Dragonfly nymph molted exoskeleton

Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions. I went to investigate today and found both insects gone. Perhaps they washed away in the rain though the older one withstood numerous downpours since first seen. There was not any trace of them. The insect in the photo was about 1.5 inches long and .5-.75 inches wide (not counting the legs). Would a dragonfly nymph be that big? Also, I have never seen a Gomphus dragonfly here - just four-spotted pennants, Blue Dashers, Eastern Pondhawks and Eastern amberwings and Rambur's forktail damselflies. Of course it would not be surprising if I just missed them.

I could not tell if it was alive. It did not move when I approached but I did not try to touch it. It was not there yesterday. There is another similar one attached just below it on the post and it has been there over a week and does not seem to have moved. It looks a little damaged now. I saw that one fly there but it did not move afterwards as far as I could tell.