Washington Football Team 7-round mock draft: Trading up for Trey Lance

Round 4

Now that Washington has addressed two top needs on offense and one top need on defense, they can turn back to the defensive side of the ball, and focus on the secondary. Among other things, the Washington Football Team needs a new free safety.

Although there aren’t any inspiring pure free safeties at this point, Cincinnati’s James Wiggins provides the upside to start there, and he’s also versatile enough to line up at multiple different spots. He’s the pick here, for a few reasons.

One, Wiggins is an elite athlete, even after tearing his ACL in 2019. There was concern that Wiggins’ ACL tear would sap away his athleticism, but he came back and played very well in the 2020 season.

Wiggins was one of the key catalysts for Cincinnati’s success, and at his pro day, he validated his elite athletic traits — among them a 4.41 40-yard dash, a 38-inch vertical, a 127-inch broad jump, and 22 bench reps at 5-foot-11, 209 pounds.

Overall, Wiggins logged a Relative Athletic Score of 9.69, which basically means he tested better than 96.9% of all safeties ever tested. And on top of his athleticism, Wiggins has the versatility to cover the slot as well as line up in two-high. He’s also incredibly physical and aggressive, and while he can use more discretion at times, he flashes instincts as well.

In Round 4, Wiggins is a nice high-upside add for the Washington Football Team. He can slot in next to Kamren Curl right away, and provide some added versatility and physical potential to Washington’s secondary. And playing behind a front seven that now has a potential star in Dylan Moses, Wiggins could develop sooner rather than later.

After making this pick and simulating to Round 5, I found that the value in that round was subpar. Thus, I proposed another trade, this time sending the No. 166 pick to the New Orleans Saints for the No. 190 pick and the No. 229 pick. Now, the Washington Football Team has five more selections in the final two rounds.