Helter Skelter » It may turn out that the only option remaining

Bobby Beathard loathed first-round draft picks and reveled in taking chances on players from out-of-the-way colleges.It was a formula that paid off with two victories in four trips to the Super Bowl as general manager of the Washington Redskins and San Diego Chargers.He also loathes dressing up Dwayne Haskins Redskins Jersey , meaning the gold blazer he'll wear when he's inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame won't get much use after Saturday night's ceremony."I don't think I'll be wearing it many places except there," Beathard said. "I don't think I'll be going out to dinner with that coat on."That's Beathard, 81, who always was more comfortable dressed as a Southern California beach bum. In jobs ranging from scout to general manager, he helped build seven Super Bowl teams for four franchises, including four winners, during a career lasting nearly four decades.Beathard was so low-key that when Kevin Gilbride was hired as Chargers coach in 1997 and insisted that everyone wear a coat and tie on road trips, even the GM, Beathard reached into his pocket on one trip and found an NFL schedule from 1989. That had been the last time he wore a blazer, when he worked on NBC's pregame show.Beathard certainly didn't need a blazer for scouting trips to small colleges, or to bodysurf in his beloved Pacific Ocean, run the Boston Marathon or have a few beers once a week with his buddies in Franklin, Tennessee, where he's lived for several years.But he'll have to wear one Saturday night.His presenter will be Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, hired by Beathard with Washington before the 1981 season."I would have had one of my sons but I think it was more appropriate to have Joe," Beathard said. "We spent a long time together."Gibbs, inducted in 1996, coached the Redskins to victory in two of the three Super Bowls the Redskins reached in the 1980s. Those are the teams Beathard is best-remembered for building.He also built the San Diego Chargers' only Super Bowl team, which was routed by San Francisco in the 1995 game.He began his career as a part-time scout for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 before leaving to scout in the AFL. He returned to the Chiefs in 1966, when they played in the first Super Bowl. In 1972, Beathard was hired as director of player personnel for the Miami Dolphins, who won consecutive Super Bowls.The Redskins hired him as GM in 1978 and he began doing things his way. He viewed first-round draft picks a commodity to be traded away to stockpile lower picks. He also worked the free agent market. In 1982, the Redskins team that won the Super Bowl included 27 free agents signed by Beathard since he was hired. In his 11 years in Washington, the Redskins used their first-round pick only three times.In 1988, Sports Illustrated called him "The Smartest Man in the NFL."Beathard didn't like the title."That was kind of embarrassing," Beathard said. "Whoever put that in there, I told them when it first came out, 'Well, you better go back and ask my high school and college teachers if that's true, and I don't think they'd agree with that.' "Taking Beathard's entire career as a whole, the label certainly fit."If I ever got into that position, I had a plan how I wanted to do it and it wasn't that the No. 1 draft pick was the most important thing https://www.theredskinslockerroom.com/authentic-dwayne-haskins-jersey ," Beathard said about becoming a GM. "Every year we'd go out all year to all the colleges, scouting and looking at the players. And if it was a draft that was deep in talent I thought it was more valuable to get some of the later picks, because there were real good players down there, not only in the first round. If you had a high pick in the first round, trade that and get multiple picks where all the other players were. Fortunately it worked out for us. The only grief I got from it was from Darrell Green."Of all his draft picks and free agent signings, Beathard said his favorite was Green, the 5-foot-8 defensive back from Texas A&I who was taken with the 28th pick overall — the last pick in the first round — of the 1983 draft. Green went on to a Hall of Fame career."That doesn't mean the other guys, the Art Monks, the Russ Grimms and the Jeff Bostics, all those other guys, it doesn't mean those weren't just as important," Beathard said. "When we took Darrell Green, I'll never forget the phone call. When I called Darrell he was down at Texas A&I and I called Darrell and said, 'Hey Darrell, it's Bobby; we took you.' He got mad at me and said, 'Why did you wait until last pick to take me?' And I said, 'The way the draft works, we won the Super Bowl so we had the last pick, so blame the other (27) teams that didn't take you. Don't blame us.'"Beathard left the Redskins in May 1989 and was out of the NFL only one season before being hired by the Chargers. His first draft pick was Junior Seau and the Chargers reached the Super Bowl five seasons later. Seau was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.When he scouted colleges, Beathard, who retired in April 2000, said he'd look beyond the players recommended by coaches."I traveled the whole country to every school that played football to look for players. I got to see the players personally, besides the scouting staff. I just had a lot of confidence in my evaluation. I wasn't afraid to take players from small schools, or small players."I think of Darrell Green, we had a little receiver, Alvin Garrett, guys that some teams thought we were crazy to take them because they were so small, but they were great players. I guess I was lucky to have a feel for some of these guys and had coaches who were willing to coach them."His greatest influences were Don Shula and Al Davis.Beathard said his best memory is of the Dolphins' undefeated 1972 season, "but they were all memorable. Any time we made it to that last game, it meant that we were going to the Super Bowl. Those were always great memories."Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at ://berniewilson Is he just another wasted draft pick?"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Looks Like Someone Has A Sixpack Of The MondaysDaily SlopRedskins RecapsEDTShareTweetShareShareWhat should become of Samaje Perine?A promising draft pickI think that when Samaje Perine was drafted in the 4th round of the 2017 draft, it was generally viewed as a good pick by the Redskins.Perine was seen as a powerful and reliable running back that represented good value in the 4th round.For a team that had finished 2016 with Rob Kelley, Chris Thompson Womens Dwayne Haskins Jersey , “Fumblin’” Matt Jones, and Mack Brown, the addition of Perine looked like it would mark the end of the Matt Jones era — Jones having been a failed 2015 third-round pick that had reminded Scot McCloughan of Marshawn Lynch — and provide an overall upgrade in the form of a reliable power back who could solve the Redskins’ short yardage woes.Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY SportsFumbled opportunityAs things turned out, in similar fashion to Matt Jones, the ball seemed to end up on the ground a lot when Perine touched it, despite the fact that his official career stats show him with only 2 career NFL fumbles.His official stats didn’t show him as an inveterate fumbler for a lot of reasons.One reason is that some of the fumbles happened in pre-season, setting a troubling tone.Another was that some of his miscues were charged to other players — notably Kirk Cousins.For example, on one play, Kirk pitched a nice lateral to Perine that hit him in the hands, waist-high and in-stride.Perine mishandled the ball; Cousins got charged with the fumble.Quarterbacks also get charged with the fumble if the running back drops the handoff, which seemed to happen a time or two.Some of the balls that hit the ground ended up back in Perine’s hands.Also, I remember one play when he was fighting for yardage and had the ball ripped from his hands, but had stepped on the sideline just prior, saving himself from being charged with a lost ball.Brad Mills-USA TODAY SportsRightly or wrongly, Perine quickly developed a reputation for being loose with the football.We heard reports of him carrying a ‘beeping’ electronic ball designed to encourage 4 points of contact.Whether Perine was really a fumbler or not didn’t seem to matter much in the end; he landed in Jay Gruden’s doghouse, benched and usually inactive.I honestly thought that, since Jay wasn’t gonna play him, the Redskins would try to trade Perine in the 2018 off-season to a team that had scouted and liked him coming out of college, but it didn’t happen.Jake Roth-USA TODAY SportsAt the recent coach’s breakfast interview during the annual league meeting in Florida, Jay Gruden talked about Samaje, saying that Perine wasn’t “in the dogbouse”, and that Jay wanted and needed to get Samaje more opportunities.Jay actually sounded sincere, but, of course, he was rested and in a good mood; not answering questions mid-season, following a close loss at home that had been decided by a lost possession.A record setting college careerPrior to being drafted by Washington, Perine was one of the most productive backs in Oklahoma history — and that’s really saying something!But his production tailed off as he moved through his three years playing for the Sooners.From his first year to his third and final season, Perine saw his attempts, yards, yards per carry and TDs fall each season.This is not usually the trend you look for in drafting a player, and it was the thing that troubled me the most about him after learning that the Redskins had drafted him.Troy Taormina-USA TODAY SportsStill, he had gotten a strong endorsement from most draft analysts Dwayne Haskins Jersey White , and going into the 2017 season, he was seen as a welcome change from the Matt Jones disaster.So far, not so goodBut Perine’s career as a Redskin has been more a tale of disappointment and unfulfilled promise than anything else.In his first two seasons, he has seen limited duty, often inactive on game days, and when Derrius Guice, the 2018 version of the newly drafted rookie who would finally fix the Redskins run game, ripped his knee apart in the first preseason game, instead of turning to Samaje Perine, the Redskins held tryouts for a number of veteran backs, and ended up signing 33-year-old Adrian Peterson, who went on to post a(nother) 1,000 yard season while Perine amassed 8 carries for 32 yards.Jake Roth-USA TODAY SportsThe Redskins currently have Derrius Guice, Adrian Peterson, Chris Thompson, needs to utilize is because of some (likely vain) attempt to maintain whatever trade appeal Perine might still have.However, probably the only way Perine gets traded this year is if he plays exceptionally well in the preseason and another team wants to get him from the ‘Skins when they lose a player to injury.Of course, if he can play that well, perhaps Washington should hold onto him and use him.Perine is cheap, being a 4th round pick still on his rookie deal.His cap hit this season is $809,000, rising to $899,000 in 2020, the final year of his rookie deal.The front office may want to hold onto him, just in case he outlasts Jay Gruden’s tenure.Who knows?Maybe Jay’s replacement will want to play the young man.Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY SportsAdrian Peterson can’t play forever, though he might be able to last long enough in a shared-backfield role with Guice to make Perine largely redundant.The Redskins backfield may be too crowded for Perine to have a place this season, and the opportunity to trade him may have been lost forever due to Jay’s decision to make him a healthy scratch for the ‘18 season. will be to cut him at the end of August (when, if history is any guide, the Colts will pick him up off of waivers).