The equation of value is well-known by NFL teams such as the Washington Redskins. And yet, they still work to perfect that equation.
Quarterback. Running back. Wide receiver. Tight end. Offensive line. Defensive line. Linebacker. Cornerback. Safety. It doesn’t matter *what* your team needs. There’s always one thing they need the most.
Every NFL team knows what it is, and yet, every year, every NFL team finds new ways to attain, or pass over, value. In the first round, it can be easy to hone in on the most talented players, but in the later rounds, it can be challenging to find the best players available.
In recent years, the Washington Redskins have had some success in this area. In 2017, they drafted Chase Roullier in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. Now, he’s their starting center, and a fine starter at that.
In 2018, they drafted Alabama linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton in the sixth round. And now, just one year into his career, he appears to have the inside track toward a starting job.
The Redskins seemed to have lost their way in the NFL Draft for a time in the 21st century. But now, they’re finding their rhythm again. It’s no surprise, of course; they have a blueprint to follow. These are the Redskins’ 15 best draft-day steals of all time.
Honorable Mention: George Starke, Sammy Baugh, Charley Taylor, Morgan Moses, Jerry Smith, Chase Roullier, Trey Quinn
Interestingly enough, before the Redskins drafted a supposed franchise quarterback and his successor in the 2012 NFL Draft with Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins, they did the same thing in 1994.
Needing a quarterback after the collapse of Mark Rypien’s reign, the Redskins drafted Tennessee standout Heath Shuler with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft. It seemed as if Shuler would be given the keys to the kingdom, but Washington came back in the seventh round and picked another signal caller: Tulsa’s Gus Frerotte.
Frerotte would get his extended opportunity quicker than Cousins; Shuler never left the runway as the Redskins franchise quarterback, throwing for 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while completing under fifty percent of his passes in his rookie year. He was given the starting job to start his second season, but poor play sullied his reputation further, and injuries kept him from proving his doubters wrong.
By the end of the season, Frerotte was the one taking snaps under center, and he’d thrown over for over 2,700 yards and 13 touchdowns in 11 starts.
The ultimate bargain at quarterback, Frerotte would go on to be the Redskins’ full-time starter for three seasons, amassing a stat log of 9,769 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 44 interceptions in 52 games played, with 46 starts.
Frerotte also earned a Pro Bowl bid in 1996. He’d ultimately be succeeded at the end of his rookie deal, and he’d go on to carve out a respectable career as a solid backup and spot starter.
Faced with the notion that seventh-round quarterbacks never amounted to anything in the NFL, Frerotte lowered his head, fearless and charged at convention. He never won anything meaningful for Washington, but for a seventh-round pick, Frerotte was much more than what was bargained for.
NFL offense is all about balance. Balance among an array of weapons. You want a potent offense? Stock your unit with players who flourish with the ball in their hands. Give your staff options, so that your team is unpredictable and adaptable. Be ready to move the chains any way possible.
These are the ways to create an NFL offense. But if you have a running back who can run like Alfred Morris could, none of it matters.
Morris isn’t with the Redskins anymore. With the rise of Kirk Cousins in 2015, Morris’ workload decreased, and in 2016, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys. He stayed in Dallas for two years before signing with the 49ers for the 2018 season. Now, after a modest campaign in San Francisco, Morris is a free agent, waiting for his next opportunity.
Morris’ next opportunity could come as suddenly as his first one did. Morris was drafted in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. In a running back room muddied with uncertainty, Morris elevated to the starting spot by the beginning of the season.
He exploded out of the gates in Washington’s new offense. By season’s end, he’d amassed incredible numbers, logging 1,613 yards and 13 touchdowns on 335 carries. For a more established running back, those are All-Pro numbers.
Morris would break the 1,000-yard mark his next two seasons as well, making the Pro Bowl both times. While he’s fallen off the map in recent years, and while the Redskins prepare for their next premier rusher in Derrius Guice, one cannot forget the immediate and monumental impact that Morris provided. As a sixth-rounder, he drastically outperformed his draft billing.
Drafted in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft, Florida Gators product Jordan Reed had a tough draw, in terms of immediate NFL expectations. Just a year earlier, the Redskins had seen the fall of a star in Chris Cooley, who slowly faded out of relevance.
In 2013, Cooley was gone from the roster for good, and the Redskins needed a new tight end to take his place as a dynamic offensive weapon. Drafted in the third round, Reed was viewed as a somewhat developmental prospect. But the void was his to fill.
And in time, Reed exceeded his lofty expectations. It took two years, and the anointing and development of a true starting quarterback, but once Kirk Cousins caught fire, Reed caught fire with him.
In 2015, Reed was at his peak as an unstoppable force over the middle of the field. Too quick for linebackers and too big for defensive backs, Reed established himself as an elite offensive talent, logging 952 yards and 11 touchdowns on 87 catches.
The next year, in Cousins’ near-5,000 yard campaign, Reed amassed 686 yards and six touchdowns on 66 receptions. Reed earned a Pro Bowl berth in the second campaign, cementing his status for good.
Since that 2016 season, injuries have further plagued Reed into obscurity, but the former third-round pick remains one of the Redskins’ best value deals on draft day, for the returns he provided early on in his career.
After an up-and-down 2018 season, it’s unclear what the future holds for Reed. But if he can get healthy, and stay healthy, he still has the skill set to terrorize opposing offenses.
In the old NFL, it wasn’t so simple. Or so complicated.
In the old NFL, being the first in line for the draft’s top quarterback wasn’t a requirement. In the old NFL, where the ways were different, teams could plug and play sixth-rounders and prowess. Some of the greatest ever to play were found in the mess in the middle, and not at the top. Joe Montana was drafted in the third round. Sonny Jorgensen in the fourth round. Roger Staubach? 10th round.
Now, however, the game is different. If you have a quarterback you want, you move up to get him. And if you can’t get him, or if you’re not ready, you have to wait until you are. The championship windows are more volatile now, and timing is everything. One whiff, or one misstep, and you’re out of contention.
Unless the old ways work for you, anyway.
Kirk Cousins wasn’t supposed to be anything more than a career backup. Drafted in the fourth round of a very strong quarterback class, Cousins was meant to be buried, like all developmental quarterbacks in the modern NFL.
But opportunity kept crawling back to Cousins. After Robert Griffin III lost his favor as the starter, Cousins entered the 2015 season with the title. After a slow, trepidatious start, Cousins caught fire and finished the season with 29 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and the new franchise season passing yardage record. The next year, he broke the record again, this time nearing 5,000 yards.
In six years with the Redskins, Cousins threw for 16,206 yards, 99 touchdowns and 55 interceptions, completing 65.5 percent of his passes at 7.7 yards per attempt. Cousins only led the Redskins to one playoff game, but the team contended for the most part, when Cousins was the starter, despite serious roster inefficiencies.
For a fourth-round pick, Cousins gave the Redskins incredible value in the modern NFL. Now, he’s in Minnesota, trying to prove to his new team that his contract doesn’t detract from that value.
For all the Redskins’ issues when it comes to, well… being a stable franchise, you have to give them credit here: They know how to draft tight ends in the third round. It’s a pretty specific, almost irrelevant thing to be good at, but it has some perks, right?
Before they ultimately anointed Jordan Reed as the team’s X-factor at tight end by spending a third-round pick on him, it was Redskins star Chris Cooley who first held the title. Cooley was drafted in the third round of the 2004 NFL Draft; a symbol of Joe Gibbs’ coming offensive overhaul.
Sean Taylor alone made the Redskins’ 2004 draft haul a success, but it was Cooley who only added fuel to the fire, and at a fiery pace. In his rookie season, he hauled in six touchdowns. Then in year two, he took another leap with his production, accruing 774 yards and seven touchdowns on 71 catches.
He made the Pro Bowl in both 2007 and 2008, amassing 149 receptions, 1,635 yards and nine touchdowns over that two-year span. For a third-round pick, Cooley yielded very solid returns.
Cooley would only provide one more quality season after that, as injuries would take their toll on the Utah State product. But by then, “Captain Chaos” had already made an impression. Jordan Reed is the team’s new star at tight end. But Cooley will always be the one who made Washington the place for tight ends to be.
Sometimes, it’s not simply quality of play that earns value, but also longevity itself. The equation to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame is excellence plus longevity. But when a late-round pick gives you at least one of those, in spite of the NFL’s treacherous landscape, credit must be given.
Thus, credit must be given to the Redskins’ iron man of the 1980s: Linebacker Monte Coleman, who gave the Redskins a pinch of excellence whenever they needed it, for the better part of two decades.
Coleman was drafted in the 11th round (yes, the 11th round) of the 1979 NFL Draft. He’s the second-latest selection on this list. Yet, he provided more value than many in the rounds before him.
For almost his entire 16-year career with the Redskins, Coleman was at least a key special teamer. At his best, he was a premier sack artist with blazing speed and a veteran moxie, as he logged 10.5 sacks in 1984. He eclipsed 1,000 total tackles in his career, with 999 solo takedowns, good enough for second place in team history.
In a sport where even seeing out a rookie contract is uncertain for late-round rookies, Coleman defied the expectation for his draft stock. He provided the Redskins with extraordinary value. While he was never a dominant player, he gave them a safety blanket, and a leader, to rely on for years.
This isn’t a player, but any time a team gives you their entire haul of draft picks for a first-round running back with character concerns, we’ll consider it a value deal.
The Redskins can’t often brag about being on the winning end of trades such as these. In 2012, they gave away three first-round picks to move up to select Robert Griffin III, and he lasted as the full-time starter for just two seasons.
The trade was ridiculed in hindsight, as all blockbuster trades that crumble inevitably are. That list also includes another Redskins trade, but in this one, the Redskins were the beneficiaries, capitalizing on Mike Ditka’s belief that Texas product Ricky Williams was the next Walter Payton.
To move up from pick No. 12 to pick No. 5, Ditka gave the Redskins all of his remaining picks in the 1999 NFL Draft (six selections, no second-rounder) as well as a first and third-rounder the next year.
The Redskins leveraged their new 1999 first-rounder into a selection of Champ Bailey and the New Orleans Saints’ first-rounder in 2000 turned out to be a top three pick. With two top-three picks, the Redskins selected Pro Bowlers LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels.
The Saints, meanwhile, enjoyed limited success with Williams for three years, before ultimately watching him have his lone All-Pro season with the Miami Dolphins.
As the old saying goes, one man’s… awful trade is another man’s steal.
For too many people it seems, special teams is nothing special. It’s the part of football that doesn’t matter. The part of football where you can cut corners, and give yourself leeway.
Redskins return specialist Brian Mitchell helped teach the NFL that it’s a place where you can gain an advantage.
Mitchell was selected in the fifth round of the 1990 NFL Draft. Joining Washington at the tail end of their dynastic campaign, Mitchell didn’t see the team for long at the height of its glory. But he put his stamp on the dynasty anyway, with early contributions as a returner.
In 1991, the Redskins’ third Super Bowl season, Mitchell logged almost 1,200 total return yards and two punt return touchdowns. Three years later, he put up a pair of punt return touchdowns again, cementing his status as a force to be reckoned with when fielding the football.
The next year in 1995, Mitchell was recognized as both a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro for his contributions. He’d logged another punt return touchdown that year, and he’d amassed a whopping 1,408 yards on kick returns.
At the end of his 10-year run with the Redskins, Mitchell had scored nine total return touchdowns; seven on punts and two on kickoffs. With 388 carries and 255 catches over the course of his career to add to his résumé, Mitchell was the all-purpose weapon all teams long to snag late in the NFL Draft.
Gary Clark wasn’t a normal draft selection. After his productive collegiate career with the James Madison Dukes, Clark first joined the Jacksonville Bulls of the USFL, where he played for the 1984 season.
After one year with the Bulls, Clark was eligible for the USFL/CFL Supplemental Draft, and the Redskins selected him with their second-round pick in that event. It’s a decision that caused them to forfeit their second-round pick the next year. And it’s a decision they didn’t regret.
Clark quickly exploded onto the NFL scene; the 5-foot-9, 173-pound speed demon logged 926 yards and five touchdowns on 72 catches in his rookie season. The next year, he earned Pro Bowl honors with 1,265 yards and seven touchdowns on 74 catches, establishing himself as a pivotal member of the famed Posse, tearing up opposing defenses with Ricky Sanders and Art Monk.
Clark would play for the Redskins for six more seasons after 1986. In those seasons, he would crack the 1,000-yard mark four more times, earn Pro Bowl honors three times and earn his first and only All-Pro berth in 1987. Tack on two Super Bowl rings for good measure. The expectations for supplemental draft prospects normally aren’t high, but that didn’t matter for Clark.
Every player’s production arc is different upon entering the NFL, but few have ever been as drastic as Larry Brown‘s.
Brown, in 1969, was a lowly eighth-round pick for the Redskins. In the pecking order of weapons, he was closer to the bottom than the top. At the time, the Redskins were known as the champions of the new wave.
With Sonny Jurgensen’s fearless gunslinger mentality and with Charley Taylor’s talent, they set the standard as the league’s premier passing offense. For Brown, it was a fit that didn’t quite make sense.
That changed when head coach Vince Lombardi saw what Brown could do.
Lombardi gave Brown the starting running back spot right out of the gate, and Brown ran away with it, never looking back. He made the Pro Bowl in his first year. By his second, he was recognized as an All-Pro, amassing 1,125 yards and five touchdowns on 237 carries. Yet, the best was yet to come.
In 1972, Brown embarked on a career year, accruing 1,216 yards and eight touchdowns on 285 carries. He also emerged as a receiving threat, logging 473 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 32 catches.
As Jurgensen’s prime dwindled, Brown took his place as the heart of the Redskins offense, and he was awarded with the NFC MVP award. He’s one of just three Redskins in history to be recognized as MVP. Although he faded after his MVP season, it’s safe to say Brown progressed far past the bounds of his eighth-round reputation.
The franchise quarterback is perhaps a relic of olden times, in an NFL era where quarterback contracts are increasingly impactful toward team success. But even in the past NFL era, it wasn’t for everyone.
The Redskins of the 1980s and 1990s, helmed by the famed Joe Gibbs, are considered to be one of the few great NFL dynasties to have existed. Over the course of 10 years, Gibbs’ Redskins won three Super Bowls. And all of them with different quarterbacks. All three were exceptional in their own ways, but the third and final quarterback was perhaps the most exciting.
Drafted in the sixth round of the 1986 NFL Draft, Mark Rypien was brought into the Redskins quarterback room in a time of turmoil. Jay Schroeder was the incumbent starter, but it would not be long before Doug Williams took his place. Soon after Williams usurped the starting job and won the Redskins their second Super Bowl, he too would slowly fade away.
When Williams faded, it was Rypien’s time to ascend into the spotlight, and he did so with quickness. After sitting out his first two seasons in the NFL, Rypien played in nine games in 1988, amassing 1,730 yards and 18 touchdowns.
His explosive start would be compounded by a four-season stretch in which Rypien threw for 11,132 yards, 84 touchdowns and 47 interceptions, a ratio that was simply unheard of at the time.
Rypien cemented a legacy as one of the best deep-ball specialists to play the game at quarterback. While his prime was short, he maximized The Posse, and directed one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses in Washington’s golden age. Not bad for a sixth-round pick out of Washington State.
The Redskins offense of the 1980s gets most of the recognition. With a Pro Football Hall of Fame game planner and a dangerous trio known as the Posse, they set the standard for the league’s offenses for years on end. But in that long championship window, it wasn’t just Washington’s offense that flourished. Their defense was dominant as well.
Their stout defense wasn’t formed entirely through the NFL Draft. Dave Butz was a free agent acquisition, and (other example). But one of their most fearsome players was, in fact, acquired in the NFL Draft, and at a premium price.
Dexter Manley wasn’t a highly coveted defensive end out of Oklahoma State. So he fell to the fifth round of the 1981 NFL Draft, where the Redskins would scoop him up. Almost immediately, he became a part of the defensive rotation.
At the end of his 11-year career with the Redskins, Manley had eclipsed the heralded 100-sack mark. Even today, he sets the standard for what the production should be for a trench warrior. For a fifth-round pick, that’s value that’s hard to match.
It’s not a Redskins history piece without a member of the Hogs.
It feels like more members of the Hogs should be eligible for this list. But delve into the history books, and you’ll see why they aren’t. Joe Jacoby was an undrafted free agent. So was Jeff Bostic, and while they were steals, they weren’t draft-day steals, unfortunately. The definition is stringent.
Mark May was a first-round pick, and while he provided value, qualifying as a draft-day steal requires a greater gap between investment and return. Luckily for the Hogs, that greater gap was given by Russ Grimm. And so their legacy lives on with him.
Grimm was a mid-round pick for the Redskins in 1981, coming off the board in the third round. He was almost immediately awarded the starting left guard job, and he flourished in that position. Over the course of an 11-season career with four Super Bowl appearances and three victories, Grimm played in 140 games and started 114, earning four Pro Bowl bids and three All-Pro nods.
In the 20th century, Grimm’s contributions as one of the first, and one of the most fearsome members of the Hogs unit, earned him a gold jacket. To this day, he remains one of the Redskins’ greatest value deals on draft day. He’s a reminder that, for all the emphasis on athleticism and strength, the toughest man in the trenches almost always wins.
When you think of a draft-day steal, you probably don’t think of a first-round pick. That title is reserved for gems in the rough. Players overlooked, and players unheralded. But one Redskins first-round pick provided enough value for his draft slot to be included on this list, as a draft-day steal: Cornerback Darrell Green.
It helps that Green was the very last pick in the first round. The Redskins selected him at No. 28, after having won the Super Bowl the previous year. It looks good to go in the first round, but in truth, 27 teams passed on Green. And in a crop of six first-round Pro Football Hall of Famers, Green has a résumé that matches up well with the rest of them.
Green played for two full decades, and in each of his 20 years, he suited up in burgundy and gold. If you’re looking for the definition of excellence and longevity, Green fits the bill. Over his 20-year career, he logged 54 interceptions and 1,201 total tackles, earning Pro Bowl honors seven times and making the First-Team All-Pro in 1991.
Green was consistently reliable, lasting far longer than any defensive back should. His speed set him apart, even in his old age. When he finally left the game after the 2002 season, at the age of 42, some thought he could have played even longer. Yes, Green was a first-round pick. But he provided a value beyond even that.
In terms of value relative to draft slot, the No. 1 name on this list is a runaway winner. The Redskins have had some great players over the years, but no one outperformed his draft stock more than Chris Hanburger.
A product of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Hanburger entered the 1965 NFL Draft with the expectation of an opportunity at the NFL level. But that opportunity came later than expected, as Hanburger was forced to wait until the 18th round to hear his name called. The rounds only contained 14 selections each back then, but it’s safe to say Hanburger was buried in his class.
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Hanburger was the 13th of 14 Redskins selections, but he soon separated himself as the smartest and the most talented. In his second season, he’d solidified himself as the team’s starting outside linebacker. He flew across the field with blazing speed and unflinching tenacity.
Nicknamed “The Hangman” for his ferocity and disregard for opponent comfort, Hanburger earned his first Pro Bowl bid in just his second season. He’d follow that one up with eight more, along with four All-Pro bids.
In 1972, Hanburger won NFL Defensive Player of the Year and led the Redskins to the Super Bowl, where he helped the defense hold the Miami Dolphins to just 14 points.
The Dolphins would ultimately win, due more to Washington’s ineptitude on offense. And Hanburger would leave hungry for more. But the opposition saw him play. They saw how he elevated above the rest. And there was honor in that.
Hanburger would end his career, after 187 games and 177 starts, without a Super Bowl ring. But he would receive true honor in 2011, when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, adorned in a gold jacket. It’s a worthy prize for not just one of Washington’s greatest draft-day steals in history, but one of the greatest steals in NFL history.