C+
Washington Commanders
A franchise passer in Williams headlines a C+ weekend for the Commanders.
by Meandwarf ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 15 picks
· 6 steals
· 2 reaches
The one hole that towered over the rest is filled. The Commanders spent their marquee pick on Caleb Williams, and for the first time in a while there is a real answer at quarterback. The good and the questionable cancel out to a C+.
That Dixon pick is the receipt they will wave around later. They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down.
They will regret leaving edge rusher for another day if the season turns on it. They will answer for taking OLB-EDGE early while edge rusher went begging.
The Jackson pick is the one the value grade keeps tripping over.
Not a disaster, not a triumph, just a middling class.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 4 they get their guy under center for the next decade at fair value. A real need, handled.
In the 27th overall pick they get a building block for the line. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Ja'Tavion Sanders in the Round 2 slot is fair value, right on his grade. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Adonai Mitchell at slot 40. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They let Payton Wilson come to them and pounced at the 67th pick. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Braden Fiske slid further than he should have, and No. 68 is lovely value for the interior defensive lineman. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They paid up for Khyree Jackson at pick No. 78 when waiting would have done the job. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Javon Solomon adds an OLB-EDGE and leaves edge rusher untouched.
Cole Bishop at the 113th pick is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Trevor Keegan in the Round 5 slot is exactly on the number, no argument either way. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They took Tommy Eichenberg at par in slot 139, which is nothing to complain about. It is more luxury than necessity; they were already set here.
A clean, defensible pick in Round 5, Pick 16 with a little surplus value in Jacob Cowing. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They paid sticker price for Trente Jones in No. 191, and that is fine. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Rasheen Ali at pick 222 is the proof. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
You do not let a cornerback like Johnny Dixon reach the 226th overall pick and blink. They did not. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.