3 unheralded free agents for Commanders to consider
By Jonathan Eig
The two big, exciting NFL Network Special-worthy roster-building extravaganzas have now come and gone. We have lived through the first breathless week of free agency. We have survived the draft and subsequent 48-hour UDFA feeding frenzy. The Washington Commanders have added more than twenty new players, many of whom have a good chance of contributing in 2022.
But we are not done. We are never done.
Now that the dust has settled on the draft and teams know what they have and what they still need, we can expect more free agents to be signed. We saw one player who many Washington Commanders fan coveted sign on with New Orleans last week. Yes, Commanders, there will be no Honey Badger in your future. But vets like Trai Turner and Alex Erickson are still showing up.
More free agents will become available as cap casualties through the Summer. Two key Washington starters in 2021 – left tackle Charles Leno Jr and deep safety Bobby McCain – arrived via this route last offseason.
But right now, unless Washington were to make me happy by inking linebacker AJ Johnson, late of Denver, we are basically in garbage time for roster building. Teams are too busy checking out their new prized rookie additions to make other moves.
And yet, as I said, we are never done. A couple dozen young journeymen hit the market this past week. These are mostly players who entered the league as UDFAs a few years back, who have kicked around from practice squad to practice squad, maybe getting an occasional glimpse of the Show. They are in their mid-20s and their dreams of making it big in the NFL are fading. They may get one final chance.
Washington has had some success with players like this in the recent past. Ty Nsekhe fits this mold. He played in developmental leagues, in the Arena League, and in Canada in addition to kicking around plenty of NFL practice squads before locking down Washington’ swing tackle role back in 2017. The man who took his place, Cornelius Lucas, had a similar trajectory, albeit with more legit NFL experience.
So here are three players, all in their mid-20s, all recently-minted free agents who the Washington Commanders might consider. None figure to challenge for starting roles. But all three could compete for depth positions. Any one of them could be that guy you look back on at the end of the season and say “wow – I’m sure glad that picked up (fill-in-the-blank). He really helped out.”