For the Washington Redskins, the future is now.
Late Friday, the 'Skins made a blockbuster deal, sending the sixth overall pick and their second-round pick in April's NFL Draft along with their first-round draft picks in 2013 and 2014 to the St. Louis Rams in exchange for the second overall pick in next month's draft. It is only a formality that the Redskins will use that pick to select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III, who the team sees as the franchise quarterback of the future.
The trade cannot become official until Tuesday afternoon, which is the official start of the NFL's 2012 calendar, leaving us plenty of time (in today's news world, one day is more than enough) to wonder if the Redskins will pay an even bigger price than the one they did to acquire the rights to Griffin.
On one hand, Griffin's contract will be significantly less than what the Redskins would have had to pay for the services of Peyton Manning, released from the Indianapolis Colts last week. Yet, Washington now does not have a first-round draft pick until 2015, meaning that they cannot rely on the draft to build around Griffin. Instead, owner Daniel Snyder and General Manager Bruce Allen might have to seek out high-priced free agents. What could go wrong?
Griffin is not a sure thing, either. According to CSN Washington's Rich Tandler, the Redskins have had very little luck with drafting first-round quarterbacks. There are a lot of questions, but then again, would they be the Washington Redskins without plenty of question marks around them?
That is not a rhetorical question; the answer is no.
Meanwhile, the Washington Capitals could have some semblance of a future after looking dead last week. Three straight losses have given way to three straight wins, including a weekend sweep of the Boston Bruins Saturday and Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday. Perhaps the rumors of the Caps' death had been greatly exaggerated.
The Caps' marketing team apparently understood that and did their best to capitalize on it (no pun intended this time) by unveiling a new shirt this weekend:
Carry on.
Adam Vingan is co-founder and editor of Kings Of Leonsis, a Caps-centric blog, and is the Capitals Editor for SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter @Adam_KOL and e-mail your story ideas to adamvingan (at) gmail.com.
