

(Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Hey, it’s never the wrong time for an ESPN reporter to drop some intelligence about the decision-making behind Washington’s 2008 NFL draft.

Putting aside the basic weirdness of this coming out in January 2014, I thought you might be interested in this exchange between Kevin Sheehan, Thom Loverro and Adam Schefter on ESPN 980 this week. Loverro asked Schefter about Washington’s new front-office structure and the suggestion that Mike Shanahan and Vinny Cerrato may have disregarded the advice of Morocco Brown and Scott Campbell in the past. This led to a discussion of the second round of that ill-fated 2008 draft.

“Vinny wanted to take Jamaal Charles, and he was overruled in favor of Malcolm Kelly,” Schefter said. “Vinny was in charge of the front office; I know that the front office wanted Jamaal Charles, and that was the pick. And there aren’t too many people that can overrule the front office for Malcolm Kelly.”

The suggestion being, of course, that ownership was involved.

“Listen, all I can say is this: Morocco Brown and Scott Campbell have very good reputations,” Schefter said. “I think both are very good personnel men. I don’t know if their voices have ever been silenced before or heard before or whatever before, and I don’t know why all the sudden they’d be listened to now when they weren’t before. I mean, the idea of that doesn’t exactly go together, for me, personally. Because they’ve been there a long time, they’ve been respected, they’ve made their mark, they’ve had contributions. I mean, maybe in the draft this year, if Morocco Brown or Scott Campbell speaks up on a certain candidate, maybe they’re going to listen to them more than others. But I don’t know, I’m a little skeptical. Again, to me, those guys are excellent at what they do, and I think people respect their work.

“But to think all of a sudden they’re going to have a bigger impact. … That’d be great if that’s true,” Schefter said. “I just don’t know why it would be . I’m a little skeptical, without knowing the full dynamics of how that room has and hasn’t worked, to be honest with you.”