27/10/2021
The Washington Football Team is a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The team competes in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. They joined the NFL in 1932 as the Boston Braves. In 1933, the name was changed to the Boston Redskins, with the team moving to Washington, D.C. in 1937. The Redskins name was retired in 2020, with the team taking on the temporarily branding of the Washington Football Team. Washington's first draft selection was Riley Smith, a blocking back from Alabama, in 1936.Every year in April, each NFL team seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as the NFL Draft. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on. Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades.Washington have selected number one overall twice: Harry Gilmer and Ernie Davis. The team has also selected number two overall three times and number three overall five times. Washington have selected players from the University of Alabama four times, the University of Miami three times, and Penn State University three times. Four eventual Hall of Famers were selected by Washington in the first round: Sammy Baugh, Darrell Green, Art Monk, and Charley Taylor. Two first-round picks by the team have been named NFL Rookie of the Year: quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2012 and defensive end Chase Young in 2020.
Two Washington first-round draft picks have died during their football careers. The first was Ernie Davis, who was chosen as the first overall pick in 1962. After being traded to the Cleveland Browns for Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Jackson, Davis was diagnosed with leukemia and died before playing a game with the Browns. The other was Sean Taylor, who the team selected fifth overall in 2004 and who was fatally shot in November 2007.