The Draft of 1992
The year was 1992. The Redskins had just won their third Super Bowl title, Joe Gibbs was still the coach, the Posse was alive and well, and Mark Rypien was the second coming of Joe Namath. Life was good for the Redskins--very good. This was a team that had been managed by Charley Casserly for several seasons now, and with the emergence of Brian Mitchell any skepticism about Casserly's draft savvy was temporarily silenced. As Bobby Beatherd's right hand man he had seen and done it a ll. It looked as if he was the right man for the job.
When Draft Day '92 came around the GMs were all a buzz with the likes of Steve Emtman, Quentin Coryatt, and Terrell Buckley. However, there was one player that was the home run hitter every team coveted; Desmond Howard. When the Super Bowl champs traded up with Cincinnati for the forth overall spot they grabbed the most explosive offensive player in the draft. At the time it seemed like a stroke of genius; Charley Casserly was building the team for the future.
The rest of the league gasped in horror. "My God!" they said. "They're an explosive offensive team and they just got better." It indeed seemed that way. The Redskins at that point in time had one of the best, if not the best, trio of receivers in the league. In Monk, Clark and Sanders they had experience, toughness, and the ability to score from any place on the field. Mark Rypien just finished having a career year in which he established himself as the most accurate long ball passer in the league. Add H oward into the mix and it was downright scary. The drafting of Desmond Howard was a pick that 27 other GMs hoped they had made, but the Redskins beat them to it. However, as time would tell, the drafting of Desmond Howard became a shining symbol of the da rk days ahead.
Howard's first year was spent primarily on the bench. If you don't recall during the Gibbs years rookies waited their turn, and Howard was no exception. In fact, Gibbs's players were veterans; not of two or three years but four or five. Gibbs had a long history of bringing up players very slowly or bringing in players that had years of experience elsewhere. For example, Doug Williams played for Tampa Bay from '78 to '82 prior to doing time in the USFL. Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders had also done time in t he USFL. John Riggins spent four years with the New York Jets, and Wilber Marshall played for the Chicago Bears before becoming the NFL's first true free agent and signing with the Redskins. With this in mind Howard would be lucky to have half a dozen pla ys during the season. That year Howard only caught three passes by no fault of his own.
After his rookie year the Redskins and the league went through some significant changes. Joe Gibbs retired and the era of free agency was on the horizon. Over the next two seasons the Redskins would lose most of the intricate parts of its championship se ason of '91 either to free agency or to old age. Therefore, Howard was forced to play a much larger part in the grand scheme of the offensive game plan. Unfortunately, he was unable to fulfill the promise of a stellar college career. His grand total for t hree years as a Washington Redskin came to 66 catches, 1033 yards, and 5 touchdowns.
To put this into perspective we need to take a look at four receivers that were picked after Howard. All of them surpass his numbers for the same three year period. Carl Pickens for Cinncinati picked in the second round, 31st overall: 140 catches, 2018 y ards and 18 touchdowns. Courtney Hawkins for Tampa Bay picked in the second round, 44th overall: 119 catches, 1707 yards, 12 touchdowns. Robert Brooks for Green Bay picked in the third round, 62nd overall: 90 catches, 954 yards, and 5 touchdowns. Torrance Small for New Orleans picked in the fifth round, 158th overall: 88 catches, 1161 yards, and 9 touchdowns. Of course Robert Brooks and Carl "slim" Pickens went on to have stellar years in '95. While Torrance Small and Courtney Hawkins continued to be prod uctive for their respective teams. To say the least Howard was a bust.
Just a final note on Howard. The year after Turner took over as head coach Howard was taken by Jacksonville in the expansion draft. He had complained the Redskins had never really given him a "fair" shot. So when Jacksonville gave him his freedom he resp onded with 26 catches, 276 yards and 1 touchdown. Jacksonville cut him after one season.
Unfortunately, Howard was what accentuated a draft that by all accounts was a total disaster. The Redskins '92 draft reads like the New York phone book; if you recognize one name you're lucky. If you don't recognize the following names don't feel badly, you're not expected to. Round 2; DL Shane Collins, Round 3; OL Paul Siever, Round 5; QB Chris Hakel, Round 6; TE Ray Rowe, Round 7; DB Calvin Holmes, Round 8; OL Darryl Moore, Round 9; LB Boone Powell, Round 10; LB Tony Barker, Round 11; WR Terry Smith, and the only one you should recognize OL Matt Elliott in Round 12. Casserly drafted eleven players and only two are still in the NFL, Howard and Elliott, and neither one plays for the Redskins.
So while the Redskins, then the Super Bowl champs, were drafting cannon fodder, the likes of Green Bay, Dallas, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh were forging a bright future for themselves. Dallas drafted Kevin Smith, Robert Jones, and Darren Woodson. Green B ay drafted Edger Bennet, Mark Chmura, Ty Detmer, and Robert Brooks. Indianapolis drafted Quentin Coryatt, Ashley Ambrose, Rodney Culver and Tony McCoy. Pittsburgh drafted Levon Kirkland, Leon Searcy, Joel Steed, and Darren Perry. To illustrate that, in sp ite of free agency, the draft is still the foundation on which all great and not so great teams are built and maintained, pay close attention to the following facts; Indianapolis, Green Bay, Dallas, and Pittsburgh have been to a combined nine AFC or NFC t itle games and five Super Bowls since the draft of '92. The Redskins have had only one playoff win in that same time. If the Redskins were the Titanic, Charley Casserly's draft picks were the iceberg.