It took more than five hours and 51 picks, but former Oklahoma wide receiver Malcolm Kelly was finally selected by the Washington Redskins late in the second round of Saturday's NFL Draft.
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A Washington Redskins contingent, which included quarterback Jason Campbell, owner Daniel Snyder and first-year head coach Jim Zorn, visited Norman on Thursday to put Kelly through a private workout with Campbell throwing passes to him, suggesting that Washington might take Kelly with the 21{+s}{+t} overall pick in the first round.
But the Redskins traded out of the pick, instead compiling three draft selections for the second round.
Washington first selected Michigan State wide receiver Devin Thomas, then Southern Californiatight end Fred Davis before taking Kelly.
Now, the Redskins have added three playmaking targets for Campbell as they transition into the West Coast offense under Zorn.
Since Washington's two starting receivers, Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El, are 5-foot-10, Kelly (6-4, 229) will add much-needed size to the wide receiving unit.
Hearing his name called concluded what has been a tumultuous last six months for Kelly.
First, he had to recover from a partially torn quadriceps, which kept from playing in the Fiesta Bowl and participating in the NFL Scouting Combine. Then, rumors were spread throughout the league that Kelly had chronic knee problems, prompting his agent to send a letter to every NFL team calling the rumors "untrue” and "irresponsible.”
Then on his pro day, Kelly ran the 40-yard dash in 4.68 seconds before criticizing the OU strength staff for moving the location of the pro day and the OU training staff for initially misdiagnosing his quadriceps tear.
Now, Kelly will be able to put all of his concentration on playing football.
The wait wasn't quite as long for former Sooner linebacker Curtis Lofton, who went earlier in the second round to the Atlanta Falcons with No. 37th overall selection.
Lofton was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year last season, coercing him to skip his senior season and declare for the draft.
Even though Kelly and ex-Sooner defensive back Reggie Smith were considered by many draft analysts to be better pro prospects, Lofton turned out to be the most coveted of the three.
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Nunya, you and your diehard followers of MK need to underline and write this down. MK, is not NFL material, he will wash out and blame the establishment. PERIOD . End of story.
Lou, you're ridiculous. Posting the same thing on multiple articles. First off, he was 51, not 52. The Redskins are getting a huge steal from him slipping so low. He'll be a great addition to the team next year with Thomas, adding on to ARE and Moss. I can't wait to watch... !
Well, he was #52 and I wonder if he going to blame his low pick on Curtis Lofton, it don't matter he will be in Texas slinging burgers or selling stereos, he is no NFL product.
Jason: I was on Redskins.com and coach Zorn seemed to think we would need and use both TEs.Either way,it give us another threat to go to on offense.I was glad we went for big WRs because,Randel El and,Loyd have been huge flops for us.Now they will have to step up or,there gonna lose there jobs...Nice to another Skins fan on here...Hail to the Redskins
Rock on Scott. It's tough to be a Skins fan in Cowboy country, but I have been since the '87 Super Bowl. I like the move to big recievers to complement Randel-El and Moss, but I'm not sure what the drafting of Fred Davis means for Chris Cooley. Both are recieving TEs, rather than blockers, so I don't think the Davis pick is an attempt to complement Cooley. But we'll see.
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