Potential Redskins prospects medically cleared ahead of NFL Draft

It’s always important to make informed decisions in the NFL Draft. The Redskins know this from experience, both good and bad.

The Washington Redskins franchise draft history accurately exemplifies the team’s many low points; the Vinny Cerrato and Bruce Allen eras, among others, were marked by faulty evaluation and execution in the NFL Draft, and the team hopes to turn the page with Kyle Allen and Ron Rivera at the helm.

Of course, it won’t be as easy to be informed decision makers in the 2020 NFL Draft. The coronavirus outbreak which swept over the United States has thrown a wrench in the pre-draft process. Prospect interviews and workouts were severely limited, prohibiting teams like the Redskins from accumulating pivotal data and character information on potential draft additions.

Not all is lost, in terms of information, however. Earlier today, a crucial update was given by NFL insider Ian Rapoport on several mid-to-late-round draft prospects, concerning their medical outlooks for 2020 and beyond. Here’s the report from Rapoport, detailing South Carolina wide receiver Bryan Edwards, Virginia cornerback Bryce Hall, and Utah safety Julian Blackmon.

Edwards and Hall are the most notable names included, but Blackmon is another player who could garner potential interest from the Redskins next week. Hall may be the most familiar, as he is a local product out of Virginia, with the length, ball skills, and aggression to be a potential starter down the road. He’s commonly been acknowledged as a potential Day 2 prospect, although the top-end depth at cornerback could push him back to the top of Round 4.

Edwards is in a similar situation to Hall, albeit at the wide receiver position; Edwards isn’t a top-flight athlete, but he presents great nuance, toughness, and reliability at wide receiver, and his production profile is very solid and consistent. He’d be a very safe pick for the Redskins in the middle rounds, especially considering that he’s set to be medically cleared by May.

Blackmon is the lowest-rated prospect of the group, but for the Redskins, he could be a valuable addition at safety late. He has some versatility as a cover man who can line up in different spots on the back end, and although his range isn’t top-tier, he presents good physicality with the agility of a former cornerback.

This list is comprised of just three prospects, so it’s not a ground-breaking development. But these medical reports could impact how the Redskins rank these prospects against others, and this could be a deal-breaker for a prospect like Edwards at the top of Round 3. If he’s their top-ranked prospect, and his medical history was previously a red flag, this could clear things up. It all factors in, and next week, at the 2020 NFL Draft, we’ll get to see how.