Year after year, you can count on the Redskins signing a lot of free agents. And lacking draft picks.
Mike Shanahan finally broke the trend this year. By trading down from No. 10 to No. 16 in the first round, the Redskins picked up extra picks and then leveraged those picks to pick up more in a series of trades down.
All in all, the Redskins have picked up five extra draft picks thus far. While they all won’t work out, this is exactly what the Redskins need. The team has one of the thinnest rosters in the league, bereft of young quality talent at nearly every position.
This approach may not make sense for every team every year, but it’s the perfect way to go for the 2011 Redskins. And it’s something they simply haven’t done in the past.