Did Washington Come Close to Drafting QB Joe Burrow?

Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera admitted this week the obvious. The WFT would have taken Joe Burrow, if they had the chance.

ASHBURN, Va. - Ron Rivera inherited a football team that was downright awful on the field last year and earned the No. 2 overall pick. 

It was widely thought that their only legitimate option was Chase Young or Tua Tagovailoa. 

That's technically true because Joe Burrow was not available to the Washington Football Team. He went to the Bengals at No. 1 and now he comes to FedExField on Sunday.

Many will be surprised by this (because they weren't paying attention), but coach Rivera admitted this week to the Cincinnati media that Washington would have taken Burrow if he was there at No. 2. (For more on the Cincinnati Bengals - check out coverage from James Rapien.)

Ron Rivera spoke with the Bengals media this week about whether Washington would have selected Joe Burrow at 2 if available. Answer: Yes even with Dwayne Haskins here. Don't recall hearing him say that before. (h/t @kevinsheehanDC) pic.twitter.com/XDrkMH3X7y

— Ben Standig (@BenStandig) November 20, 2020

Our view: Of course they would have. They would have been crazy not to. Why? In our thoughts, Burrow is better and will be better than Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert.

Just because the other two are winning more games does not mean that projection is wrong. We say Burrow is the better and more accurate passer, a sneaky-good athlete and a very hard worker.

More importantly, the Washington Football Team was in the hunt for a premium quarterback of its choosing.

They deemed (as they should have) Burrow worthy of the No. 2 pick if he was there and Tagovailoa or Herbert as not ... which we say was also correct.

Why would they have taken Burrow?

Not just because he was the best player on the board but because they were very unsure if not out on Dwayne Haskins from the start.

READ MORE: Has Alex Smith Improved In Last Two Years?

ALEX SMITH TWO YEARS LATER: Where is the WFT QB at?

This should not surprise anyone.

The only surprising thing is that Rivera actually admitted what he and his lieutenants (Kyle Smith, Scott Turner, Ken Zampese) privately thought.

There was word that Rivera and his staff did not have a favorable assessment of Haskins while in Carolina for the 2019 NFL Draft.

In Rivera's final game with the Panthers, Washington rolled to a big victory in Charlotte but it was largely because of Adrian Peterson, Derrius Guice and a seven-sack performance by the defense - not because of Haskins.

Most importantly, as we've said a million times in this space and on the radio, Kyle Smith, who Rivera almost immediately promoted to be in charge of pro and college personnel, wanted nothing to do with Haskins at No. 15 overall and from what we've heard had a much lower grade on him than that.

Why anyone would think that Haskins was going to be given every chance in the world - just because he was a first-round pick of Dan Snyder's and not the football people - is beyond us.

Every staff wants their guy. Burrow would have been Rivera's. Haskins never was and probably never will be. But now Burrow is Cincy's guy. And on Sunday, WFT's problem.