="attachment_5617" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Graham gano"][/caption] some time. However, they will raise holy hell over the actual steps of rebuilding, like possibly letting the 32-year-old Santana Moss walk in free agency or suffering through the growing pains of young players like Graham Gano or, in this case, executing a high draft pick that might not pay immediate dividends. In short, they are in favor of Shanahan rebuilding “the right way” as long as that way is their way and as long as it happens in a hurry. So, which is it, folks? Rebuild so it will last a while? Or make your moves with paying off immediately? It's not impossible to do both but should Shanahan not draft the best player on the team's draft board because it might take him two or three years to become truly effective? What do you think? Hit the comments below and let us know.