Washington Football Team: 7-round all-Senior Bowl mock draft
![Florida WR Kadarius Toney. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fd27e371ebf1ec94cdffb12a92a8f9288eb89b895bb403691ed8335b75174866e.jpg "Florida WR Kadarius Toney. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]")
Round 2, Pick 51: S Richie Grant, UCF
No defensive player did more to help their draft stock at the Senior Bowl than Richie Grant. The UCF safety was a ballhawk who was all over the field during drills and showed an impressive ability to come up with interceptions and pass deflections.
Of course, that shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Grant showed off great ball-tracking skills during his time with the Golden Knights. In his last three seasons there, he had 10 interceptions. That included a six-pick sophomore campaign and a three-pick senior campaign.
Grant simply knows how to track the ball and get near it. If you needed to find him on the field, he was usually making some sort of play on the ball. On top of that, he showed off good speed and excellent instincts. Both of those traits should make him a strong fit at the free safety spot.
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Obviously, that’s an area that Washington has long had issues in. Last year, Troy Apke was named the starter at the position but struggled badly there and was eventually benched in favor of Deshazor Everett and Jeremy Reaves. Everett and Reaves are good backup players while Apke provides value on special teams, but the team needs a true starter at the position.
That could be Grant. As he showed this week, he’s a great ball tracker and he has the size needed to be an all-around strong starter at the position. At 6-foot-even, 200 pounds, he won’t get bullied by bigger players. He will be able to play physically enough to serve as a strong tackler — he averaged 86 tackles per season in his last three at UCF — but the major plus will be his instincts and athleticism.
Getting Grant in the second-round of this mock feels like a good value. With no clear-cut No. 1 safety in this draft class, Grant could easily continue to rise as he has the makings of one of the best safeties in this draft class. We weren’t going to pass on him here, and by drafting him, we have plugged one of Washington’s biggest needs on the defensive side of the ball.