By Ryan O’Halloran
Wednesday is the dog and pony shows of all dog and pony shows – National Signing Day for high school football players.
Of course, not every signing will pan out at the college level and only a small percentage will make the NFL.
With that in mind, I looked up several Redskins players and how they were recruited (rankings are from Web searches of Rivals and USA Today databases):
- CB Kevin Barnes: No. 36-ranked safety. Went to Maryland.
- DE Adam Carriker: A 235-pound quarterback from Kennewick, Wash., was ranked No. 46 among rush defensive ends and went to Nebraska. Also offered by Oregon State.
- NT Barry Cofield: Ranked No. 50 among strong-side defensive ends in 2003 and was offered by Indiana, Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt before going to Northwestern.
- QB Rex Grossman: Mr. Football in Indiana (1998), top 15 nationally, Parade All-America. Went to Florida.
- RB Roy Helu: Ranked No. 55 nationally at his position in 2007 but not among the top 100 in California. Went to Nebraska.
- LB Ryan Kerrigan: Offered by Ball State, Cincinnati, Indiana and Northern Illinois and signed with Purdue. Was rated fourth in the state of Indiana.
- S LaRon Landry: Stayed home at LSU after also getting offers from Florida and Miami (Fla.). Ranked fifth in Louisiana and 87th in nation.
- LB Brian Orakpo: Offered by Colorado, Houston, Missouri, Stanford and Texas A&M and waited out Texas for an offer that eventually materialized. Ranked No. 23 in Texas.
- WR Niles Paul: Tops in Nebraska, 10th nationally among receivers and 73rd overall in nation. Stayed at home to play for Cornhuskers.
- LB Perry Riley: Settled on LSU after visiting Tennessee. Ranked 26th at outside linebacker and 21st overall in state of Georgia.
- LT Trent Williams: Signed with Oklahoma, also visited LSU and Oklahoma State. Ranked 28th nationally but as a guard in 2006.
- DL Doug Worthington: Ranked 80th in USA, fifth at defensive end and second in New York state. Before signing with Ohio State, visited Alabama, Boston College, Wisconsin and Florida.

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