March 25, 2002
Will History Repeat Itself?
by Keith Weiland
HoustonProFootball.com
Tick Tick Tick…
That clock has been counting down on the Texans first selection in the 2002 NFL Draft since Mr. Irrelevant was taken with last year’s final pick. Not one to dawdle, General Manager Charley Casserly is already negotiating a contract with the agent for Fresno State quarterback David Carr.
In Houston, this is hardly news. Sure, an expansion team needs a quarterback to build around no biggie. But if Casserly were still in Washington, alarms would be blaring. The thought of selecting another quarterback that high would immediately remind fans of the Heath Shuler fiasco. In fact, they might even shiver at the thought of him running another war room.
So let’s take a trip back to Casserly’s drafts of the 1990s and find out what went wrong.
Un-tick Un-tick Un-tick… (I’m not sure what time going backwards sounds like so bear with me.)
In an effort to promote front office harmony following GM Bobby Beathard’s resignation in 1989, new GM Casserly allowed his head coaches to have significant input on personnel decisions. The plan ultimately backfired. Only a few short years removed from Super XXVI, the team spiraled downward.
Washington’s 1990-93 draft classes were unspectacular at best. The lowlight came in 1992 when Casserly deferred to Joe Gibbs and traded up, taking WR/KR Desmond Howard with the fourth overall pick in the draft. Howard never caught on, as the success Howard enjoyed later in his career came after his brief tenure as a Redskin. Other first rounders under the early years of Casserly’s watch, DT Bobby Wilson (1991) and CB Tom Carter (1993), never achieved their potential.
Following Gibbs’ resignation, Casserly yearned for stability by promoting Richie Petitbon. Petitbon was dismissed following the team’s 4-12 performance in his first season. Casserly was certain that the disaster was the fault of poor coaching and not because of his personnel decisions. He then persuaded owner Jack Kent Cooke to hire Norv Turner, fresh from his Super Bowl success as offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys.
With Turner on board, the Redskins let out early rumors of their plan to draft a quarterback with the third pick in the 1994 draft. Turner was eager to find someone in the mold of Troy Aikman and couldn’t take his eyes off the cannon arm on Shuler. Casserly, who actually favored Fresno State QB Trent Dilfer, let his rookie coach make the call on draft day to take Shuler.
Turner received much of the criticism for the Shuler pick, but Casserly is guilty for giving him the authority to make the pick. Also, by deciding prematurely to go quarterback with the first pick, he passed on evaluating a selection of the best player available. If nothing else, they’re both guilty of looking the other way at Shuler’s questionable academic performance at Tennessee and low Wonderlic score of sixteen, little more than half of the desired total for top quarterback prospects. It’s interesting to note that it was also Casserly’s predecessor, Beathard, that traded away all those Charger picks in 1998 to take numbskull QB Ryan Leaf.
Casserly may have also undermined Turner’s decision to draft Shuler by taking Gus Frerotte in the seventh round that same year. Shuler was a holdout for the first half of training camp, then Redskin fans booed him when he eventually played. A QB controversy raged for years, dividing the team and its fans. Injuries and ineptness followed Shuler through the day he retired.
In 1995, Casserly selected WR Michael Westbrook fourth overall. Westbrook failed to live up to his potential as the next Jerry Rice (who could?), suffering injury and attitudinal problems. In the drafts of 1996-98, Casserly used his first round picks to shore up the Redskins defensive deficiencies. Twice he traded the pick to acquire overrated defensive tackles, once for Sean Gilbert (1996 – 6th overall) and then for Dan Wilkinson (1998 – 17th overall).
Casserly’s best success in the draft came in 1999, his final one as a Redskin. He first traded the 11th pick for QB Brad Johnson, a Pro Bowler that season. He then traded down from the 5th pick to allow the Saints to dump all of their ’99 picks, plus a first and third rounder in 2000. He then traded back up to take the man he wanted, CB Champ Bailey. The moves netted the Redskins the second pick overall in ’00, LB LaVar Arrington. Though new owner Daniel Snyder wouldn’t let him stick around to enjoy it, Casserly had built a division-winning team and set it up for continued success.
Aside from the 1999 draft, the rest of Casserly’s first round track record over the years is poor. To be fair, the success rate of first round selections is roughly fifty percent, but Casserly’s rate is certainly less than that, especially given the number of high- and mid-round picks at his disposal.
Casserly has, however, made his share of great late round picks. In addition to Frerotte, a seventh rounder, Casserly also drafted RB/KR Brian Mitchell (1990 – 5th round), WR Keenan McCardell (1991 – 12th round), TE Frank Wycheck (1993 – 6th round), and RB Stephen Davis (1996 – 4th round).
This underscores his ability to unearth that diamond-in-the-rough type, the sort of thing Casserly excelled at earlier in his career under Beathard. Casserly scouted and signed future Hog stalwarts Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic, virtual unknowns at the time. He put in overtime filling out a scab roster in 1987 that went 3-0 during the strike. Casserly also mastered Plan B free agency in the early nineties, putting the final touches on the Super Bowl squad in 1991. It is a skill that has served Casserly well in filling an expansion roster for the Texans, but now the attention turns back to the draft.
It is unfathomable to think that history would repeat itself for Casserly as a Texan. Carr has all the potential Shuler did eight years ago, but Carr also brings with him the intelligence and intangibles that Shuler could not. Furthermore, Shuler came out of college a year early while Carr has exhausted his collegiate eligibility and matured his game. The 2002 draft should be the year Casserly proves that 1999 was not just a fluke.
Keith Weiland tries to turn back time each morning when his alarm clock goes off, but he only manages to hit the snooze button.