2024 Road to the Draft – Part 1

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January 19, 2023

By Noonefromtampa

Welcome to the 2024 edition of Road to the Draft. In 2023, a new ownership group replaced Dan Snyder as the owner of the Washington franchise, and everyone had high hopes for the upcoming season. But the results ended up being far away from expectations, with the team finishing 4-13. Josh Harris, managing partner of the ownership group, fired head coach Ron Rivera and hired Adam Peters from the 49ers’ organization as the team’s new general manager. More changes are coming, including a probable restructuring of the front office and hiring of a new coaching staff.

One other result of the abysmal season is that the Commanders once again ended up with the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. After trading Montez Sweat and Chase Young, Washington ended up with five picks in the first 100 draft picks.

This weekly column will focus on the draft and the players mocked to Washington in various mock drafts published on the Internet.

If you want to have some fun making up your own mock drafts, check out these sites:

Upcoming Free Agents

One of the reasons that the Commanders have so much cap space is that over twenty 2023 roster members entering free agency. The partial list of free agents include: Cody Barton, Jacoby Brissett, Saahdiq Charles, Jamison Crowder, Kamren Curl, Kendall Fuller, Antonio Gibson, Khaleke Hudson, Tyler Larsen, David Mayo, Efe Obada, Byron Pringle, Jeremy Reaves, Joey Slye, James Smith-Williams, and Casey Toohill.

Needs

The big decision that the new staff will have is to determine whether Sam Howell is the quarterback for the future or if they need to draft a new one. The other major obvious needs are offensive linemen and the defensive edge rushers to replace players traded away.

Early Data

So far, 83 mock drafts have been published since December and last year we ended up tracking 384 different mocks. The Commanders will have the 2nd overall pick in the first round.  The position picked by descending frequency is:

Position Picked Count Picked %
QB 75 90.36%
OT 7 8.43%
Edge 1 1.20%
Grand Total 83 100.00%

The players mock picked to the Commanders at the 2nd pick are in descending frequency:

Player Position School Picked Count Picked %
Drake Maye QB North Carolina 46 55.42%
Caleb Williams QB USC 22 26.51%
Jayden Daniels QB LSU 7 8.43%
Olumuyiwa Fashanu OT Penn State 5 6.02%
Joe Alt OT Notre Dame 2 2.41%
Laiatu Latu Edge UCLA 1 1.20%
Grand Total 83 100.00%

The early trend of the mock draft season is that Washington is going to take a quarterback with its first pick in the draft. There are upwards of six quarterbacks who could possibly be taken in the first round of the draft:

  • Caleb Williams is 6’1” and 220 pounds, a junior from USC. A three-year starter who played in 37 games.
  • Drake Maye is 6’4” and 220 pounds, a redshirt sophomore from North Carolina. A two-year starter who played in 30 games.
  • Jayden Daniels is 6’2” and 185 pounds a senior at LSU. He is a four-year starter, two at LSU and two at Arizona State, who has played in 55 games.
  • Bo Nix is 6’2” and 213 pounds, a senior at Oregon. A fifth-year starter, three at Auburn and two at Oregon, who played in 61 games.
  • Michael Penix Jr. is 6’2” and 213 pounds, a senior at Washington. A two-year starter after transferring from Indiana who has played in 49 games.
  • J.J. McCarthy is 6’3” and 196 pounds, a junior at Michigan. A three-year starter who has played in 40 games.

Like last year, this column will be published weekly in the run up to the NFL Draft which will be held April 25-27 in Detroit, Michigan.

In the upcoming weeks, The Hog Sty will be posting reviews of available free agents and potential draft picks by position group.

Sources: nflmockdraftdatabase.com, nfldraftbuzz.com, overthecap.com, sports-reference.com