After a flurry of trades, the Washington Redskins own 10 picks on Day 3 of the 2011 NFL Draft. (Here is the full list of Redskins draft picks). Most people seem to think this is a good thing, as the Redskins have received high marks in most NFL Draft grades thus far. But to really make it count, the Redskins actually have to nail these 10 draft picks. Otherwise, they would have traded away higher picks for no reason.
Luckily, though, Redskins personnel man Mike Shanahan has a good track record here. CSN Washington's Rich Tandler did the research and found that 23 of the 70 players he picked after Round 4 in Denver were at least one-year starters, and four made the Pro Bowl. That's a record on par with some of the gold standards for the draft. Namely, the Patriots, Packers, Steelers and Giants.
So, Shanahan with close to the same number of late-round players drafted as the four teams who are the gold standard for drafting (70 for Broncos, 73 average), had just about the same number of players who played in at least one season's worth of games (39 Broncos, 38 average), did better when counting players who were their teams' primary starters for at least one year (23 Broncos, 20 average) and found the same number of Pro Bowl as the average (4).
That should make Redskins fans feel pretty good coming into Day 3.