D
Washington Commanders
The Commanders won the night they stopped Stukes from sliding. Grade: D.
by The Top Cat ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 15 picks
· 9 steals
· 2 reaches
Every swap seemed to tilt away from the Commanders, and the value they bled adds up to real damage. A D that will need time and luck to look better.
For all the activity, edge rusher went untouched, which is hard to explain. They are betting Black proves the room right and everyone else wrong. Stukes falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch.
The verdict is not kind, and fairly so; this class has a hill to climb.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 12 they get a centerpiece for the ground game at a price that makes it sweeter.
Lee Hunter at the 65th pick is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Germie Bernard at pick 66 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Emmanuel Pregnon in slot 71 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
A tidy bit of business in Round 3, Pick 28, where Elijah Sarratt graded well above the range. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
By-the-book stuff, Jalon Kilgore at the 101st overall pick squarely in line with his ranking. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
You do not let a cornerback like Davison Igbinosun reach Round 4, Pick 9 and blink. They did not. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Treydan Stukes at pick No. 110 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Sam Hecht at the 112th overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Steal is underselling it; Daylen Everette at slot 113 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A straight-up fair deal on Isaiah World at No. 148, value and slot in agreement. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They robbed the room for CJ Daniels here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Matt Gulbin at the 187th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Kaelon Black at pick 209 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Riley Nowakowski in the 217th pick is early enough to raise a brow, if not a full objection. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.