There’s no denying the fact that the Washington Football Team has struggled to stay relevant for strictly football reasons for the better part of the last half-decade. While off-field issues and locker room drama has kept the D.C. team in the headlines, the on-field product has been middling at best, and usually near the bottom of the league.
One of the major reasons for that became clear on Friday afternoon when it was announced that RB Derrius Guice was being released from the team following an arrest for alleged domestic violence incidents earlier this year. That reason is that Washington has been incredibly unable to capitalize on second-round draft picks over the past handful of years, which is something that can absolutely decimate your roster. Here is the track record since 2014:
- 2014 — LB Trent Murphy (22 starts)
- 2015 — DE Preston Smith (left in free agency)
- 2016 — LB Su’a Cravens (3 starts)
- 2017 — LB Ryan Anderson (4 starts, 43 total games)
- 2018 —RB Derrius Guice (5 total games)
- 2019 —No Pick (Montez Sweat trade)
- 2020 —No Pick (Montez Sweat trade)
If you look around the rest of the league, it’s clear that some of the best players were taken in the second round, and understandable why Washington has struggled to find talent on the field. Look at some of the players that Washington could have had instead of Cravens, like WR Tyler Boyd, or CB James Bradburry. How about taking TE Mark Andrews instead of Guice, or maybe WR Juju Smith-Schuster over Anderson?
A lot of the failures in Washington have to do with coaching and management, but a lot have also been caused directly by a lack of talent on the roster. There were some high hopes for Guice to break out and stay healthy in his third season, but his release made it clear on Friday — the 2nd round of the NFL Draft has been Washington’s kryptonite as of late.
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