Washington Redskins: 15 best draft day steals of all-time
By Ian Cummings
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.