The Washington Commanders have been wheeling and dealing the last year to get veteran players on the roster in a “win now” ploy to solidify their status as Super Bowl contenders in 2025.
The problem with that has been an absolute purge of draft picks. The Commanders find themselves with only 5 picks in 2025 and 5 picks in 2026. Regardless of what players they add for the upcoming season, mortgaging the future is never a good move.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell proposed a trade that would see the Commanders get back some of those picks, sending the San Francisco 49ers the No. 29 overall pick in 2025 in exchange for a 2025 second round pick (No. 43 overall), 2025 third round pick (No. 100 overall) and a 2026 fifth round pick.
There’s actually some brilliance to Barnwell’s trade pitch.
“(The Commanders) were one of the league’s oldest teams a year ago, and after acquiring Laremy Tunsil, Marshon Lattimore and Deebo Samuel Sr., they have just five picks in 2025 and five more in 2026,” Barnwell wrote. “The 2024 Texans are a good example of how a team seemingly on the rise can stagnate without an annual influx of talent through the draft … The Commanders could address wide receiver at No. 43.”
Commanders Changed Fortunes With 2024 NFL Draft
It’s always worth pointing out the Commanders may have ended over 30 years of football misery with a single pick when they selected LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.
As a rookie, Daniels led the Commanders to a 12-5 regular season record and into the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1991. That he did so with what amounted to a ragtag team of journeymen on mostly 1-year contracts — outside of NFL All-Pro wide receiver Terry McLaurin — only spoke more to Daniels’ brilliance.
Headed into his second year, Daniels is now surrounded with a boatload more talent in 2025, but making sure that success is sustainable can only come through the draft.
If the Commanders did stay in the first round, there’s a safe bet that pick would be on the defensive side of the ball.
Pro Football Focus’ Josh Liskiewitz predicts the Commanders will draft Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts to Washington if they were to keep the No. 29 overall pick after standout safety Jeremy Chinn left to the Las Vegas Raiders on a 2-year, $16.58 million free agent contract.
Commanders Ended Snyder Era on Miserable Draft Run
When former owner Daniel Snyder was finally ushered out the door by Josh Harris and Magic Johnson in July 2023, it ended 2-plus decades of miserable draft picks that was never worse than at the very end.
In the 5 drafts from 2019 to 2023, the Commander had a total of 6 first round picks — they had 2 first rounders in 2019. When cornerback and first round pick (No. 16 overall) Emmanuel Forbes was released midway through the 2024 season, it meant none of those first round picks remained on the roster.
In the 2024 draft, the Commanders not only added a franchise cornerstone in Daniels but saw 3 more players become reliable starters as rookies with cornerback Mike Sainristil, defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton and offensive tackle Brandon Coleman, who should be able to move to the right side of the line with the addition of Tunsil.
