West Virginia wide receiver Kevin White is an impressive player. At 6-3, 215 pounds and with a 4.35 40-yard dash, White has all of the physical tools you look for in a prototypical No. 1 wide receiver. He ran an array of routes during his last season in college and isn't afraid to go up and get the ball. But is he good enough for the Washington Redskins to draft with the fifth overall pick?
Washington does not need another receiver with DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon and Andre Roberts in town. But new general manager Scott McCloughan does not draft based on need.
"I know that many of you are going to scream hat wide receiver is not a need and the team can't waste the No. 5 pick on a pass catcher," Rich Tandler of RealRedskins.com wrote. "The first thing I would say to that is that you're not paying any attention to McCloughan, who says that he will take the best player available. I've also said that need often does factor into the grade that determines the best available. But in this case that doesn't matter because the team does have a need to draft a wide receiver.
"You have to keep in mind that a draft is more about seasons 2-4 years from now than it is about the coming season. Even that high in the draft, the emphasis is on the future. Let's look at the current top of the depth chart at wide receiver. Pierre Garcon will be 30 by the start of the 2016 season and DeSean Jackson will be 30 by the end of it. Their salary cap costs combined will come in at a little under $20 million. It will be time to replace at least one of them."
One knock against White, however, is that he had just one impressive year at the collegiate level. He transferred to West Virginia in 2013 after starting at a junior college and managed just 35 catches for 507 yards and five scores in his first season.
While White's 2014 season was more than impressive - 109 receptions for 1,447 yards and 10 touchdowns - the Redskins would probably be best served by drafting one of the many talented pass-rushers that are available at the top of the first round. Randy Gregory, Dante Fowler Jr. and Shane Ray have all been mentioned as more likely possibilities than White. The Skins especially need a pass-rusher now that linebacker Brian Orakpo has signed with the Titans in free agency.
Considering that Washington's top three receivers were all collected via free agency, the team can wait on adding a pass-catcher and address a more pressing need in the first round.
