In the waning days of Dan Snyder’s inglorious tenure as owner of the Washington Commanders, virtually everything about the proud franchise was crumbling. If it wasn’t scandal in the front office, it was incompetence on the field. The team had become a laughingstock.
Josh Harris began making some changes from the moment he assumed ownership, but he wisely waited until the end of the season to begin a drastic overhaul. Like all smart leaders, he surrounded himself with good advisors, conducted a thorough review of the landscape, and then took decisive action.
His first, and most important, decision was to hire Adam Peters as general manager. That move has paid off better than anyone could have expected during his first year in charge of the football operation.
The task that confronted the new arrival was massive. He needed to replenish one of the thinnest rosters in the league. He needed to rebuild a disheveled front office.
It is easy in hindsight to roast Martin Mayhew and Ron Rivera, but we will never really understand just how impossible a position they were in. After all, they were working for an owner who seemed more concerned with preserving his bank account and avoiding the very real threat of legal jeopardy than in doing anything to help his team win football games.
Be that as it may, Peters realized he needed to clean house. He was not merely finding better players and coaches. He was rebuilding an entire culture — restoring a sense of order to a business run amok.
Peters made a lot of decisions on multiple fronts. If they haven’t all been home runs, it is astonishing how much he has gotten right.
Let’s begin with the way he retooled the Commanders front office.
How GM Adam Peters has revitalized the Commanders in 2024
Front office decisions
It was hard at times to know who was in charge of the Washington Commanders over the past few seasons.
Bruce Allen’s failed tenure as team president ended in 2019. Jason Wright stepped into the breach as team president and seemed to spend his entire tenure putting out one fire after another. That led to embarrassing moments like the Sean Taylor statue debacle of 2022.
Martin Mayhew joined a year later as general manager. It was never entirely clear whether he or Ron Rivera was making roster decisions.
The first thing Adam Peters did was to bring in a trusted lieutenant, Lance Newmark, to serve as his assistant. He lured him away from the Detroit Lions, a team with one of the most talented rosters in the NFL. He was instrumental in helping Lions’ general manager Brad Holmes assemble those players.
Peters also raided Detroit for Brandon Sosna, one of the most impressive young executives in the league.
Sosna, still in his early 30s, came on board to handle contracts and analytics. The very fact that the Commanders are heavily invested in analytics is a testament to Josh Harris’ ownership. He got the ball rolling by hiring Eugene Shen, who was almost certainly involved in the wise decision to begin trading off assets like Chase Young and Montez Sweat last season.
Sosna has stepped into Shen’s role. He is now providing the Commanders with top-flight analytics.
Peters snatched veteran scout David Blackburn from the Baltimore Ravens to take over player personnel. The Ravens, like the Lions, have a history of outstanding scouting which has led to consistent on-field success. It became obvious early on that one of Peters’ main strategies was to pluck the best talent he could find from the best franchises in the league.
He also looked outside the box, prying Dave Gardi away from the league office and placing him in the newly created role of vice president of football initiatives. At the same time, he attempted to maintain some continuity by retaining executives like Mayhew and Doug Williams in advisory roles.
Peters may not have been directly involved in the recent decision to bring in Mark Clouse as the new team president in place of Wright. But it is hard to imagine Harris did not at least consult him.
Clouse’s success remains to be seen. At the very least, it appears that the Commanders have a logically-organized front office, filled with competent men and women. That has not been the case for many years.
Adam Peters' coaching choice
The public was not all that interested in front-office moves. What fans wanted to know was who Adam Peters would hire to replace Ron Rivera as Washington Commanders head coach.
Some were underwhelmed by the choice of Dan Quinn, primarily because he had been fired a few years earlier from a similar role with the Atlanta Falcons. He wasn’t a young hotshot genius.
After some serious, unsuccessful flirtations with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, Peters figured that a veteran coach might not be such a bad idea. He knew there were going to be huge roster changes, and a lot of young players to develop. Perhaps an experienced head-man could provide a steadier hand.
The results have been obvious.
Quinn has developed a team capable of challenging the best in the league. He has the players all going in the same direction, and all remaining upbeat. The team has weathered a bad stretch and recovered, which is usually a hallmark of quality leadership.
No one has been raving about Quinn’s innovative schemes or bold decisions. In hindsight, his decision to kick an extra point late in the Dallas Cowboys game looks too conservative. But those who critique that apparent lack of creativity ignore one of the most fundamental jobs any head coach has.
Quinn has assembled a first-rate staff of assistants. He has largely allowed them to do their jobs without a lot of interference.
That may well be the reason that Peters chose Quinn. As a much-admired veteran coach, he had the knowledge and the personal relationships to bring in the best assistants. Take for instance a situation that developed with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Seahawks did hire one of the young geniuses as their head coach. Mike Macdonald, defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens in 2023, was reportedly high on Peters’ list as well. Whether Seattle beat him to the punch or he just decided to go in a different direction, he ended up in the northwest.
He has done a nice job, pulling his team out of an early tailspin to take over the lead in the NFC West. One of the strangest decisions Macdonald made in assembling his staff was to hire Jay Harbaugh, nephew of Ravens head man John Harbaugh, as special teams coordinator despite his relative lack of experience.
Macdonald fired long-time coordinator Larry Izzo to make room for the younger Harbaugh. Quinn immediately snatched him up for Washington's staff. The result: the disastrous Cowboys’ game notwithstanding, the Commanders' special teams play has improved this season while Seattle’s has regressed.
More obviously, Quinn was able to pry offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury away from the Las Vegas Raiders, with whom he had reached an agreement, to come to Washington and coach Jayden Daniels. That situation may have been affected by contractual issues, but the Commanders were there to pounce nonetheless with a little help from Magic Johnson.
He has built an outstanding staff of coaches that combine veterans like Kingsbury and Anthony Lynn with young leaders like Tavita Pritchard and Brian Johnson. As a result, Washington’s young players are developing while older veterans are finding new life.
Adam Peters' roster revamp
Adam Peters passed final judgment on the Washington Commanders roster he inherited when he cut the only remaining top pick from the last five seasons, Emmanuel Forbes Jr.
He had already traded Jahan Dotson and released Jamin Davis after failing to pick up his fifth-year option over the summer. Sam Cosmi, Brian Robinson Jr., and Quan Martin appear to be the only draftees of the 33 players chosen during the Ron Rivera years to have a significant future with the franchise.
In his first draft, Peters chose quarterback Jayden Daniels, the front-runner for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. He chose several other players who may not be among the elites at their positions but are already solid starters or contributors and who look to get better over time.
Take left tackle Brandon Coleman. The Commanders have been trying to find an edge protector in the draft for more than a decade. They have always come up short. Even when they identified a very good player like Cosmi, he ultimately had to transition to guard in the pros.
Peters waited until the third round to select Coleman. He was the 12th tackle chosen. Entering Week 14, he is the starting left tackle on a projected playoff team. His Pro Football Focus grade is higher than eight of those chosen ahead of him.
The new general manager revealed his roster-building strategy early. He released high-priced veterans who were declining — Charles Leno, Logan Thomas, and Nick Gates — almost immediately. In their place, he brought in equally productive players who were several years younger.
He signed a couple of veterans to provide leadership. Players like Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, and Marcus Mariota have been invaluable both on and off the field.
Most tellingly, he did not shell out big money on any long-term contracts. He shopped for mid-priced vets with high upside, provided they were used correctly. Players like Nick Allegretti and Frankie Luvu have become cornerstones.
Peters continued tinkering, finding useful talent from castoffs. Two undrafted free agents — Tyler Owens and Colson Yankoff — made the final roster and could have a future. Other veteran journeymen like Noah Brown, Sheldon Day, and Nick Bellore have made positive contributions.
The Commanders haven't patched every hole in one season. Peters is still looking to nail down the placekicker spot and would like more talent at receiver. He needs one or two pass rushers. This is not the finished product — nor should it be.
We are all eager to see how many dividends the recent trade for cornerback Marshon Lattimore delivers. Due to his careful spending, the Commanders will be in an excellent salary cap position heading into the 2025 offseason. They currently have the fourth most projected cap space available and have a better roster than the three teams ahead of them (Las Vegas, Arizona, and New England).
The result of Peters’ decisions is a team that has already doubled its win total from last year with a month left to play, and with the playoffs well within reach. The future is as bright as it has been in more than a decade — much brighter when you consider the entire ownership structure.
For all that, Peters earns an A for his work as Washington’s general manager.
