Meet the Beast: Brian Orakpo

A few thoughts:

-The interest in Sanchez was legit, but they weren't going to trade up any higher than 8th to the Jaguars and they were relatively stingy in what they were going to give up. Plus, the deal would have had to have been coupled with a Campbell trade (or possibly someone else) for another 2nd or 3rd round pick

-A bit surprised that Orakpo fell, though not entirely (I had in my mock to the Skins a couple of weeks ago). His stock seemed to be falling recently through no fault of his own really. But this was the guy Vinny has wanted for a long time. He was definitely the driving force behind this pick. At the last minute I thought they might pick Cushing (he's another guy I know they liked), but I'm glad they went with Orakpo (Matty, sorry about the Maualuga text-my USC guy was messing with me)

-It is kind of funny though how we put so much focus on the dinner and private meetings they had with Sanchez, yet when a few of us pointed out the same exact stuff was happening with Orakpo...it was ignored.

-As for the pick itself, I think it's a good one. The knee issues obviously are something to monitor closely, but he has the ability to do all the things we envisioned for Jason Taylor (and he's a decade younger). He'll be exciting to watch.

So it wasn't really a clever smokescreen designed to get the player we really wanted.

I still maintain that it was a relatively cheap price to pay for the Jets to move up to #5 -- switch spots in the first, give up their 2nd and a few players most of us have never heard of? That wasn't as pricey as I thought it would be.

And those Browns -- they move down a total of 4 picks in the first round to the Bucs and Eagles and all they get are two 6th round picks in return? Just doesn't make sense.

actully you might want to send one to buffalo to lol

So glad Orakpo fell our way. I was getting nervous around pick #9. So glad he is a Skin!

Maybe the Sanchez deal was a big smokescreen but none the less the Skins should have handleed JC with a bit more class.

This might work. Now if our O can score 16 points a game we should win with the D we now have.

Excellent pick. I wasn't really sold on him at first but the more I learned about BO the more I liked the pick. I'm not sold on his run stopping abilities though I'm sure that's not what he was brought in for. He's a bit undersized at the moment and I hope he gets to 280.

Defense wins Championships and boy do we have a defense. Hail!

So it wasn't really a clever smokescreen designed to get the player we really wanted.

I still maintain that it was a relatively cheap price to pay for the Jets to move up to #5 -- switch spots in the first, give up their 2nd and a few players most of us have never heard of? That wasn't as pricey as I thought it would be.

And those Browns -- they move down a total of 4 picks in the first round to the Bucs and Eagles and all they get are two 6th round picks in return? Just doesn't make sense.

Many teams inquired about moving up for Sanchez as part of due diligence.

Given that, as you say, the price to move up was relatively cheap, then the Skins were not very serious about moving up for Sanchez.

The FO has clearly stated that they wanted Orakpo all along. VC said they gave him a top 5 grade.

So the Sanchez stuff was still a smokescreen. We were not as "smitten" as everyone claimed.

So it wasn't really a clever smokescreen designed to get the player we really wanted.

I still maintain that it was a relatively cheap price to pay for the Jets to move up to #5 -- switch spots in the first, give up their 2nd and a few players most of us have never heard of? That wasn't as pricey as I thought it would be.

And those Browns -- they move down a total of 4 picks in the first round to the Bucs and Eagles and all they get are two 6th round picks in return? Just doesn't make sense.

I don't know that any real smokescreen was in play with Sanchez, in my opinion. I know that Orakpo has been their true top choice for a while, and Vinny and co. had been going around saying "He's too good. No way he drops to us." Maybe his rep as a talent evaluator scared off teams ahead of him? And I also know that we should be happy that a) we had no 2nd round pick that we may have offered to move up to get Sanchez, and b) Cerrato is one guy who wasn't as keen as others in the organization on moving up to get Sanchez, this was Zorn and Snyder driven.

Were we interested in Sanchez? Sure. But how interested. We were NOT going to give up the farm for him. Call it a smokescreen or whatever you want, but the idea that we were VERY interested in him, and that Snyder would go to ridiculous lengths to get him, played to our advantage.

At this point I could really care less how much of the Sanchez talk was a bluff or truth, truth is we'll never know for sure... all that matters is we addressed a key need along the DE and didn't have to trade up to do it.

HELLO REDSKIN FANS!!!! I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief today. Perhaps our front office is starting to get it after all. I thought the DE from Tenn was a little better than Orakpo but I'm not going to complain about this pick. Will filled a huge need and this guy sort of reminds my of James Harrison coming off the edge. My only concern is can he hold up at DE 265lbs at DE? But someone mentioned that he's got the frame to put on some weight, which I agree with. Dude looks like a tank. And is he a better fit in a 3-4? But I've got confidence in Blache and co. Our defense now looks more like one that's going to get sacks and create turnovers.