Skins Draft Picks During My College Years

I attended George Washington University during my final two college years , 1993 - 1995. It was there I was exposed fully to American football, became addicted to it and remain so ever since :-)

Actually, it was easy to pick up but took me a while to understand the game, especially, NFL and college ball differences and quirks. ;-) fyi, two feet inbound ( college ) and one feet inbound ( NFL ) for a catch to be ruled legal ... and the game scheduling. I understand you have to play the teams in your division, but the other opponents were determined by your win-loss and previous season schedule strength. It took me a while and still does :-)

Understanding the draft was another thing, especially when it came to coin toss reasons and compensatory picks, then came the supplementary draft .. okay.. that is understandable.. then came the signing bonuses, hold outs , etc.

I was curious to know what happened to Skins first round picks during those years. For me, my first draft experience was the 1994 NFL Draft followed by the 1995 NFL Draft.

1994

3rd pick of the draft
Heath Shuler, QB, Tennessee

- in Tennessee, was 2nd in the Heisman voting for 1993 season.
- on the predraft, the Skins were flip flopping between him and Trent Dilfer. In the end, Shuler was chosen.
- first draft pick under coach Norv Turner
- held out of training camp until he signed a 7 year deal worth 19 million plus. His holdout costed him valuable training time. I saw him in the preseason game, Skins vs Chiefs, and he didn't impress me a bit.
- eventually, he was cut after the 1996 season and signed for the Saints for 1997 season.
- Played in 1997 season, was injured and cut from the team after 1998 season.
- in 1998, had a foot injury during the Raiders training camp, and retired.

Well, he became a real estate agent, later went into politics and is now a US House of Rep member for North Carolina 11th district.

He sucked at pro ball but went on to have a fine career after football.

Part of me wonders, what if Trent Dilfer was picked, but you cannot second guess that now. Or, if he went into training camp on time.

His career stats

             +---------------------------------------+-----------------+
               |              Passing                  |     Rushing     |
+----------+-----+---------------------------------------+-----------------+
| Year  TM |   G |  Comp   Att   PCT    YD   Y/A  TD INT |  Att  Yards  TD |
+----------+-----+---------------------------------------+-----------------+
| 1994 was |  11 |   120   265  45.3  1658   6.3  10  12 |    26   103   0 |
| 1995 was |   7 |    66   125  52.8   745   6.0   3   7 |    18    57   0 |
| 1996 was |   1 |     0     0   0.0     0   0.0   0   0 |     1     0   0 |
| 1997 nor |  10 |   106   203  52.2  1288   6.3   2  14 |    22    38   1 |
+----------+-----+---------------------------------------+-----------------+
|  TOTAL   |  29 |   292   593  49.2  3691   6.2  15  33 |    67   198   1 |
+----------+-----+---------------------------------------+-----------------+

1995

4th pick of the draft
Michael Westbrook, WR, Colorado

-was part of the triple threat option at Colorado, along with Kordell Stewart and Rashaan Salaam
- Played for 7 seasons with the Skins before traded to the Bengals in 2002. He had a good but unspectacular career with the Skins
- his best season was 1999 season, 65 receptions, 1191 yards and 9 TDs.
- was known for his brief altercation with Stephen Davis during training camp in 1997.
- also known for slamming helmet into the turf incident in 1997 season that costed the Skins their game against NY Giants.

- played his last season in 2002 with the Bengals and promptly retired.
- for some Skins fans, he is in the top 10 unpopular Skins players of all time.

Career stats

                +--------------------------+-------------------------+
               |          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1995 was |  11 |     6    114   19.0    1 |    34    522  15.4    1 |
| 1996 was |  11 |     2      2    1.0    0 |    34    505  14.9    1 |
| 1997 was |  13 |     3    -11   -3.7    0 |    34    559  16.4    3 |
| 1998 was |  11 |     1     11   11.0    0 |    44    736  16.7    6 |
| 1999 was |  16 |     7     35    5.0    0 |    65   1191  18.3    9 |
| 2000 was |   2 |     0      0    0.0    0 |     9    103  11.4    0 |
| 2001 was |  16 |     2      8    4.0    0 |    57    664  11.6    4 |
| 2002 cin |   7 |     1      1    1.0    0 |     8     94  11.8    2 |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
|  TOTAL   |  87 |    22    160    7.3    1 |   285   4374  15.3   26 |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+

In short, I think I jinxed their draft ;-)