Peters attended practice Wednesday and Thursday and led a front office contingent that included former general manager Martin Mayhew, who’s expected to remain with the team under a different title. (Peters and Mayhew worked together in San Francisco from 2017 to 2020.) Notably absent was Marty Hurney, executive vice president of football and player personnel, whose role with the club is unclear.
Others in attendance: senior director of player personnel Eric Stokes, director of college personnel Tim Gribble and the college scouting staff.
Several scouts and personnel executives with other teams praised Peters and predicted he and Quinn should be able to turn the franchise around.
The race is on to land an offensive coordinator. This will be Quinn’s biggest hire, and whomever he chooses will probably be tasked with developing a quarterback selected with the No. 2 pick. But it’s a competitive market. Eleven teams have already hired an OC this offseason, and four vacancies remain: Washington, Seattle, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Candidates could include San Francisco passing game specialist Klint Kubiak, San Francisco quarterbacks coach Brian Griese and UCLA Coach Chip Kelly.
Until the Commanders hire an OC, it’s impossible to know what type of offense they’ll run or which prospects would best fit the scheme.
Peters has a history of targeting players from the Senior Bowl. He was in San Francisco’s front office for seven drafts, and across the first two, the 49ers used just two of 19 picks on prospects from the Senior Bowl. In 2019, the 49ers’ staff coached at the Senior Bowl and used three of its eight choices on players who had been in Mobile, including a second rounder on receiver Deebo Samuel. In the next four drafts, San Francisco used 18 of its 31 picks — a whopping 58 percent — on Senior Bowl alums.
The reason for the uptick is unclear. Coaching the Senior Bowl could’ve helped the team value it more, or perhaps, as the franchise became a perennial Super Bowl contender, it prioritized older, more polished players who could contribute right away.
Quinn provides clarity on plans for the defense. Though he still needs to hire a defensive coordinator, and though it’s unclear whether he’ll call the plays, his well-established identity suggests the Commanders will run a scheme with four down linemen and heavy doses of cover-three.
Quinn, who helped create Seattle’s “Legion of Boom” defense, loves big defensive backs and puts them on the field often. Last season, he used nickel or dime subpackages 95 percent of the time, according to TruMedia.
In Mobile, Washington saw two big corners: Notre Dame’s Cam Hart (6-foot-3, 204 pounds) and Oregon’s Khyree Jackson (6-3, 204), who both have about 78-inch wingspans. Hart impressed and could be available on Day 3 of the draft.
Day 3 will be thinner than normal. The number of underclassmen declaring for the draft rose steadily between 2011, when the league implemented the rookie wage scale, and 2021, when it peaked at 130. But over the past three years, there’s been a precipitous fall because of extra eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic and legislation involving name, image and likeness (NIL). This year, only 54 underclassmen declared for the draft, the lowest number since 2011.
Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, said the all-star game’s board got “wiped out” in December as prospects decided to return to school.
“If I got Day 3 picks, I’m trading and moving around,” he said. “It’s not just our board. It’s talking to teams in the league. They got wiped out as well. So I think you’re going to see a lot of movement for teams, either trying to move up in the first four rounds or trying to move out and get them for next year.”
Defenders offered insight on Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels. In late April, Washington seems likely to use its top pick on a quarterback, probably North Carolina’s Maye or LSU’s Daniels.
The Washington Post spoke to a dozen defenders who had faced Maye and Daniels. Every defender said they’d game-planned to keep Daniels in the pocket and force him to win with his arm, and most said they were impressed by Maye’s awareness.
“His pocket presence is ridiculous,” Duke defensive tackle DeWayne Carter said of Maye. “Sometimes, I’m chasing him backside, and he feels me, and he starts to run. I think there’s even a picture, like, I’m fully laid out, and he got away [from me by] this much.”
Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix, who were both at the Senior Bowl, seem to be vying to be the fourth quarterback on draft boards and appear to be on the fringes of the first round. (USC quarterback Caleb Williams is widely projected to be the first quarterback taken.)
Two defensive linemen stood out in Mobile. Missouri edge rusher Darius Robinson (6-5, 286) looks the part, and Ohio State defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. (6-2, 280) doesn’t. But both impressed at the Senior Bowl, and on Thursday, the day Quinn was hired, their performances were reminders of how much the Commanders’ pass rush struggled in the second half of the season.
In Dallas, Quinn had a lot of success because his defense consistently generated pressure by just rushing four. Quinn might not be able to do that with the Commanders and needs to find help for a defensive line that, though it’s anchored by Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne, does not have an edge rusher who’s played longer than one season in the NFL under contract.
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