Hogs Haven
Best player available and breaking from the herd
Shortly after Adam Peters was hired, I wrote an article about what changes to expect in Washington’s approach to the draft based on how he ran San Francisco’s drafts since 2017.
With his first draft in Washington in the books, I am pleased to say the new GM was just as advertised. The Commanders’ 2024 draft was like nothing we have seen since, well, ever. Peters stuck to his board and picked players who fit the direction his coaching staff want to take the team. He avoided mortgaging the team’s future in costly trades and doesn’t appear to have reached to pick players above their value point, according to what we can infer about his scouting team’s board.
This draft was conducted against the backdrop of one of the more rapid team rebuilds in recent memory. Nevertheless, the choices that were made appear to have been focused on building a roster and team culture for future success, directing draft capital to where it could have the greatest long term impact given how the board fell.
The approach that we saw aligns very well with the draft strategies of the most competitive NFL franchises. Hopefully, it will return results similar to those Peters achieved with the 49ers, who averaged close to one elite player per draft throughout his tenure.
In this three part series, I will review six big takeaways from Adam Peters’ first draft in Washington:
In the 2022 draft, the Washington Commanders held the 11th overall pick. When it was their turn to pick, Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton was still available, after an unexpected slide out the top 10, where he had been projected to go. The media consensus board had him ranked as the fourth best prospect in the draft class.
Instead of picking Hamilton, Ron Rivera traded back to 16th with the Saints to acquire more draft picks, and selected wide receiver Jahan Dotson. It was a poorly kept secret that the Commanders planned on picking a wide receiver in the first round to give their recently acquired QB Carson Wentz another weapon on offense. Dotson had a consensus rank of 31, and was the last WR remaining with a borderline first round projection after a run on WRs in the first 12 picks.
Hamilton fell three more places down the draft order, into the waiting arms of the Ravens. Baltimore GM Eric DeCosta explained the rationale for picking Hamilton, rather than a pass rusher to replace Za’Darius Smith whom he had lost in free agency:
We didn’t have a huge need at safety … We could have drafted a player at another position that would have filled a bigger need for us, but Kyle...
