WASHINGTON -- The Redskins figure they have a bargain after taking Kentucky defensive end Jeremy Jarmon in the third round of the NFL Supplemental Draft on Thursday.
And Jarmon figures he has an early jump on his professional career after the NCAA declared him ineligible for his senior season because he tested positive for a banned substance.
"There's been a lot of ups and downs," Jarmon said in a conference call with reporters. "... I was real disappointed at the time, when the ruling came out. That was definitely one of the low points, if not the lowest point, of my life so far. But I started to get over it."
However, Redskins executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato believes Jarmon would have gone in the second round of the 2010 draft had he remained in school for his senior year.
Cerrato called Thursday's move "a chance to get a quality player at a quality price," and he noted that other teams indicated they would have tried to take Jarmon in the fourth round of the supplemental draft.
Cerrato said Jarmon will be a left defensive end, the same primary position played by Brian Orakpo, Washington's top pick in the April draft.
Adding Jarmon is the latest move aimed at upgrading a pass rush that ranked last in the NFC last season with just 24 sacks. The Redskins began free agency by landing All-Pro defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, then they drafted Orakpo, who also can play linebacker.
Jarmon was the only player taken in the supplemental draft, which the NFL electronically conducted from its New York headquarters.
Jarmon had 17½ career sacks, third-most in Kentucky history, and that includes nine as a sophomore in 2007. Cerrato said Jarmon "has a great lower body (but) needs to get stronger in the upper body."
Cerrato pointed out that by taking Jarmon now, the Redskins have a chance to groom him, and he can be tutored by veteran defensive ends Phillip Daniels and Renaldo Wynn.
Redskins players are scheduled to report for training camp on July 29, and the first practices are the next day.
"I feel like I'm a pretty smart guy," Jarmon said, adding that he wants to see the Redskins' playbook as soon as possible.
"I need to jump into it and get to learning the plays and learning the formations and sitting down in the film room and putting plays through the video to see what they look like, to see how guys play in certain packages and try to go into camp with an idea of what I'm supposed to do on each and every play," Jarmon added. "I'm going to be so busy when I get to Washington."
"The kid's an articulate kid," Cerrato said. "He's already graduated (with a degree in political science). He's only 21 years old. He made a mistake taking a dietary substance from right around the corner."
Jarmon acknowledged in May that the NCAA was punishing him. On Thursday, he said he took an over-the-counter dietary supplement to avoid putting on weight while he was unable to work out in the offseason because of tendinitis in his left shoulder. However, Jarmon wouldn't say what the supplement or substance was.
When being interviewed by teams before the supplemental draft, Jarmon said: "It wasn't an issue, because I told teams exactly what the supplement was, what the substance in the supplement was that I tested positive for. They did their research on it."
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
