Philadelphia Eagles: Grading the NFC East’s Day 1 selections
Originally slated to only pick once in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, Washington decided to double down on selecting dropping players with huge upside and traded back into the first to select Mississippi State edge rusher Montez Sweat 26th-overall.
Now some teams reportedly removed Sweat from their boards all together due to a potentially misdiagnosed heart condition that was found at the combine, but on the field, it’s hard not to like Montez as a dominant pass rusher.
After spending two suspension-filled seasons riding the bench at Michigan State, Sweat transferred out to Mississippi State and established himself as easily the team’s best pass-rusher since Preston Smith, interesting enough the player he’s replacing in Washington.
Racking up 22.5-sacks in 26 games, Sweat excelled at defensive end in the Bulldogs’ scheme, but how will he transition to playing outside linebacker in the Redskins 3-4 scheme?
That is the million-dollar question.
With concerns about his character and his ability to switch positions, which as Eagles fans saw with Marcus Smith in 2015 is far from a sure thing, Montez Sweat is a boom-or-bust product in every sense of the term, but still, at 27 he’s a risk worth taking.