Washington’s history of top 3 draft picks
April 22, 2024
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to draft week, everyone! Finally, right? I don’t know about you, but the buildup to this year’s event has been downright painful, and I can promise you that I spend far less time agonizing over opinions on social media than most people, especially for media or, in our case, quasi-media types. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for those of you who inhabit social media on a regular basis. Washington, of course, has the second overall pick this year, which made me to start wonder about the true extent of Washington’s history of top 3 draft picks. Before we get into it, just remember that, considering all of the former picks were made under multiple different leadership teams, plus the fact that Dan Snyder’s bad karma is gone, this history doesn’t mean much in terms of being able to predict the future. This effort is just a fun, draft week dive through history.
Without further ado, the following is a list of every pick the Washington Redskins / Football Team / Commanders have made in franchise history. Please note that a couple of these involved draft pick trades, such as Robert Griffin in 2012 and Chris Samuels in 2000. Trying to track all of the trades in franchise history proved to require more research than I was willing to take on right now, so we’re just going to focus today on the selections the team actually made with picks 1, 2, and 3 from the beginning in 1936 through 2023:
1936, #2: Riley Smith, FB, Alabama
1948, #1: Harry Gilmer, QB, Alabama
1953, #3: Jack Scarbath, QB, Maryland
1961, #2: Norm Snead, QB, Wake Forest
1961, #3: Joe Rutgens, DT, Illinois
1962, #1: Ernie Davis, RB, Syracuse
1964, #3: Charley Taylor, WR, Arizona St.
1994, #3: Heath Shuler, QB, Tennessee
2000, #2: LaVar Arrington, LB, Penn St.
2000, #3: Chris Samuels, OT, Alabama
2012, #2: Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor
2020, #2: Chase Young, DE, Ohio St.
Surprisingly, that’s the sum total of top 3 draft picks in franchise history. Just 12 in 86 years. It’s especially noteworthy that the Redskins didn’t have a single pick in this category for 30 years between 1964 and 1994. That time period encompassed the entirety of the careers of Sonny Jurgensen, George Allen, and the Joe Gibbs Super Bowl era, but also many poor seasons as well. Washington traded away their first round pick nearly every season between 1969 and 1990. During those years, the only first round picks the team made were in 1980 (WR Art Monk, #18), 1981 (OT Mark May, #20), 1983 (CB Darrell Green, #28), and 1984 (K Tony Zendejas, #27 in the Supplemental Draft). Three of those four picks ended up being Redskins legends, including two Hall of Famers, but still . . . that’s remarkably few.
Regardless, of the 12 top 3 picks made by the team, it’s fair to categorize 6 of them as busts:
1936, #2: Riley Smith, QB, Alabama (Boston Redskins)
1948, #1: Harry Gilmer, QB, Alabama
1953, #3: Jack Scarbath, QB, Maryland
1994, #3: Heath Shuler, QB, Tennessee
2012, #2: Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor
2020, #2: Chase Young, DE, Ohio St.
Smith, who was the second player ever drafted in the NFL’s inaugural draft in 1936, played 30 games, starting 27, in three seasons before an injury ended his career.
Gilmer actually stayed in Washington for 6 seasons, but didn’t live up to his draft status, starting just 24 of 57 games. He was traded to Detroit after the 1954 season.
Scarbath was a total bust, playing 22 games in two seasons, with just 10 starts, before abandoning the NFL for the CFL in 1955. He tried to return to the NFL for the 1956 season, signing with the Steelers, but was gone for good following that year.
Shuler was terrible from the moment he set foot in Ashburn and was infamously benched in 1995, just his second season, in favor of seventh round throwaway pick Gus Frerotte. Frerotte stayed in Washington until 1998. Shuler was out of the NFL entirely in 1999 after being cut by the Raiders after training camp. He is widely considered to be one of the biggest busts in NFL history. Shuler went on to be elected to Congress, representing the 11th District in North Carolina from 2007 to 2013.
Griffin and Young are still etched in most fans’ memories. Griffin looked like Washington’s franchise quarterback of the future in his 2012 rookie season, but tore his ACL and LCL in his right knee late in the year. His knee injury, along with poor handling by team leadership and a bad attitude by Griffin himself, ended his time with Washington. The team cut him before the 2016 season. Let’s not relive it any further; debate this one away in the comment section if you want to do so. Young, Washington’s most recent top 3 draft pick, had a quality, worthy rookie year, winning the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and earning a Pro Bowl selection. Things blew up after that, though, thanks to a severe knee injury, poor work ethic, and bad attitude, and Washington traded him to San Francisco for a bag of Doritos a third round pick at the trade deadline last season.
Ernie Davis, infamously the subject of racism as the first African-American winner of the Heisman Trophy, was drafted by Washington in 1962. However, owner George Preston Marshall, who was part of the problem, not the solution, immediately traded Davis to Cleveland in exchange for Bobby Mitchell, who became a Redskins legend, and halfback Leroy Jackson, who only played one year for Washington. That’s too tragic and unique of a situation to criticize, particularly since the Redskins ended up with Bobby Mitchell. Plus, I refuse to call a guy who unexpectedly passed away a “bust”, so I’ll leave that as uncategorized.
That leaves five who weren’t busts:
1961, #2: Norm Snead, QB, Wake Forest
1961, #3: Joe Rutgens, DT, Illinois
1964, #3: Charley Taylor, WR, Arizona St.
2000, #2: LaVar Arrington, LB, Penn St.
2000, #3: Chris Samuels, OT, Alabama
Snead ended up being a solid pro, but he only played for Washington for three seasons, with Pro Bowl selections in 1962 and 1963, before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for future Hall of Famer Jurgensen. Snead was a quality player, but spent the bulk of his career in Philadelphia and elsewhere, not in Washington.
Rutgens played for Washington for 9 years and was selected to three Pro Bowls. He was way before my time, but his record shows that he was a career starter for the Redskins and a worthy franchise-caliber player.
Taylor, of course, remained with Washington for 14 seasons, including 8 Pro Bowls, 1 First Team All-Pro selection, and 5 Second Team All-Pro selections. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984 and remains one of the greatest players in franchise history.
Arrington had talent, and made the Pro Bowl in 2001, 2002, and 2003; however, he got into conflicts with the team, including Joe Gibbs, and ended up having to pay the team $4.4M to essentially buy his free agency after the 2005 season. He then signed a 7 year, $49M contract with the Giants, but ruptured his Achilles tendon in week 7 in 2006 and never played again.
Chris Samuels was the Redskins’ starting left tackle for 10 years, earning 6 Pro Bowl selections before injuries forced him to retire. He’s a Washington legend despite somehow never making the Hall of Fame.
In summary, Charley Taylor and Chris Samuels were by far Washington’s best top 3 draft picks in franchise history. Those two were the epitome of “franchise player”. They represented everything a team wants from a top 3 draft pick: success, Pro Bowls, and longevity with the team that drafted them. To a lesser extent, Rutgens also fits this category. The biggest busts were Heath Shuler and Jack Scarbath. That isn’t a great record, but like I said earlier, it has nothing to do with the chances that Washington’s current leadership will be able to draft a future franchise legend on Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed.