The Washington Commanders (4-9) would hold the fourth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft if the season ended today.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they ended up selecting even higher than that, considering the horrible turn their season has gone.
It’s quite tempting in this bracket to go with a showy name that has the potential to become a franchise-changing superstar. Though it’s quite likely that USC’s Caleb Williams, the biggest quarterback prize of this draft class, will go first, Washington may still be able to choose North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels, the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Two more alluring skill-position prospects are Georgia TE Brock Bowers and Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr.
But let’s not overthink this. The offensive line is where Washington most needs improvement. If the offensive line stays this poor, the club will struggle to win football games regardless of its quarterback or weapons.
The issue is not with Sam Howell. Despite his recent struggles with turnovers, he still makes enough huge plays to give people hope that he will be the quarterback for the Washington team in the future. If he had just been a first-round choice with this kind of output, after only one season as a starter, nobody would have ever considered replacing him.
It is absurd to think that simply because Maye or Daniels are regarded as greater prospects than Howell, they should automatically be selected over the former, who was Howell’s backup in college. Just consider the San Francisco 49ers, who selected Trey Lance with the third overall pick in 2021, only to start “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy in 2022 for a team that was hoping to win the Super Bowl.
It would be even less sense to take Harrison or Bowers because All-Pro pass-catchers are typically selected well down the selection board. George Kittle and Tyreek Hill were fifth-round picks. The sixth-round pick was Antonio Brown. No one selected Antonio Gates. And again, no receiving threat in the world could close the biggest gap in Washington.
In 2021, the Cincinnati Bengals were in a comparable situation and selected Ja’Marr Chase with the fifth overall choice. Even if Chase has become one of the league’s top wide receivers, one has to wonder if it was worth it if Joe Burrow, who has had two season-ending injuries in the last four years, has his career destroyed by subpar coverage.
In summary, quarterbacks and receivers greatly rely on others around them to perform well. For offensive linemen, who are the backbone of offenses, it is untrue. Two of the best offensive line prospects in this year’s draft are Joe Alt of Notre Dame and Olu Fashanu of Penn State. Washington should choose one of them without a second thought.
You address those issues the next time if Howell remains unimpressive in 2024 and the club is still without a weapon that can make a big impact. There will undoubtedly be a ton of highly regarded talents at those spots in the 2025 draft. For the time being, however, the Commanders have to concentrate on addressing the offensive line, which is the most critical issue. Although it’s not the most attractive stance, it has an impact.
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