Look at Adam Peters. Is he sweating? The 44-year-old, who spent two decades climbing toward the position of general manager of the Washington Commanders, has so far hidden any nerves. But he’s about to sit down at his first game of high stakes poker that is the NFL draft, and he wants to be judicious with the big stack of chips that could flip the fortunes of this long-downtrodden franchise.
For Washington, this is not just a draft. It’s a vessel of hope after the ugly reign of Daniel Snyder, and Peters, trying to jump-start the new era, will run his own draft room for the first time under the keen watch of his bosses, who bought the team for a record $6.05 billion less than a year ago.
If Peters nails it, he’ll lay the foundation for restoring this historic franchise to its former glory, and — if you dare believe it — acquire a precious franchise quarterback who’ll finally stop the turnstile that’s spun here for more than two decades.
If he botches it, he could perpetuate the losing cycle that’s helped erode a once-proud fan base.
“Do we look stressed?” Peters joked last week, laughing and motioning to himself and assistant GM Lance Newmark. Then he grew sober. “I mean, there is a lot of pressure, and it’s [a] great responsibility, and we take this very seriously. That’s why we’ve been working tirelessly on this and turning over every stone. We want to do this, obviously, [not only] for this organization, but for this region, for this fan base and for the coaching staff and the players on the field. … With that comes pressure. But that’s what we signed up for.”
So, when the draft kicks off Thursday night, Peters must answer weighty questions: Which quarterback at No. 2? What’s the best way to use the eight other picks, five of which are in the top 100? What’s the right price to trade up or down? How to prioritize the team’s needs while measuring the talent available?
Bill Polian, a Hall of Fame GM and SiriusXM analyst, might find the preceding summary melodramatic. It is, after all, just one draft, and Polian believes the quarterback Washington settles on doesn’t have to be “the second coming of Peyton Manning.”
“He doesn’t have to be an all-pro even,” Polian added. “He has to be a guy who can help you win in the National Football League when surrounded by other players and a program. … That’s the charge. [Thinking he has to hit] a home run in this pick — that’s myopic. I don’t say that in a denigrating way. I recognize the role of the media. But the correct way to approach things is [to] build the best football team you can. Execute the plan the coaches and GM have decided on. And as [Hall of Fame coach] Bill Walsh used to say, the score will take care of itself.”
But Billy Devaney, a longtime NFL executive, knows the cost of striking out with the second pick. He was a top lieutenant for the San Diego Chargers in 1998, when they selected quarterback Ryan Leaf, and the GM of the St. Louis Rams in 2009, when they drafted left tackle Jason Smith, like Leaf a No. 2 overall pick.
Devaney, who believes in Peters, emphasized it’s “critical” to capitalize on the No. 2 pick and pick “a difference-maker,” a Pro Bowl-type player.
“If you miss on it, like we did, it’s devastating,” he said, adding, “Gosh almighty, it really sets you back. … [In St. Louis], it was a major blow to our rebuilding efforts.”
Rick Spielman, a longtime GM in Minnesota and now a CBS Sports HQ analyst, said that, though the top pick is key, it’ll be just as important to see how Peters handles Washington’s other top-100 picks. Is he aggressive, packaging assets to trade up, or conservative, moving back to amass even more picks?
In Washington, Spielman said, executives will have to develop the cohesion and trust that allowed the Vikings’ front office to work wordlessly. As Minnesota’s pick approached, Spielman wrote three names on the whiteboard and, when the team was on the clock, “there was no discussion.” In 2013, he was giving a news conference about the Vikings’ first-round picks when the director of public relations pulled him off the stage; his lieutenants had traded back up into the first round for wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson.
Spielman wondered about Washington’s logistics: “Who’s calling New York? Who’s doing this? Who’s fielding the trade calls? How are you going to operate? That takes time. You have to get through it the first time to figure out what you did good and what you did not so good. And then adjust it going into next year.”
In San Francisco, Peters’s experience with top-three picks ran the gamut. The front office whiffed by failing to pick a quarterback in 2017, using the No. 3 pick on defensive end Solomon Thomas, and in picking a quarterback who didn’t stick in 2021, when San Francisco drafted Trey Lance No. 3 overall. But it also found a potential Hall of Famer in edge rusher Nick Bosa, the No. 2 pick in 2019.
Rebuilding took time. San Francisco went 10-22 in the first two years under Coach Kyle Shanahan. But it became a perennial contender by winning on the margins, including with late picks such as quarterback Brock Purdy (seventh round, 2022).
Washington managing partner Josh Harris would probably like to start faster than San Francisco did. At the owners meeting last month, he called the No. 2 selection “obviously a very important pick” and noted the team’s treasure chest of draft capital.
“We have many picks in the top 100, and we’ve done it that way on purpose,” he said. “It’s important for us to have a very strong draft for sure.”
Many people are counting on Peters to get this right, starting with fans, ownership, players, and coaches. There are front office members who want jobs and business staffers who for once want to sell a winner. Even the league office would benefit from a stronger club in the nation’s capital.
In the end, no matter who else is in the room Thursday night, Peters will be the face of this draft. He’ll receive more than his fair share of the credit or the opprobrium. This is, after all, the challenge he wanted.
