“Football players. Football players, plain and simple,” McCloughan said when asked about what he’ll be looking for in the NFL draft. “I’m telling you, it’s what it’s about. It’s a process you go through and we need to build this roster at any position as strong as we can. The way you do that, and the way you stay consistent going forward, is football players.”

(If McCloughan has a signature phrase, it’s “football players.”)

What did he make of Cousins’s breakout season?

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“I saw a good football player,” McCloughan said. “I’ve been lucky to be around this league a long time, I’ve been around a lot of different quarterbacks — hall of famers to backups. I knew I saw something in him that was special. From the standpoint of leadership, players responded to him.”

When Sheehan asked McCloughan if he’s confident that Cousins is the Redskins’ longterm answer at quarterback, he answered like someone who isn’t interested in driving the QB’s asking price up.

“That’s a hard question to answer,” McCloughan said. “That position is so difficult. He had a really good year. The intangibles and the physical skills are there. My plan is to surround him with 1o really good guys on offense, 11 really good guys on defense and 11 really good guys on special teams, and have depth behind them, where they all take care of each other.”

As for Griffin, McCloughan reiterated that the team has until March 9 to make a decision about his future, and he’ll do everything in his power to make sure that the decision is the right one. McCloughan declined to go into specifics about what he’ll be looking for in the draft.

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“It’s going to be a good draft at some positions that we need,” McCloughan said. “I never want to draft for need, but it’s going to be good.”

McCloughan was asked about running backs Alfred Morris and Matt Jones.

“Alfred, I thought, did a really nice job,” McCloughan said of Morris, who rushed for only 751 yards last season and is a pending free agent. “For some reason we got to Week 3, Week 4 and all of a sudden we became a non-run-blocking team, which they worked on, they worked on, they worked on, of course, with Coach [Bill] Callahan. Our forte came to be throwing the football because the pass protection was so good, but I thought Alf did a great job, showed up every day. He’s a professional, he did everything in his power to help us win games and I respect that a lot. With Matt [Jones], I think he has got a tremendous upside. He has got to mature more as a pro. He had a couple of injuries here and there, but I think with his size and the upside, with us wanting to be a power running team, that he’s got tremendous ability going forward.”

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McCloughan also spoke highly of outside linebacker Junior Galette, who signed a one-year deal with the Redskins during training camp but missed the entire season after rupturing his Achilles’ tendon. (Galette has said he expects to re-sign with Washington.)

“I’m very high on him,” McCloughan said. “I’m very high on any pass rusher that has 20-plus sacks in two years. He’s a great guy, it kills him that he cannot play right now, going through the treatment with the Achilles’ tear and all that. He’s got a chance to be really good for us, especially in our 3-4, two-point stance, outside backer coming off the edge. Preston [Smith] showed good stuff, [Ryan] Kerrigan showed good stuff, Trent Murphy will do what he does. It’s just [to] add more talent and depth to the position.”