The Redskins Portal - ESPN 980

The Washington Redskins shocked the football world on Saturday, when they selected Tom Compton in the sixth round of the NFL Draft.

I'm only kidding. While nobody in DC had probably ever heard of Compton, he fits the athletic mold that the Redskins offensive lineman usually require, much like 5th round pick Adam Gettis does.

The real shock (should it have been?) came with their first selection in the 4th round, drafting Kirk Cousins out of Michigan State. 

I will admit, when we first got advance of the selection, about a minute before it was announced, we were live on ESPN 980 from FedEx Field and Redskins Park, and we were all surprised.  I posted on twitter, something to the effect of "this is going to be a shocker." It was, but maybe as we think about it, that was wrong.

Here's the only thing I am shocked about, a few days later. A fan base that has been starved for anybody including Santa Claus to be their quarterback, is now frustrated, and in some circles, pissed off that Mike Shanahan and the Redskins 'wasted' a pick on Kirk Cousins. All of this, when they could have had the "messiah,' offensive lineman, Bobby Massie.

It's just pure and total nonsense. Anyone in the media, that is angered by this --  or extremely critical of the decision, locally or nationally, simply doesn't understand how the world works. Especially, the football world.

Robert Griffin III is the number one quarterback, no questions asked. There will be a competition for that spot in training camp, with Rex Grossman pushing Griffin, but in reality, the competition shouldn't really be one at all. That's no offense to Rex, but the Redskins did not trade the future for the now, to sit on the bench in New Orleans and beyond.

Kirk Cousins, will make the 53-man roster and will be the third quarterback (The Redskins only carried 2 last year plus practice squad QB, Jonathan Crompton), but will be one of seven inactives every week in 2012, assuming Griffin III and Grossman are completely healthy.

That's it. This decision was NOT for 2012. As we know, all good organizations, and the Redskins are trying to get to that point, draft by value and by their board, as opposed to pure need. The beauty of the Cousins selection is this - IT WAS A NEED!!!

How can anybody argue that a solid, bright, competitive quarterback that the Redskins brass had ranked as a 2nd round prospect (from what I've heard) is a wasted pick, when Rex Grossman is only under contract for one year, and John Beck was going to be released right after the draft, as we had reported in mid-April?

Just doesn't make sense. Sorry. The Redskins addressed every one of their needs, in some way, with the exception of a pass catching tight end. I would  be much more upset about this, as opposed to Washington making sure that the quarterback situation is in pretty darn good hands for the next 4 years plus.

Kevin Sheehan of the "Sports Fix" on ESPN-980  asked on Friday, if the Redskins should take another QB before the draft ended. I said, emphatically, YES. I said if Richmond, VA native Russell Wilson was available in the sixth round, "hell yeah."  I didn't think  Cousins would be available in the fourth round, and Wilson would be gone before him, so when the Redskins saw that...BAM.

Stop complaining. This isn't anything about race, as that moron Skip Bayless is trying to create. This is what a good organization does. A week ago, in most eyes, the Redskins had NO quarterbacks.  Today they have one star, and two more than capable, options if something drastic were to happen.

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About the star, as in Robert Griffin III. ESPN 980 through two league sources has obtained contract information for what his rookie deal with the Washington Redskins will look like, with little or no variance.

Per the league sources, the NFL released the 'rookie allocation numbers' today to determine rookie contracts.  Griffin's first contract under the current CBA will be four years. and worth a total of 21.12 million dollars, with that amount "fully guaranteed."

Griffin III's actual signing bonus according to the sources, will be 13.8 million, again fully guaranteed.  For comparison under the current rookie system, last year's # 2 overall pick, Von Miller of the Denver Broncos received 13. 77 million as a signing bonus and had a 21.0 million payment.

As ESPN 980 first reported in mid-April, Griffin III's salary cap figure was expected to be about 4.0 million with a 5% increase factored in, year over year. Instead, Griffin III's first contract will cost the Redskins 3.840 million under the 2012 salary cap.

The breakdown is not a simple across the board, 21.12 million divided by four years.

As for Cousins, his fourth round selection (7th overall), carried a 494,000 cap figure for the first year of the CBA, last year for an equivalent pick. The expected cap figure is 508,000 in 2012. 

If you factor in Rex Grossman's reported one-year, 1.3 million dollar contract, assuming he makes the Week 1 roster, which barring catastrophic injury -- he surely will, the Redskins will be spending approximately 5.8 million dollars of their 120.6 M (not including the 18 M cap penalty)  salary cap on three quarterbacks in 2012.

Overall, the Redskins rookie allocation pool is 7.48 million under the salary cap for the sum of their draft picks.

Chris Russell // RussellC@Redskins.com // SFtheRooster@yahoo.com // www.twitter.com/russellmania980 // www.twitter.com/espnradio980 // www.facebook.com (Chris Russell or ESPN 980)