Redskins trade down for Purdue pass rusher ASHBURN – Ryan Kerrigan didn’t wow scouts with his athleticism or his speed. All he did was make plays. And that appears to be good enough for the Redskins.
Washington selected the Purdue defensive end with the 16th pick in the first round of Thursday’s NFL Draft and plan to convert him to linebacker. The Redskins had traded the 10th pick to Jacksonville for the 16th pick as well as the 49th pick.
They bypassed an opportunity to draft a young quarterback in the first round and opted to bolster the NFL’s 31st-ranked defense. The Redskins entered the offseason wanting to improve their pass rush, giving linebacker Brian Orakpo help on the other side.
Enter Kerrigan. He was the NCAA’s active leader with 14 fumbles caused and recorded 33.5 sacks. One scout called him “relentless.” And he led the Big Ten in sacks as a sophomore and again as a senior.
The scout, in a text, said of Kerrigan, “Love him. Safe pick. Intangibles off the chart.”
Redskins coach Mike Shanahan also described Kerrigan as relentless.
“A lot of tackles behind the line of scrimmage, forced fumbles,” Shanahan said. “Just a guy that hustles and makes plays. I like guys that are overachievers. … He’s a very smart guy; you can see that he picks up the game extremely well.”
Kerrigan says playing that way comes naturally.
“That’s all I’ve been taught to do is play hard to the whistle,” Kerrigan said. “Sometimes the DBs may be covering receivers long enough to get you that sack, so you have to keep working at it and keep using through the whole play.”
The 6-foot-4, 263-pound Kerrigan played end in college but will play outside linebacker in the Redskins’ 3-4 scheme.
“One of the first things I was impressed with was some of the drill work he did at [the scouting combine],” Shanahan said. “A lot of times when you take an end who has been in a three-point stance his whole career and have them do linebacker-related drills, it takes a while to get going. He was athletic and agile. He can make the conversion very quickly.”
The Redskins armed themselves to get more help in Friday’s second round. Thanks to the trade the Redskins now have the ability to find two starters and a possible quarterback of the future with their first three choices.
Four quarterbacks went before Washington picked: Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. Had the Redskins wanted, they could have taken either Gabbert or Ponder. But Shanahan had said before the draft that the depth in this quarterback class was as good as he had seen it.
Now with two picks in the second round, they can either package those picks to move up to land the quarterback or they can get one with the 41st pick overall. The Redskins also would like to find a nose tackle and perhaps a receiver. Shanahan said it’s possible they could pair one of their late-round picks with a second to move up in that round.
“Anytime you have two picks you have a lot of flexibility,” he said.
