A-
Washington Commanders
The Commanders won the weekend at the trade table. Grade: A-.
by aa ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 2 steals
· 3 reaches
The trade table was a mismatch, and the Commanders were on the right end of it, hauling in a fortune in surplus value.
The Spann-Ford reach is the anchor dragging on the value grade. If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through quarterback.
It is not that Stover is a bad player; it is that the Commanders had louder needs to answer first.
Bottom line, they did the job about as well as it can be done.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 19 they get a disruptor off the edge. A clean fit for the roster.
They liked Kalen King enough to skip the value, taking him in slot 36. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Ja'Lynn Polk at the 71st overall pick is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Princely Umanmielen in No. 73 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A straight-up fair deal on Zak Zinter at pick No. 82, value and slot in agreement. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They jumped the gun on Audric Estime, taking him earlier than his grade liked. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A tidy little value on Danny Stutsman in the Round 4 slot, a step better than break-even. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
A curious use of pick 136. Quarterback and interior defensive lineman needed the pick; a TE-EDGE in Cade Stover did not.
A tidy bit of business in pick No. 144, where Donovan Jackson graded well above the range. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Brevyn Spann-Ford at the Round 5 slot is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.