The Washington Commanders made a pretty deft move before the 2024 season when they managed to offload wide receiver and former first round pick Jahan Dotson to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dotson, his 4-year, $15 million contract and a 2025 fifth round pick were traded to the Eagles in exchange for a 2025 third round pick, 2025 fifth round pick and a pair of 2025 seventh round picks. The Commanders turned that haul into a pair of trades this offseason that brought them 4-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and NFL All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel.
While Tunsil and Samuel have yet to play a game for the Commanders, we already know how things turned out for Dotson and the Eagles … and it ended up being pretty awesome.
While Dotson struggled to learn a new offense during the regular season, he was one of the playoff stars for the Eagles with a touchdown reception in a 22-10 NFC Wild Card Round win over the Green Bay Packers and a 28-yard catch and run that set up Philadelphia’s first touchdown in a 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
With that in mind, the Commanders might want to pull a kind of Reverse Uno move in 2025 to get their own, disappointing former first round pick in Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston — possibly the perfect WR3 for Washington.
Johnston Doesn’t Seem Part of Chargers’ Plans
Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine put Johnston, the No. 23 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, as the Chargers’ top trade asset.
“(Rookie) Tre Harris has a better chance to become the outside receiver they need with Ladd McConkey than Mike Williams or Quentin Johnston,” Ballentine wrote on May 22.
Johnston, 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, played his way into the first round in his final season at TCU in 2022 with 60 receptions for 1,069 yards and 6 touchdowns, but in 2 seasons with the Chargers has yet to establish himself as a WR1.
In his rookie year, Johnston had 38 receptions for 431 yards and 2 touchdowns. He bumped those numbers up to 55 receptions for 711 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2024 but missed 2 games due to injuries.
The Chargers have revamped their offense around quarterback Justin Herbert in the last 2 drafts —it’s a plan that doesn’t seem to include Johnston after using their 2025 first round pick on running back Omarion Hampton and a second round pick on Harris, a wide receiver from Ole Miss.
Commanders Don’t Have Certainty at WR3
The Commanders’ offseason moves were all made with the intention of making a Super Bowl run in 2025 — there’s no planning for the future just trying to win now.
That meant bringing in Samuel to be the WR2 behind NFL All-Pro Terry McLaurin, although that might be underselling what Samuel’s role will be in whatever schemes offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has cooked up. Which could really be anything.
Behind those 2, the Commander’ best pass catching option is tight end Zach Ertz, who will turn 35 years old in November.
Johnston has 2 years remaining on his 4-year, $14.1 million rookie contract and is due $2 million in 2025 and approximately $2.6 million in 2025.
The Commanders might be able to get him in exchange for their 2026 fifth round pick, straight up. If they wanted to get really bold they could offer their 2025 fifth round pick in exchange for Johnston and the Chargers’ 2026 seventh round pick.
