Redskins Surprise Many with Wide Receiver Selection

Ashburn, Va. – The first round of the 2016 NFL Draft has come and gone and there were several surprises throughout the evening. One of these was that the Washington Redskins selected Texas Christian University All-American wide receiver Josh Doctson with their 22nd overall pick.

This was a surprise because many thought the Redskins would address the need along the defensive line with one of the many talented young athletes available in this draft. Louisiana’s Vernon Butler however, ended up in Carolina with the Panthers. Others that had been linked to Washington are still on the board (perhaps because of some of the red flags that accompany them).

Guys like the highly-touted DT Jarran Reed out of Alabama are still available. OLB Reggie Ragland, another Alabama product, stayed put perhaps because of the news of an enlarged aorta that surfaced before the event last night. DE Kevin Dodd, DT A’Shawn Robinson and OLB Myles Jack are all going to be up for grabs for Round 2 Friday night and perhaps even Saturday.

If anyone is surprised at the Doctson selection by Washington they need only to think again of how things have changed in the short time that General Manager Scot McCloughan has been in Washington. In just over one year he has done so much to make the Redskins right that it’s become hard to figure out what the team will do in certain situations that used to be an easy assumption. McCloughan obviously hasn’t been listening to ESPN or the NFL Network. He took the best player available on the board at 22, after making a trade with the Houston Texans for 21 and a sixth-round pick in 2017.

“Well, when you are sitting at 21, there’s a lot of scenarios you play out,” Head Coach Jay Gruden said to the press last night after the selection. “Scot and the scouts did an excellent job. There were a lot of guys taken before… It’s about taking the best player on the board and Josh was clearly the best player on the board at that time for us. We traded back a spot with Houston, obviously. Still Josh was there and he was clearly the best player. Scot has been preaching that and we went with the board.”

Doctson, at 6’2” and 202 lbs., is the sort of red zone receiving threat fans have been salivating over for years (he has been compared to A.J. Green). He seems to be able to catch anything that comes his way with uncanny body control and timing. Combining talents like that with an already fairly stacked offense including WRs DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garçon and Jamison Crowder; and tight end Jordan Reed, and QB Kirk Cousins is set to have a prolific 2016 passing game. In fact, the head coach believes that the rookie will be on the field sooner rather than later.

“I think so,” Gruden said when asked if Doctson will contribute immediately. “He’s a great kid, number one. You check all the boxes with him as far as [a] person, off the field. He’s a great person. He has got great work ethic, too. We did our due diligence on that. So you’re bringing in a receiver with the great skillset that he has and a guy that is willing to get better, learn and work. That’s really appealing. I anticipate him challenging for a lot of balls in this offense. I think Jordan Reed will be happy, put another safety over top of him. DeSean will be happy and Pierre too. You only have one ball, but the ability to spread it around like I like to spread it around, will help Kirk out, the offensive line, the running game, all of it.”

Believe it. The kid’s highlight reels are entertaining to say the least.

The new rookie attributes his knack for out-jumping defenders (his vertical jump at the NFL Combine was 41 inches… the best among the wide outs) in order to get to the ball to his youth.

“I played basketball all my life – in the driveway by myself, in the summer – with a sprinkle of football here and there,” Doctson said. “I think I mastered the talent of high-pointing the football thanks to basketball. In basketball, you have to high-point the ball to get a rebound. You have to do it on alley-oops. You have to get your hips low to outjump someone. There’s a whole bunch of things that transitioned from basketball to football that gave me the fluidity.”

The draft is always a guessing game and the Redskins are lucky they landed Doctson after the trade because many believe he is the best receiver of the group. In fact, there was a bit of a “run” on receivers for a few picks. The first wide out selected was the Corey Coleman out of Baylor at 15 by the Cleveland Browns (Robert Griffin, III will like that). Houston then took Will Fuller (Notre Dame) at 21, the Redskins picked Doctson at 22 and then the Minnesota Vikings chose Laquon Treadwell (Mississippi) immediately after at 23.

Of the four, Doctson and Treadwell are the tallest, both at 6’2”. Treadwell is a bit heavier and not quite as fast as the new Redskin. But look for the TCU alumna to bulk up this season and as he matures so that he can handle the press man coverage he encounters in the NFL.

Fortunately for him, he’ll also be learning from some of the best pass-catchers in football thanks to having Jackson, Garçon and Reed as teammates now. Whether or not some or all of them will all be on the team in the future is not something the head coach is thinking about right now anyway.

“I try not to worry about all that stuff,” Gruden said when asked about the future of the position. “I’m worried about the next season here coming up. I’m worried about Phase 2 coming up Monday, when we get on the field with these guys. Then the rookie minicamp and then our OTAs and then we get into training camp, and we’re just going to coach our players up, whoever is here, and get them right and get them ready for the Steelers on Monday night.”

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Doctson is the first Horned Frog drafted by Washington since LB Robert Henson in the sixth round in 2009. He had career games at TCU from 2013-15. During his time with the Horned Frogs, he set school records in receiving yards (2,785) and receiving touchdowns (29) and ranks second in TCU history with 180 career receptions. Including his freshman season at Wyoming in 2011, he completed his collegiate career with 215 receptions, 3,178 receiving yards and 34 touchdowns in 47 games.

Last season, Doctson gained 1,327 receiving yards while setting single-season school records in receptions (79) and receiving touchdowns (14). He earned consensus first-team All-American honors and was named a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the nation’s top receiver.

As a junior in 2014, Doctson earned second-team All-Big 12 honors after recording 65 receptions for 1,018 receiving yards with 11 touchdown receptions. A year earlier, he gained 440 yards on 36 receptions as a sophomore.

Doctson began his college career at Wyoming, ranking fifth on the team in 2011 with 35 receptions for 393 yards and five touchdowns. Per NCAA transfer rules, he sat out the 2012 season after transferring to TCU.

Doctson, 23, attended Legacy H.S. in Mansfield, Texas, where he earned first-team All-District honors and was named the team’s most valuable player as a senior. He was born Dec. 3, 1992.