The Washington Commanders are in the rare, luxurious position in which they can take any of the remaining quarterbacks available in the first round of next week's draft.
At No. 2, they have their pick of the litter, minus Caleb Williams, who is expected to be selected first overall by Chicago. Once Washington is on the clock, the real fun begins, and according to new Commanders general manager Adam Peters, Washington isn't entertaining moving out of the catbird's seat.
"We feel great about staying at No. 2," Peters said Thursday. "I don't see a whole lot of scenarios where we trade down, to be honest with you. We feel great about staying there."
One peek at Washington's depth chart will tell you all you need to know about what position (hint: they throw passes) the Commanders are targeting at No. 2. In fact, with the expectation of Williams' selection at No. 1, the Commanders very well could be set on their choice a week before the draft.
"We're real close," Peters said. "There's still a few more things in the process we have to do. As you guys are maybe getting, I'm pretty process-driven, process-oriented, so we have the debrief on our 30 (prospect) visits with the whole staff, talking about everybody there. We haven't done that yet. Then later tonight we have a medical meeting, as well, to go over all the medicals in the combine and get that information as well and just ask pointed questions, if there are any, on certain players if we have some questions on that.
"So, we have a few more things and DQ (head coach Dan Quinn) and I will huddle up and probably have an answer really sometime next week. Now, I will say this also, we don't really need to make a decision until you need to make a decision. So there's no rush with that, but I think we'll have a pretty good idea what we're doing early next week."
Peters is correct: The Commanders don't need to make the decision until they're on the clock. Wrapping up No. 2 would, however, afford them more time and resources to attack the rest of their six top-100 selections. But Peters won't abandon his process, especially not this far along.
This draft is simply too important to the future of the Commanders to rush anything. Peters arrived in Washington with a modest war chest of picks accrued by the Commanders' decision to trade both Montez Sweat and Chase Young at the deadline -- plus their offseason trade of former starting quarterback Sam Howell to Seattle -- and those deals only matter if Washington adds quality talent with the selections (Nos. 40, 78 and 100).
The draft is where talent evaluators truly make their mark. And it's up to the GM to navigate the unpredictable waters of the league's annual talent restock to maximize their returns. For Peters, that could include using some of those top-100 picks to move back into the first round.
"I think with the optionality we have in all those picks, anything is in consideration," Peters said. "Like we've said before, we're gonna do whatsever best for this organization, so if that's moving up, if that's moving back, we'll do that. Lucky for us, we have the ability to do so with all the ammo we have."
The silver lining of this draft is the fact Peters won't be held accountable for the Sweat and Young trades. He wasn't running the football side of the organization at that time, instead inheriting the picks from a trade that had already been completed.
But he'll be judged -- perhaps harshly, depending on the outcome -- by how he spends those picks. And it begins with No. 2 overall, where the football world expects Peters to tab Washington's next franchise quarterback.
Opportunity is at his fingertips. Soon, the clock will begin ticking.
"We're really fortunate to have that," Peters said. "I think we have a really good chance to make this team a lot better."
