ESPN NFL

So in the upcoming issue of ESPN the Magazine, J.R. Moehringer writes a very long story that's an open letter to President Obama about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. The premise is that they're not so different, those two, in terms of the hope they represent and the manner in which people view them and the way in which they're required to carry themselves in a world in which their every word and action will be parsed for the deepest possible meaning. It's a worthwhile read, because it reveals some things about Griffin's personality, which is fascinating and atypical. But the part everyone's talking about is the part in which Griffin talks about the knee injuries he suffered late in his rookie season and what he learned from them:

But people don't understand the primal impulses of an athlete: "Your survivor instinct kicks in. You're like, 'I'm a warrior. I'm a beast. I do all these things, I can push through adversity.'"

He acknowledges that he needs to work on moderating that instinct. "If I had another incident like the Ngata hit, I'm out of the game. You pull yourself out at that point. You learn from your mistakes."

What about the Seahawks game? "I don't feel like playing against the Seahawks was a mistake. But I see the mistake in it."

Come again?

"With what happened and how everything was running -- you take me out. If that happened again next year, I'd come out of the game and sit until I was 100 percent healthy."

There's been a lot said this offseason, including by Griffin himself, about who was responsible for what happened in the playoff game and whether Mike Shanahan should have taken Griffin out against his will. (This writer is on record as saying he should have, and was saying so in the press box as the mess was unfolding.) But the idea of the experience as a lesson learned and to be applied to similar situations in the future is an encouraging one for Redskins fans. Legitimate questions remain as to whether Griffin and those responsible for his long-term health would be able to apply that lesson in the heat of a similar moment or whether those same instincts would take over again, but at least he's not still insisting that it was the right thing to do, as he did in the moments that followed that playoff game.

Griffin is only 23 years old, and ideally we'll all get the chance to continue watching and writing and talking about him for years to come. He's a lot of fun to watch, and a fascinating young man to follow. But I believe he understands that a large portion of his own hopes and dreams rest on his ability to take care of his own health. It seems as though that concept has been drilled into him by his parents. And it's entirely possible that his most recent devastating knee injury could be the thing that gets him to take it more seriously than he may have when he was younger.

Justin Pugh played tackle at Syracuse, and the spot on the New York Giants' offensive line that seems most open right now is right tackle. So it's easy to presume that Pugh, who was their first-round draft pick last week, will challenge for the starting right tackle spot in Giants training camp. David Diehl and James Brewer don't appear to pose an insurmountable challenge for the highly regarded rookie, and if he shows he can handle the job, there seems to be no reason not to give it to him.

However, prior to the draft most scouts were projecting Pugh as an NFL guard because his arms had measured short at the combine. And as Art Stapleton of The Record explained in a recent blog entry, the Giants' offensive line picture is fluid:

The overlooked domino here is Brewer, of whom Reese has said “we expect [him] to come on and contribute this year.”

Brewer worked at guard last season when Snee and Baas were banged up, and I could see one of the three (Pugh, Brewer, Diehl) having more of an impact at guard if someone should win the job at RT outright. Down the line, if Brewer proves he could handle RT, then in 2014 it would not surprise me if Pugh lands the starting job at LG with Boothe on a one-year deal.

This is why the Pugh pick makes sense as a Giants first-round pick. Not because he fits an immediate need. The Giants don't draft that way. Pugh made sense for the Giants because they don't know what their needs are going to be on the offensive line a year from now. They're thinking about a 2014 version of Pugh, who's had some NFL experience and a chance to show a bit of what he can and can't handle in terms of position. If he shows he's a tackle, then they know they're set at the tackle spots with him and Will Beatty. If he shows he's not, then maybe he replaces Boothe (or, down the line, Chris Snee) and they know they need to find a right tackle unless Brewer shows he's the answer over there.

The Giants like Pugh as a player and believe he's going to be able to handle the NFL, regardless of where and when he's asked to be a full-time contributor. The "need" he fills is "long-range offensive line puzzle piece," and they believe he's a good enough player to succeed wherever and whenever he ends up fitting.

Interesting case here of a young man's mouth maybe getting the Philadelphia Eagles into some trouble. LSU wide receiver Russell Shepard, signed as an undrafted free agent by the Eagles after the draft, gave a radio interview in which he claimed that he and the Eagles had reached agreement on a contract while the sixth round of the draft was still ongoing. This would, of course, be a violation of the rule that prohibits such agreements from being reached until after the draft is completed, and according to Tim McManus, the NFL is looking into the matter. The Eagles say Shepard has his facts wrong:

The Eagles, through a statement, said Shepard’s account is off the mark.

“Russell Shepard has not signed a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. However, we did come to terms on a contract with he and his agent after the draft was completed. We anticipate he, like all of the rookie free agents we have agreed to terms with, will take a physical examination upon arriving in Philadelphia prior to next week’s rookie mini-camp and then sign a contract.”

Right. This is the way it's legally supposed to work. However, we're all kidding ourselves if we believe teams don't reach out to prospects while the draft is still ongoing and work out agreements to sign them after it's over. This is clearly one of those NFL rules that's broken all the time but not really enforced, like free-agent tampering, or offensive holding. The issue here is that Shepard went on the radio and blabbed about it, and now the Eagles could face some sort of discipline if they're found to have broken a rule.

But I doubt they will. This is a victimless crime, right? If a team really wanted Shepard, even after the Eagles called and told him they planned to sign him post-draft, that team could have just selected him in the seventh round and there would have been nothing the Eagles could have done about it. What are they going to say, "No! You can't draft him! We just signed him to an illegal contract!"

Much ado about very little, though I imagine that Shepard this morning isn't the Eagles' absolute favorite undrafted free agent they signed over the weekend.

We had our weekly chat Tuesday, and if your morning meeting is running late you can read the whole thing here. If not, here are a few highlights:

Ken (Pa): Dan, realistically, what are the odds that Michael Vick is even on the Eagles roster come opening day? Not saying Matt Barkley is going to be the savior, but Chip Kelly does not require a "mobile QB" and why not see what you have in the younger guys, aka Nick Foles and/or Barkley?

Dan Graziano: I think right now, Vick is the clear favorite to be the Week 1 starting QB. The most experience and highest ceiling of any QB they have on the roster. Could he perform badly enough in the preseason to lose that job? Yes. If he does, could he be released? Sure. But I wouldn't bet on that happening.

Bill (Virginia): Dan, the Redskins seem to have gotten a lot of guys who can win turnover battles but also give up the homerun hit in this draft. Coupled with the current starters (Brandon Meriweather, DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson), are the Redskins going to have the most feared AND laughable Defensive backfield in the league next year? Seems like they're the epitome of feast or famine.

DG: Yeah, I see where you're coming from. I guess the theory is that you can coach technique and disciplined coverage, but not the instincts required to make plays on the ball. So you get the guys with the instincts and you try and fix their deficiencies so they're not too costly.

Gene (DC): Draft is over. Most of the free agents are signed. What do you see as the biggest remaining hole on each roster?

DG: Cowboys: Right tackle. Giants: Linebacker. Redskins: Safety. Eagles: Quarterback.

tim (toledo, oh): why did the cowboys take a center and not a guard? I thought that Phil Costa did a good job when he played and Ryan Cook filled in well. was guard a more pressing need? or center?

DG: See, this is one of the reasons I like the pick. Travis Frederick can play center or guard, as can Costa. So you take a guy in Frederick who is now putting pressure on three players -- Costa, Nate Livings and Mackenzy Bernadeau -- to beat him out. If he outplays any one of them in camp, he can take his position. Gives them options.

Martin (NY): Have you seen enough of David Wilson and Rueben Randle to believe that they're ready to be major contributors this year?

DG: No, I don't think anyone has. But that's not to say they can't. And just because they're not major contributors Week 1 doesn't mean they won't be in Week 10. The Giants believe in development, and different players take different amounts of time.

Thanks to all who attended and the many who asked questions. We'll do it again next week.

Good morning. It's Wednesday. It's May. Minicamps are around the corner. Links are hot and ready.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles worked to overhaul their secondary early in the offseason. This was expected, since it was their most significant area of weakness. But it doesn't sound as though they're convinced they've done all they needed to do there.

Jeffrey Lurie's attendance at Geno Smith's workout before the draft was not a smokescreen, Chip Kelly insists. Their interest in Smith was genuine and serious -- they just decided he wasn't worth one of their first two picks. But Kelly says the reason Lurie was at the workout was that they had a meeting scheduled with him that day and he just decided, as billionaires are wont to do, to hop on a plane and take the trip with them and have the meeting that way.

Washington Redskins

The Redskins appear to be getting the secondary help they want most, as strong safety Brandon Meriweather says he's on track to return from ACL surgery in time for the start of training camp. The Redskins believe Meriweather would have been an impact player for them had he been able to get on the field last year at that strong safety position.

Rich Tandler looks at the ways in which the Redskins still need to balance their roster before camp. He expects to see them add bodies at wide receiver, linebacker and offensive line, maybe subtract at running back.

Dallas Cowboys

Calvin Watkins has a bit more on why the Cowboys liked undrafted linebacker Brandon Magee so much that they were willing to give him $70,000 to sign and ignore concerns that he might want to play baseball instead.

Why did the Cowboys pass on defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd in the first round? It sounds as though the scouts liked him but the coaches didn't think he was a fit for what they're trying to do in their new 4-3 defense. There were a few people who told me before the draft that Floyd was a very specific type of player who would only fit certain schemes and roles, and it appears the Cowboys agreed.

New York Giants

Tom Coughlin hoped that things would move fast with the Victor Cruz contract situation once the restricted free-agent signing period ended, but they have not, and the Giants coach says that's become something of a concern.

It's been 14 years since the Giants had a first-round rookie offensive lineman, and it sounds as though the veterans have some fun plans for Justin Pugh.

I get the sense that Dallas Cowboys fans would feel better about the team if it signed one of these free-agent offensive tackles. Tyson Clabo and Eric Winston are the names you're hearing, and it's pretty obvious either would be an upgrade over Doug Free. Neither has yet signed elsewhere, so there's no real reason to panic. But with all of the salary cap problems the Cowboys have had this offseason it's understandable to worry whether they can afford to sign one of these guys.

Calvin Watkins reports, however, that the Cowboys have more than $5 million in cap room at the present time, not counting the $2 million they'll get in June when the release of Marcus Spears takes effect and not counting the $7 million (post-June 1) they could save by cutting Free. This would seem to indicate that they can sign someone like Clabo and still sign their draft picks (especially since their first-rounder ended up being No. 31 and not No. 18, a distinction likely to save them somewhere around $300,000 against this year's cap). The picks don't need to be under contract prior to June 1, so the Cowboys can wait until then to take care of that even if they sign Clabo in the meantime.

The issue appears to be Free, and how they handle his contract situation. It's easy for us to sit here and say they should cut him based on the way he's played since they signed him two offseasons ago. But the Cowboys don't like to give up on their guys, and it's likely they'd prefer to keep Free at a much lower salary and as a backup tackle. If Free would agree to the pay cut now, they'd add to their cap room and could make a move on a Clabo with more clarity about their overall 2013 cap situation. But if Free won't agree to the pay cut the Cowboys have in mind, then they're a month away from being able to cut him and things could get held up.

As you know, I like the move the Cowboys made to take center/guard Travis Frederick in the first round last week. Along with fellow first-rounder Tyron Smith, he'll give the Cowboys at least two offensive line starters about whom they can feel good. Adding a veteran such as Clabo, whom they appear to like, would up that number to three, and then they could throw a bunch of Phil Costa/Mackenzy Bernadeau/Nate Livings types into the mix for the other two spots and hope that competition pushes two of them to play better.

The Cowboys have enough talent on their roster to be a playoff team in 2013, but they have to get better offensive line play in order to cash in on that. Step 1 was the first round of the draft. Step 2 remains up in the air. But it appears they do have the resources to pull it off.

Still sorting out what went down last week in the NFL draft, Todd McShay has selected a "Best pick" and a "Questionable pick" for each team in the league. Here's what he came up with for the NFC East's teams:

Dallas Cowboys

Best: Gavin Escobar

Questionable: Travis Frederick

Todd says Escobar has the best hands of any tight end he evaluated for this draft. As for Frederick, as has been the case many places, Todd's issue is not with the player but rather how high he was picked. But I still don't know what any team saw Thursday night that would have made them comfortable with waiting a round or two for the offensive lineman they wanted.

New York Giants

Best: Justin Pugh

Questionable: Johnathan Hankins

Todd's opinion of the players is at the root of this evaluation. He likes Pugh a lot -- thinks he projects as a guard, but doesn't rule out tackle. He's less high on Hankins, saying he struggles with technique and offers little in the pass rush.

Philadelphia Eagles

Best: Lane Johnson

Questionable: Bennie Logan

Todd likes Johnson as a fit for the up-tempo offense Chip Kelly plans to run, because of his athleticism. He questions Logan as a guy who took plays off.

Washington Redskins

Best: Phillip Thomas

Questionable: David Amerson

Todd believes Thomas was undervalued and that Washington did well to find a potential 2013 starter in Round 4. He had a fourth-round grade on Amerson, and says the Redskins could have made a safer choice at 51. I agree, but safe doesn't appear to be what the Redskins were after. They were trying to hit home runs with their early picks, and they like Amerson's raw ability.

You know it was coming. Yes, the draft is a seismic enough offseason event that it's worth shuffling the Power Rankings after it's done, and here they are. Let's see how the NFC East fared.

11. Washington Redskins (Pre-draft: 13). Not bad. A two-spot hop for a team that didn't have a first-round pick? The Redskins addressed needs, took some home run swings and got good value on the safeties they picked. They're a 2012 playoff team that's returning almost its entire roster intact -- assuming Robert Griffin III makes it back from his knee surgery okay. So they hang in a playoff spot in the rankings. I had them at 11. Jamison Hensley had them at 10. Mike Sando and John Clayton ranked them 15th.

12. New York Giants (14). A little bump for the G-men as well, after a standard Giants draft that saw them add pieces to the line that are as likely to help down the road as they are in the coming season. The Giants' offseason has gone well, though they do seem thin at linebacker and a secondary that didn't add much is going to have to play better than it did in 2012. I put the Giants 14th in my rankings, as did Jamison and Ashley Fox. Sando is the highest on Big Blue, ranking them 10th.

20. Dallas Cowboys (18). The near-universal overreaction to the Cowboys' draft continues, as they drop two spots. By now you know that I thought they did well, especially after the first round, and that I'm not as down on the first-round pick as everyone else is. So I have Dallas at 17, which is the highest of any of our voters. Jamison put them at 24, which is the lowest.

25. Philadelphia Eagles (26). We still don't know what to make of the Chip Kelly Eagles, and we likely won't until we see them on the field in real games come September. Their draft appears to have been a good one, and in general they've added some interesting pieces this offseason, not the least interesting of which is Kelly himself. Jamison and I put the Eagles at 23. Clayton has them all the way down at 27, and he is done with his segment.

Thoughts?

After a week's break for the ever-popular blogger mock draft, we are back in our regularly scheduled Tuesday noon ET chat time today. What you do is you click on these little blue letters right here, any time between noon and 1 p.m. ET, and you are taken away to our chat room, in which you can ask me anything you want about the NFC East. We saw a little spike in chat traffic in the weeks leading up to the draft, so I hope you don't all leave me hanging now that the speculation is behind us and the picks are made. We have much to discuss. I hope to see you there.

Settling now into a post-draft normality. We'll do our regular chat today. I think we have Power Rankings, too. So it's more like a Tuesday you're used to. One thing that's always constant, though, is the links post.

New York Giants

Giants GM Jerry Reese says there's no bad blood or hard feelings between the team and wide receiver Victor Cruz regarding Cruz's current contract dispute. It's just business, Reese says, and there's nothing in his history to indicate he doesn't mean it. It will be interesting to see whether the situation can get resolved without any hard feelings surfacing.

Ed Valentine continues to hope that the Giants find linebacker help on what remains of the free-agent market after not drafting a linebacker with any of their picks. They could add a veteran, I guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if they think they're OK at the position. They don't tend to place much value on it.

Philadelphia Eagles

Stony Brook running back Miguel Maysonet was not drafted, which was something of a surprise, but he did sign as an undrafted free agent with the Eagles. It's not a position at which the Eagles appear to have a need, but you never know at running back when an injury's around the corner or when opportunity might present itself. He's someone on whom it's worth keeping an eye.

Fifth-round safety Earl Wolff could push for playing time in the Eagles' secondary this year, as the picture there is muddled at best. It doesn't sound as though Wolff was the Eagles' first choice among safeties in this year's draft, but he's someone they liked well enough to take a fifth-round flyer on.

Washington Redskins

E.J. Biggers, whom the Redskins signed in March to play cornerback, is a fan of David Amerson, whom the Redskins drafted in the second round last week to play cornerback. Biggers doesn't know Amerson, but he says he watches a lot of college football and enjoyed Amerson's 13-interception season in 2011.

On that note, Mike Jones looks at which Redskins veterans could see their jobs or playing time threatened by the incoming rookies, including Biggers and some of the backup running backs.

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys said they didn't need to address the defensive line in the draft because they already considered it a team strength. Todd Archer examines whether they're correct about that. I think the concern is the depth behind the starters, but if Jay Ratliff can stay healthy the starting four look very good.

Undrafted linebacker Brandon Magee is going to be a real threat to make the roster, especially after the Cowboys committed $70,000 to sign him. That's more than any seventh-round pick got to sign in 2012.

The Philadelphia Eagles' first draft since they hired Chip Kelly as their new head coach was heavy on offense at the top. This was a bit of a surprise, since it appears they'll be running a lot of 3-4 looks on defense this year and it was thought that the longtime 4-3 team might look to add pieces to help with that transition. But a look back over what the Eagles did last week find its hard to argue with the players and the value they got.

They could have traded down out of the No. 4 overall spot and still had a shot at a top defensive starter such as Star Lotulelei or Sharrif Floyd later in the round. But with offensive linemen flying off the board, and after a year in which four of their starting offensive linemen missed time due to injury, staying put and taking tackle Lane Johnson with that pick was the right call. I'm not going to get into all of this talk about how Johnson's a perfect fit for the style of offense Kelly's going to run, because frankly no one knows what style of offense Kelly's going to run (maybe not even Kelly, yet), and it's giving me a headache the way all of the analysis is magnetizing to itself. Johnson's speed and athleticism at tackle would be an asset in any offense, and I'm sure Kelly would tell you the more important thing is that he figures out how to block DeMarcus Ware and Jason Pierre-Paul and Brian Orakpo. That will ultimately determine what kind of pick this was, but in the moment and with the top two tackles already gone, it was the smart move.

Kelly got a new toy in the second round, when the Eagles took Stanford tight end Zach Ertz. It's too simplistic to assume Ertz will push out Brent Celek. It's more likely Kelly's dreaming up schemes that involve both of them as well as free-agent signee James Casey, as he continues to keep his options open.

Which brings us to the fourth round, and the Eagles' move up to take USC quarterback Matt Barkley. Again, the lockstep analysis that assumes Kelly won't be able to get out of bed in the morning unless he has a running quarterback found this one unfathomable. Barkley? He's a pocket passer! That doesn't look like what Kelly was running at Oregon! How can this beeeeee???????

Enough. Barkley in the fourth round represented astounding value, and it has nothing to do with whether he can run. A year ago, this was a guy people were talking about as the possible first pick in the first round. The Eagles got him for a fourth and a seventh. Kelly's seen him play -- coached against him in the Pac 12. He's seen the good and the bad, and the good is a smart quarterback with experience in a pro-style offense who makes quick decisions and has a strong presence in the huddle. The reasons Barkley dropped were because of poor production (and injury) in his final college season and a relative lack of arm strength that makes people worry about his downfield accuracy. Fine reasons not to take him in the first or second round, but no reason not to take a shot in the fourth if you like the guy. And again, it's not as though he's never given NFL teams a reason to like him.

I'm not rushing to figure out what this means for 2013 -- again, because I don't think Kelly is either. Barkley joins an Eagles quarterback mix that includes likely 2013 starter Michael Vick, second-year man Nick Foles and career backup Dennis Dixon. Could Barkley outplay Vick and Foles in camp and win the job? Of course he could. Vick's footspeed is a nice possible aspect of an up-tempo Kelly offense, but it's more important to Kelly that his quarterback be able to make quick, sound decisions and avoid turnovers, and those things haven't been Vick's strengths. If I had to bet, I'd say Vick starts the season as the Eagles' quarterback but that Barkley and/or Foles exist as viable replacements in the event that he gets hurt, struggles to produce or turns the ball over too much. And I don't think a coach with Kelly's intelligence and experience designing offenses is going to struggle to adjust his schemes if he has to switch from the mobile Vick to the less mobile Barkley or Kelly. I just don't.

This is a long-term project on which Kelly is embarking, and he's doing the right thing by assembling as many options as he can for his offense in the long-term as well as the short-term. He's not committing to any one system or any one player. He wants to see what all of these guys have to offer, and how quickly they can offer it, and he'll decide the right course of action accordingly. It's smart, and the offensive picks he made in this draft will help him do it.

The defensive picks? I questioned the selection of Bennie Logan in the third, because I thought he was a 4-3 defensive tackle, but they seem to think they can train him to be a 3-4 lineman. Safety Earl Wolff in the fifth and especially cornerback Jordan Poyer in the seventh felt like good value picks in a draft deep with secondary players. The Eagles already have a lot of good players on defense, and it's possible guys like Trent Cole and Vinny Curry and Brandon Graham will fit better into their new roles than many have assumed. The decision-makers seemed to approach this draft as though they didn't feel an urgent need to find replacements for them.

All in all, a good value draft for Kelly and Howie Roseman in the first year post-Andy Reid in Philadelphia. One thing he can say about Kelly's offense for certain is that it's going to keep us interested -- all through the offseason and likely the season as well.

The way you feel about the Dallas Cowboys' 2013 draft seems to depend on the way you feel about how they handled the first round. Ashley Fox, feels they bungled it badly, and theorizes that they did so because Jerry Jones was distracted by his attendance at the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library earlier in the day.

Now, I understand that Jerry excels at making himself an easy target. And I like Ashley's work. But on this point, I couldn't disagree with her more strongly. The way the Cowboys handled the first round has all the hallmarks of a coherent plan. A distracted decision-maker would have stayed put and taken the highest player on the board at No. 18, even if he didn't think that player was worth such a high pick. What the Cowboys did made sense on a number of levels.

First of all, they trade down with the 49ers, getting the 31st pick of the first round and the 12th pick of the third in exchange for that No. 18 pick. The biggest criticism we've heard is that they should have been able to get more from the 49ers, but different draft-value charts say different things on that and it takes two sides to make a deal. If they didn't have a player they liked at 18 and they saw a chance to get two that they did, then there's nothing wrong with taking that deal.

The player they ended up taking at 31, Wisconsin center Travis Frederick, projects as both an immediate and long-term starter for the Cowboys at either center or one of the guard spots. The second criticism is that they reached for him -- that they could have had him in the second or maybe even the third round. But (a) no one knows that for sure and (b) the 31st pick is practically the second round anyway. It's not as though they took Frederick 10th overall (or even 18th, for that matter). The Cowboys absolutely, 100 percent, more than any team needed anything in this entire draft, needed to come out of the first round with a new starter on the offensive line. They did. And they got an extra third-round pick out of the deal and used it on Baylor wide receiver Terrance Williams, a new vertical threat for Tony Romo in the passing game.

Along the way, they added second-round tight end Gavin Escobar, who also offers the opportunity to expand their options in the passing game and represents the successor to Jason Witten down the road. With their original third-rounder, they added physical safety J.J. Wilcox, who could push for a starting spot this year. In the fourth they added a cornerback, B.W. Webb, deepening a position at which there's no such thing as too many bodies. In the fifth they took a running back, Joseph Randle, who didn't miss a game in college, to back up the injury-prone DeMarco Murray. And in the sixth they took project linebacker DeVonte Holloman.

They filled needs at good value in rounds two through six, and their second and third picks of the draft will help them add layers to their offense, offering Romo more options from play to play and game to game as his receiving threats become more numerous and varied. If it weren't for the weird way the first round went down, people would be hailing this as a fine draft for the Cowboys. And frankly, too many people are overreacting too strongly to the way the first round went down.

This was a lousy draft class, people. A bad year. Very little, if any, top-level talent, and if you're picking 18th that puts you in a tough spot. Considering that, and the fact that they needed to get an offensive lineman in the first round, I think the Cowboys acquitted themselves rather coolly. I certainly don't think the way they operated their first round indicates distraction or the lack of a plan. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Fans might be happier today had they gone offensive line again in the second or third round, or if they'd found a defensive tackle early. They could have stayed put at 18 and taken Sharrif Floyd, and perhaps that would have been hailed as a coup, since Floyd had been projected to go much earlier. But this is the part I never get. All we hear going into the draft is how useless all of these projections are, and then while the draft is going on everybody wants to use them to critique the picks. There was some good reason Floyd fell all the way to 23, and Dallas was hardly the only team to pass on him.

If Frederick never starts a game, or turns out to be a bust, then obviously it'll be easy to look back and say the Cowboys bungled this. But in a bad draft year, why not take the players you like instead of the ones the mock-drafters told you to like? I think the Cowboys got five players who could contribute right away, and Frederick could start on their line for the next eight years. I honestly don't see what's to rip.

If you follow the New York Giants regularly, you can't honestly sit there and say you're surprised they didn't take a linebacker in this year's draft. Whether you agree with them or I agree with them or any other team agrees with them is immaterial. They just don't think it's that important of a position.

What the Giants do like -- and what they were after in this year's draft -- is size and toughness on the lines, both offensive and defensive. They used their first three picks on linemen a month after their owner spoke publicly about needing to toughen up on the lines. And while it's entirely possible that no one from this year's draft makes a significant impact in 2013, the Giants don't generally draft for immediate impact anyway. They use the draft as part of their perpetual commitment to a deep roster, especially at high-priority positions.

So they used their first-round pick on Syracuse offensive lineman Justin Pugh. He's likely not going to come in and start right away at right tackle, as some may have hoped the Giants' first-round pick would. By pick 19, those guys were gone. Pugh played tackle in college but is more likely a guard (or maybe even a center) at the NFL level. With Kevin Boothe on a one-year deal and Chris Snee showing some signs of age, Pugh is likely more of a factor in 2014 and beyond. Yes, he could push for playing time at one or more spots this year. And yes, he could turn out to be a good NFL tackle. But the Giants took him because they like the player and person and believe he has the ability to fill more than one role. Since they don't know yet what their specific offensive line needs will be after 2013, he's a nice fit because he can help them go a number of different ways.

Second-round pick Johnathan Hankins, the massive defensive tackle out of Ohio State, could well be a part of the interior defensive line rotation this year. But again, he doesn't have to be. The Giants signed veterans Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson and Shaun Rogers and have returning starter Linval Joseph, among others, to fill those roles if the rookie isn't ready to play right away. But all of those new veterans come with question marks, and Joseph has one year left on his deal, so Hankins is yet another hedge against future needs at an important position. He's a run-stopping defensive tackle, and the Giants' run defense was near the bottom of the league last year.

It's easy to see what the Giants like about Texas A&M defensive end Damontre Moore, and why they were so pleased to find him still sitting there when their turn came in the third round. He was a sack machine in college, and with Osi Umenyiora gone and Justin Tuck coming off a disappointing year, they need to be thinking about the future of their pass rush. Moore dropped due to some off-field and character concerns, but he's 20 years old and the Giants believe strongly in their program and their coaching staff when it comes to developing and getting the best out of young players. He could produce right away in the pass rush if the attitude and work ethic concerns turn out to be overblown or immediately correctable, and if he does he could be one of the steals of the draft.

I didn't personally love the trade-up to get Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib in the fourth round. But quarterback is in the eye of the beholder, and as Mike Shanahan and the Redskins will tell you, the chance to get one you like in the fourth round is worth taking even if you feel set at the position. No quarterback in the league is as durable as Eli Manning, but should the unthinkable happen the Giants feel they have a quality young backup behind him in addition to David Carr. And even if Nassib never plays for the Giants, quarterbacks are valuable commodities in this league.

Fifth-rounder Cooper Taylor is a small-g giant as well as a capital-G Giant, a tweener-kind of player who's kind of a safety, kind of a linebacker and could develop into a useful piece in three-safety looks. Seventh-round guard Eric Herman is a seventh-round guard with a reputation for an on-field mean streak, and seventh-round running back Michael Cox is a worthwhile flyer for a team that just parted ways with a very successful seventh-round running back in Ahmad Bradshaw.

All in all ... well, it's generally hard to get overly excited about a Giants draft, because of the way the Giants draft doesn't lend itself to big dreams and excitement about how much better it made the team right away. Giants fans tend to trust GM Jerry Reese, and while they might have felt better this weekend if a linebacker or a top-flight cornerback had been one of the early-round picks, you have to respect the Giants for doing things their way. They contend every year, and once in a while they mix in a Super Bowl title. They must be doing something right.

There are two things to keep in mind when assessing the Washington Redskins' 2013 draft. First, their first-round pick was spent as part of last year's Robert Griffin III deal about which they have no regrets. And second, the work they did in free agency to bring their 2012 roster back almost completely intact meant that they didn't feel compelled to use the draft to address immediate needs. They returned their entire starting offensive line intact, they retained their starting cornerbacks at reduced salaries, and linebacker London Fletcher put off retirement for a year. The only position at which they may have felt the need to find a Week 1 starter was free safety.

That's not to say positions like right tackle or cornerback couldn't use an upgrade. But given the constraints imposed by the second year of the salary-cap penalties, the Redskins did enter this year's draft with relatively few obvious holes to fill. So instead, they took players with upside -- guys they think have a chance to be great in the long term as opposed to adequate in the short.

Cornerback David Amerson, selected in the second round with the Redskins' first pick of this year's draft, needs help staying disciplined in coverage and must work on his tackling. But he knows how to make a play on the ball, and Mike Shanahan believes that's a lot harder to coach into someone than those first two things are. Amerson doesn't need to play much this year, with Josh Wilson and DeAngelo Hall starting and E.J. Biggers as the No. 3 corner. Get him with secondary coach Raheem Morris and see if he can shore up the trouble areas and make him into something special.

Tight end Jordan Reed, the third-rounder, is basically a great big wide receiver who can line up as a "move" tight end the likes of which more teams are using these days. It's odd that Shanahan took such a poor blocking tight end, since he prioritizes blocking even among his wide receivers, but Reed is another guy who's shown an ability to make big plays and create mismatches in opposing secondaries. Deployed correctly, he could help make the offense more explosive.

Safeties Phillip Thomas and Bacarri Rambo were fourth-round and sixth-round selections, respectively. Because the position is vacant, it's not crazy to think either or both could compete for the starting free safety spot this year. But that's not the main reason they were picked. Shanahan took these players because they represented good value at their slots and played a position at which his roster is thin. He's playing the percentages with guys who were playmakers in college, and if one of these two ends up being a starter, that'll help this look like a good draft in retrospect. If both do, he's struck gold.

Running back Chris Thompson and pass-rushing outside linebacker Brandon Jenkins, both taken in the fifth round, were good college players whose value dropped due to injury. Seventh-round running back Jawan Jamison played through an ankle injury last year at Rutgers and left school early to try to help pay the medical bills for his mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. These three represent depth (with upside potential) at positions where there's no such thing, in Shanahan's eyes, as too much depth.

This Redskins draft is a perfect example for those who say you can't grade a draft until three years down the road. It's possible that literally none of these picks pan out. But most of them were picked because they carry at least a chance of becoming stars, and when you can find potential stars in the middle and late rounds (and you already feel you have a deep roster), that's what your draft goal becomes.

Redskins fans might feel better if they'd grabbed an immediate starter at safety in the second or third round. D.J. Swearinger may have fit that description and was still on the board when they took Amerson. The fact that no offensive linemen were taken has stirred some concern, but the Redskins drafted mid-round offensive linemen last year and are still developing guys like Tom Compton and Josh LeRibeus. No crying need to add to that depth just yet. The Redskins approached this draft like a confident division champion that likes its roster and was looking for high-end talent it felt was being drafted too late. That's what they took, and now it's on their coaching staff to make this 2013 draft look good.

Good Monday morning to you all. I trust we're all working to come down from the frenzy of the draft, sorting through grades and all of that. We'll spend today looking back on what happened at the tail end of last week and looking ahead to what it all might mean for 2013. And we'll start, as you might expect, with some links.

Dallas Cowboys

So, it turns out part of the new offensive playcalling plan for the Cowboys in 2013 involves quarterback Tony Romo, who will have more input and responsibility than ever in the meeting rooms and on the field. Interesting idea, for sure, and likely not a bad one. It also helps explain why the Cowboys focused the early part of their draft so much on offense. Romo had some input on that as well.

In explaining the Cowboys' fourth-round selection of cornerback B.W. Webb, Todd Archer looks ahead to some of the salary cap concerns Dallas has at that position in the coming seasons.

New York Giants

Eli Manning likes that the Giants found offensive line help in the draft, and he's fine with the idea of having rookie Ryan Nassib as his backup as well. It's tough to find too many things that bother Manning.

Justin Pugh, the Giants' first-round draft pick, didn't set out to be an offensive linemen. When he was a kid, he dreamed of stardom in a different sport. Yes, until he grew to the size he is now, Pugh thought he'd be a hockey player.

Philadelphia Eagles

Phil Sheridan writes that the success or failure of Matt Barkley, whom the Eagles picked in the fourth round, depends on the coaching he gets from Chip Kelly and his staff at the NFL level. Barkley did play better at USC earlier in his career than later, and a coaching change during his time there may have had something to do with it. So now we'll see how he clicks with Kelly.

And after the first non-Andy Reid Eagles draft in a decade and a half, Reuben Frank says his biggest takeaway was that everybody in the Eagles' braintrust seems to be pulling in the same direction for the first time in a while.

Washington Redskins

All the work the Redskins did this offseason to keep their division championship team intact -- as well as the fact that they drafted their franchise quarterback a year ago -- allowed the Redskins and Mike Shanahan to swing for the fences with their draft picks this year.

One of those swing-for-the-fences picks was third-round tight end Jordan Reed. John Keim takes a look at Reed and determines that he's not exactly a Fred Davis clone, mainly because he's not remotely a blocker.