Good Job, Redskins

Well, it looks like the Washington Redskins went out and got themselves a franchise quarterback. They just handed their first-round picks in 2012, 2013, and 2014, as well as their 2012 second-rounder, over to the St. Louis Rams for the second overall pick in this year's draft. With that pick they're expected to take Robert Griffin III out of Baylor, who had a spectacular workout at the recent draft combine.

There's a lot of people out there who think that the Redskins gave up too much to get Griffin. I don't think that's the case. What you have to remember is that, without a franchise quarterback to build around, those other picks don't mean anything. Sure, the Redskins might have used them to pick up some good - possibly great - players, but if they still had Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, or any other C-grade passer at the helm they weren't going anywhere anyways. At a franchise level it's much easier to recover from two years of missing first-round picks than it is two years of mediocre-to-terrible quarterback play.

Having a legitimate franchise quarterback has many more benefits than simply making a team better at that position. It makes a team more attractive to free agents, more marketable overall, and it also energizes the team's fan base. What do you think excites Redskins fans more: the possibility of having RG3 at quarterback next season, or the possibility of having three years of first-round picks that may wind up being busts anyways? The answer is pretty obvious.

The Redskins do have one other ace in the hole, which is the mind-bogglingly large bank account of billionaire owner Dan Snyder. He's shown in the past that he's willing to spend stupid amounts of money on "top-flight" talent in order to field a competent team (see Haynesworth, Albert), which means dipping into the free agency market can soften the blow of those missing first-rounders to a certain degree.

Of course, this is all moot if Griffin turns out to be a bust (I'm looking at you, Ryan Leaf). Even if that turns out to be the case, drafting a franchise quarterback is the one thing in the NFL that's actually worth gambling on, because the payoff can be huge. Just ask the New York Giants, who similarly bet the farm on Eli Manning and now have two championships to show for it.

Good job, Redskins. You made the right call.