Washington Football Team: 5 dark horses that could make the team

OT Rick Leonard

Leonard, who grew up in the shadow of Catoctin State Park in Middletown, Maryland, has the highest draft pedigree of any player on this list. He was selected in the fourth round by New Orleans in 2018. But he has bounced around to four other teams over the past few seasons.

Like Jordan Brown, Leonard has likely suffered from the position change he made in college. He went to Florida State as a defense lineman, but switched to offense midway through his Seminole career. By his final year, he was a very effective right tackle with great size (6-foot-7) and surprising quickness.

But like boundary corner, offensive tackle is not an easy position to simply pick up. Every scouting profile I saw about Leonard praised his athleticism and criticized his technique.

As I recently wrote in a piece about Najee Toran, the Washington Football Team is placing a clear value on mobile lineman with length. Leonard, along with 2021 second-round pick Sam Cosmi and recently-signed interior lineman Beau Benzschawel, look like oversized tight ends when they get out in space.

Leonard is a classic developmental player who needs coaching to harness his athletic gifts. Washington has a solid young core of tackles right now, but a couple of them – Charles Leno and Cornelius Lucas – are in their free-agent years.

Leonard seems like the type of player who Washington will try to stash for one more season on the practice squad before determining whether he will develop into a reliable lineman.