At the top of Friday’s show, Kevin Sheehan read a listener email that started like this: ‘If Dotson is really fighting to make the team, Ron Rivera is the worst personnel evaluator in franchise history, and that's really saying something.”
Can’t argue with that.
“I don't believe that Jahan Dotson is fighting for a spot on the team; he may be fighting for a spot on the game day roster of 46, and it’s possible that if they had a game on Sunday that counted, Dotson might be inactive,” Kevin said. “It’s also a possibility he could be traded.”
It may not be a roster spot overall, it may just be role, but Dotson is fighting for something for sure in Kevin’s eyes – but maybe he wasn’t the right fit to begin with?
“The worst part about Ron's drafts is that he went away essentially from what the expert consensus was,” Kevin said. “That's a little bit vague, but there are some people out there that essentially measure all of the draft analysts – who are not current general managers or scouts, and they basically evaluate drafts based on where you took a certain player and where that player was supposed to go based on the expert belief. And the truth is, that in three of the four drafts in the first round, Ron steered clear of the consensus.”
Not in 2020, which may have been Kyle Smith’s board, but they did take Chase Young over Tua, Herbert, four potential franchise tackles, another DL in Derrick Brown who has been to a Pro Bowl, and some guy named Justin Jefferson, among others.
Here are the facts, though: not a single 2020 draftee is still on the roster in 2024, and between the Commanders’ top two picks, Chase Young at No. 2 and Antonio Gibson at No. 66, 13 of the 63 players chosen have made a Pro Bowl, and several more are lynchpins for their teams (like, say, Jordan Love) – although one, No. 64 pick Jeremy Chinn, IS actually a Commander now.
But yeah, you can grade that 2020 draft fairly now, and it’s not good.
“Ron became coach in January and was the overseer of all, and you can grade it fairly: it’s a D-minus,” Kevin said. “It’s close to an F because of how badly Chase Young performed overall, but Antonio Gibson and Kamren Curl are the only reasons that it's not an F, and Chase Young was at least consensus, but it’s a D-minus minus, if not a complete strikeout.”
And after Kevin waxed poetic there, you can move to 2021 where Jamin Davis, who was not a consensus pick, is fighting for his career, and then 2022 where Dotson looks like a huge reach at No. 16, and it just keeps piling on.
“There isn't a real strong thought that had they not taken Davis, that Davis would have gone anywhere else in the first round, but they got some of the players they liked like Dyami Brown and Sam Cosmi, and still have five players still here, so that’s a C-minus,” Kevin said. “But 2022, this is the draft where I think there was even more of a consensus that Washington at 11, before they traded back. Kyle Hamilton was the one I wanted them to pick, and he's a superstar already in Baltimore, and if they had taken Chris Olave at 11, they'd be looking much better right now based on Olave's production without much quarterback play in New Orleans.”
Oh, and yeah, Dotson, like Davis, may not have been anywhere near his spot if Washington passed, which may have been part of why they traded back.
“Dotson was probably not a Top 16 expert selection, but Jahan Dotson was climbing a lot of boards late in the weeks approaching the draft; he definitely going to be a first-round pick, but not at 11,” Kevin said. “Had Drake London or Charles Cross made it to 11, Washington would not have traded back, but both of those players went back to back at eight and nine.”
The final result? That draft is still too early to grade, and that trade did net them the picks they used on Brian Robinson and Sam Howell, but it’s ‘looking like another D or D-minus, especially if Dotson doesn’t work out.’
Listen to Kevin’s while solilioquy above!