Interesting revelations from Washington’s combine presser during which new head coach Ron Rivera indicated that the Redskins will be doing full workups on top-rated QBs Joe Burrow of LSU and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa. The Redskins will meet with both as two of their allotted 45 player interviews at the combine this week and they also plan to work both out privately as well as have both come to the team’s facilities for on-site visits prior to the draft. The Redskins have the second pick overall and have been widely expected to take star Ohio State DE Chase Young at that spot, but this news suggests that they may have other options. What isn’t clear, though, is whether the Redskins are genuinely interested in Burrow and/or Tagovailoa or whether they are just trying to blow some smoke in order to gin up some interest in trading down for a package of picks. Both are real possibilities. The Redskins did take QB Dwayne Haskins with a mid-first round pick last April, however, he was up and down through his rookie campaign and the new coaching staff could be looking for their own guy at the position. At the same time, the defensive line is already one of the Redskins few strengths so they could conceivably consider passing on Young in favor of a package of picks to address other areas. Stay tuned. However, Washington is not the only team meeting with the top two QBs this week as they have also scheduled interviews with Cincinnati, which has the #1 pick overall, and Miami, which picks, 5th but has more than enough draft capital to move just about anywhere on the board.
We keep hearing whispers that if there’s going to be a third QB in the top 5-10 mix this year, its more likely to be Jordan Love of Utah State than Oregon’s Justin Herbert. Love is coming off a disappointing 2019 season and needs a lot of work, but he has the kind of natural arm talent that just can’t be taught.
Speaking of Miami, while their primary goal at the 2020 draft is to come away with a potential franchise QB, the Dolphins, who have three first picks and two in the second, apparently would also like to upgrade at RB, as they have met just about every back who is anybody at the combine including Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor, Georgia’s D’Andre Swift, Ohio State’s JK Dobbins, Zack Moss of Utah, AJ Dillon of Boston College, Florida State’s Cam Akers, Lamical Perine of Florida and Miami’s Deejay Dallas. That’s a lot of RBs to interview when you only get 45 interviews overall.
Interesting to note that Arizona will interview both top-rated WRs CeeDee Lamb of Oklahoma and Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy at the combine this week. Just about every mock out there has the Cardinals taking an OT with the 8th pick overall, but head coach Kliff Kingsbury and G.M. Steve Keim both said no-so fast at their combine pressers. In fact, the Cardinals resigned incumbent starting LT DJ Humphries to a 3-year extension this year and while RT is still somewhat problematic, using a top ten pick just to fill a need might be a little rich. And it would be intriguing if the Cardinals were to select Lamb and re-unite him with former Sooners battery mate QB Kyler Murray, Arizona’s top pick last April.
