Five potential Redskins targets to follow as legal tampering begins
By Ian Cummings
No. 4 – Arizona Cardinals RB Kenyan Drake
This one is a bit more speculative than most, but the Redskins have been tied to Arizona Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake once before in this offseason. In early March, John Keim mentioned that the “league chatter” had the Redskins pursuing Drake, a dynamic running back who’d be able to help in multiple ways on offense.
On one hand, it’s not always wise to pay running backs, but on the other hand, the Redskins have enough money to be flexible, and they need more versatile weapons on offense, as well as reliability in the backfield, especially with their quarterback situation. Derrius Guice still has immense upside, but at this point, he might see that upside best preserved in a rotational role.
A rotational role is something Drake knows well, but after being traded to Arizona midway through the 2019 season, Drake managed to transcend that label. He was an absolute monster for the Cardinals, accruing 643 yards and eight touchdowns on 123 carries in eight games, for an average of 5.2 yards per carry. He also caught 28 passes out of the backfield over that stretch, and 50 total on the year.
Drake, who turned 26 years old in January, still has a good deal left in the tank, and at 6-foot-1, 211, he’s a solid athlete, with a 4.45 40-yard dash and a 34-inch vertical jump on record. As Zachary Neel of The Redskins Wire reported, Drake could command just south of $10 million — a steep price for a running back, but perhaps a necessary one for a weapon such as this.
Update: The Cardinals used the transition tag on Kenyan Drake.