Post-free agency full NFL two-round mock: Redskins trade down

The Redskins need a receiver to start opposite Terry McLaurin, and if the Redskins somehow get the No. 18 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, LSU’s Justin Jefferson is one of my favorite potential additions.

There’s a clear-cut top three at the wide receiver position in the 2020 NFL Draft; I have them in the order of CeeDee Lamb, Henry Ruggs, and Jerry Jeudy. But if there was ever a fourth pass catcher to challenge that triumvirate, it would be Redskins draft pick Justin Jefferson.

Jefferson’s tape is incredibly fun to watch. The Tigers product possesses a great deal of nuance, twitch, and spacial awareness as a route runner, and when the ball is in the air, he’s one of the draft’s most reliable contested catch specialists, with the body control and catch point focus to capitalize on his opportunities. Jefferson is also dynamic after the catch, with fluid movement skills and flashes of impressive contact balance.

For Jefferson, the only question heading into the offseason was his athletic ceiling, and at the NFL Combine, he quelled those concerns, putting up a 4.43 40-yard dash time and a 37.5-inch vertical at 6-foot-1, 202. Jefferson, who has yet to turn 21 years old, is quite literally an elite athlete with tantalizing receiver traits, and consequent elite potential. For the Redskins, trading back is almost worth doing just to add Jefferson, who’d be an instant offensive catalyst for Scott Turner and Dwayne Haskins.