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Washington Redskins: Best pick from each of last 10 NFL Draft classes

By Hunter Noll

LANDOVER, MD - DECEMBER 30: Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder before the game between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles at FedExField on December 30, 2018 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - DECEMBER 30: Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder before the game between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles at FedExField on December 30, 2018 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images) /
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Washington Redskins Ryan Kerrigan
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 28: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (L) poses for a photo with Ryan Kerrigan, #16 overall pick by the Washington Redskins, on stage during the 2011 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on April 28, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /

2011: Ryan Kerrigan – First Round, 16th overall pick

Admittedly, this has been boring so far, as that’s three straight first round picks. This is the last one for a while though, I promise. Ryan Kerrigan came in to pair with Orkapo as an unstoppable two-headed duo that would give opposing quarterbacks nightmares. Long after Orkapo left the Washington Redskins, Kerrigan is still holding up his end of the bargain.

Consistently one of the most underrated players in the NFL, it baffles me he manages to go so unnoticed outside of the Skins fanbase. In fact, I’ll even argue that some D.C. fans don’t appreciate him enough.

The least amount of sacks Kerrigan ever had in a season was 7.5, and that was his rookie year. After that, he posted two straight years of 8.5 sacks. Then he recorded a career-high 13.5 sacks before picking up another 9.5 then next year. Since then, he’s had three straight seasons of double-digits sack totals. In total, Kerrigan has 84.5 sacks over eight seasons (averaging over 10.5 a year).

For what it’s worth, Dexter Manley is the Washington Redskins all-time leader in sacks with 91. At Kerrigan’s pace, he’ll break that record before the end of next season. In doing so, he’ll move into the top 50 of all-time, and at 30 has a lot of time to continue climbing.

This was another draft like the last two, where this pick saved it from being a disaster. This might be the most dramatic case though. The Redskins had 11 other draft picks and didn’t hit on one of them. In fact, only a few of them ever even made any sort of impact on the Redskins, or any NFL team in general.

In most cases, you’d consider this to be an absolutely dreadful draft. Kerrigan could be a Hall-of-Famer though, and therefore negates the negatives of the draft. It also makes him the obvious choice for the 2011 class.

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