Kerrigan's the Best of the Best

Trying to pick out an all-decade representative for the Washington Redskins for the last ten years isn't that hard.

It's a choice from column A or one from column B and away you go.

The problem is column A and B have one choice in each.

There's Ryan Kerrigan and then there's Trent Williams.

That's all folks. The Redskins have lacked dominant talent for a long time and even when they found it, in Williams case, it was often not available.

My pal John Keim of ESPN was recently tasked with this project and here's who he picked:

If the image art didn't give it away - Ryan Kerrigan was Keim's choice.

Keim said the choice between Williams and Kerrigan was "difficult" but "Kerrigan's durability and reliability mattered to the coaches."

So correct. As it should be in almost every case.

Durability and reliability should be at the top of any list when making an evaluation and for some reason, it's hit-and-miss. Like it was with Kirk Cousins when Bruce Allen was making that mind-numbing decision.

Kerrigan started 139 games in a row through Week 13 last year, ironically enough missing his first NFL game against Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers.

As Keim points out - "since he (Kerrigan) entered the league in 2011, only three players have recorded more sacks than Kerrigan's 90 -- Von Miller, J.J. Watt and Chandler Jones."

The former first-round pick has also had a knack for making big momentum changing plays as evidenced by 26 forced fumbles and who could ever forget his pick-six interception of Eli Manning in his Redskins debut.

While Kerrigan's 2019 was disappointing from a health and production standpoint, he had 37 sacks in the previous three years combined, which is an average of 12 + per year.

He's never graded higher than an 84.1 overall in any year per ProFootballFocus.com (PFF) but he's generated 547 quarterback pressures over his career with 382 total QB hurries.

He's only been charged with allowing four touchdowns in coverage in his time with the Redskins over 8,147 defensive snaps.

Ryan Kerrigan has been everything the Redskins could have hoped for despite passing up an opportunity to draft J.J. Watt.

Watt is a more dominant player but durability and production from Kerrigan closes that gap significantly.

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Chris Russell is the Publisher of RedskinsReport.com & Sports Illustrated's Washington Redskins channel. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621.