An unconventional look into the Commanders’ drafting history

WARNING: what follows is primarily intended for stat nerds and trivia geeks. And for fans of the professional football team that has played in Washington, DC since 1937, and which we now know as the Washington Commanders. It’s not that this stuff is important – but if you are indeed one of the fans who keeps running lists in your head of the greatest supplemental draft players in Washington Commanders history, you may find it interesting.

And seeing as we are all currently engaged in a distressingly long-running production of “Waiting For Terry,” a little bit of blast-from-the-past trivia might just be the best way to pass an hour or two.

An unconventional look into the Commanders’ drafting history

The Running Backs

On paper, it seemed unfair. A Brock Lesnar-Zach Gowen kind of mismatch. Player 1 was an imposing 6’4”, 250 pounder who ran a sub-10 second 100-yard dash. He led the nation in rushing his senior year in college, and averaged more than one touchdown and 100 yards per game throughout his three year college career.

Player 2 looked skinny at 5’11”, 195. He was part of a platoon backfield for one of the worst programs in college football. He totaled 684 yards in his two-year college career, along with a couple of touchdowns.  That was a typical 2-3 game stretch for player 1.

Not surprisingly, Player 1 was a first-round draft pick. Player 2 went in round nine.

Yet somehow, when they arrived in the pros two years apart, playing for the same team, this is what happened:

Player 2, the skinny kid from the doormat football team put together an 8-year career which saw him amass 8,360 total yards from scrimmage and 55 touchdowns. Player 1, all 6’4”, 250 pounds of him, lasted two years and managed 223 yards of total offense, along with four TDS.

I won’t rehash the details of the Ray McDonald-Larry Brown story anymore. You can read about it here. I bring it up as a way of talking about the Washington Commanders bizarre history when it comes to drafting running backs.

Since 1967, when Washington selected Ray McDonald in the first round, Washington has used a first-round pick on a running back exactly — zero times. That is not to say they have not occasionally gone out and grabbed a former first-rounder. John Riggins and George Rogers. Joe Washington. The early ‘70s Cowboys backfield of Calvin Hill and Duane Thomas. Washington has acquired first-rounders. But when it comes to drafting, well that’s a different story.

In the 2022 draft, the Washington Commanders spent a 3rd-round pick on Brian Robinson. Here is a list of the running Washington has taken in the first three rounds of the draft in between Ray McDonald and Robinson (or, between 1967 and 2022):

Richard Williams (round 2, 1983), Mike Oliphant (3/’88), Ricky Ervins (3, ’91), Reggie Brooks (2, ’93), Skip Hicks (3, ’98), Ladell Betts (2, ’02), Matt Jones (3, ’15), Derrius Guice (2, ’18), and Antonio Gibson (3, ’20).

That’s nine backs. They played a total of 287 games for Washington. As a group, they gained just over 10,000 yards (with more than half coming from Betts and Hicks), scored 66 touchdowns (76 if you include receiving scores), and accounted for another 4,000 receiving yards.

Sure, there are qualifiers. Oliphant barely played for Washington but was used to acquire Ernest Byner, a very productive back. Guice looked like he might be a star before off-the-field behavior ended his career. Gibson has only been around two years and is already one of the most productive players in this group. If he maintains this pace, in a few more years, these totals might look better.

But still, it’s hard to look at the group as a whole and decide that the Washington Commanders have gotten good value for such high draft picks.

Now let me give you another list of nine running backs. These players were all drafted by the Washington Commanders in round four or later between 1967 and 2022:

Mike Thomas (5, ’75), Tony Green (8, ’78), Kelvin Bryant (7, ’83), Jamie Morris (4, ’88), Brian Mitchell (5, ’90), Stephen Davis (4, ’96), Rock Cartwright (7, ’02), Alfred Morris (6, ’12), and Chris Thompson (5, ’13).

These players played in 654 games from Washington, gained almost 20,000 yards on the ground and almost 10,000 more in receptions. They combined to score 175 touchdowns in their Washington careers. Across the board, they were 2-3 times as productive as the higher picks.

You can accuse me of cherry-picking. Washington selected plenty of running backs in later rounds who never panned out. I am taking the best of that group. But quite frankly, I could have subbed in several other players for those at the bottom of the list and the numbers would look the same. Green only really played one season and was not a factor as a running back. But he was a Pro Bowl kick returner. Cartwright was also a special teams stud. Bryant could have done a lot more had he not sojourned in the USFL to begin his career.

The point is, Washington has had a much better track record picking running backs late than picking them early. Maybe you can go back farther, but I trace it all back to Ray McDonald and Larry Brown.