ASHBURN, Va. (AP) If other teams worried about LSU running back Derrius Guice’s character, prompting his fall from first-round prospect to late-second-round pick, Washington Redskins senior VP of player personnel Doug Williams figures he had ”inside information.”
The Redskins, Williams said at a post-draft news conference Monday, did not share the concerns that apparently were behind Guice’s slide until Washington took him with the 59th overall choice after trading down from No. 44 and adding a third-round selection in the process.
Williams called him ”a value pick.”
”We do have some inside information and some influence that helped us along the way. Plus, we had met with the kid. We went to dinner with the kid. We brought the kid up here. Where Guice is from, I’m from the same area, basically. I knew Guice. I knew who he is. I know where he comes from,” Williams said. ”And when you talk about a kid that has produced on the field the way he has, other than what was out there, and you look at this kid, man, he’s just a happy-go kid who likes to play football. And I think we were fortunate enough to get a guy like that.”
Guice, the SEC record-holder for most 250-yard rushing games, was connected in reports to a flap during his visit with the Eagles, something Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman denied.
”No one wants to hear their name be slandered like that,” Guice said Saturday during a Redskins draft event at the team’s stadium. The Redskins, he added, ”believed in me; they trusted me.”
Williams said any reports about off-field issues were not a part of Washington’s draft discussion.
”What other teams thought don’t necessarily mean what we thought. … When he’s there at your pick, you have to take advantage of it and pick that guy. And we did that. We didn’t let what other people said influence us. What influenced us is the information that we had gotten from him and the people around him. We had a lot of sources that we talked to,” the MVP of the 1988 Super Bowl said. ”You and I both know the way social media and the media and a lot of other things happen out there when it comes to players. Most of them take one thing and they run with it. Unfortunately, they don’t know the kid.”
Other topics addressed by Williams:
– The Redskins didn’t draft a tight end and they feel ”pretty good” at that position, Williams said, ”because Jordan Reed is progressing with his injury.” Reed needed surgery on his big left toe.
– Washington needs a starting left guard but didn’t pick someone, he said, because ”there were some guys on the board, but at our pick, those guys weren’t on the board.” Williams also noted that Ty Nsekhe ”has played a little guard.”
– WR Jamison Crowder ”is still the punt returner,” Williams said, but ”you certainly want to take a load off Jamison, if you can.”
– The Redskins ”had about two or three calls” from teams interested in trading for the 13th overall pick that Washington used to take Alabama defensive lineman Da’Ron Payne.
Notes: After drafting two defensive linemen, the Redskins released three players at that position Monday: Terrell McClain, A.J. Francis and Montori Hughes. McClain joined Washington as a free agent last offseason, but he started only two games and missed time with a toe injury. The Redskins also waived TE Chris Bazile, LB Cassanova McKinzy and DB James Sample.
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