The Washington Commanders are currently participating in the second round of organized team activities. While Terry McLaurin remains absent amid his contract holdout, fans collectively rejoiced when it was reported pass rushers Chase Young and Montez Sweat reported after they missed the first week.
All in all, OTAs are more about shaking off the rust and allowing newcomers time to get acclimated and comfortable with their new teammates. The only physical contact — if you can even call it that — occurs at the line of scrimmage. Other than that, there’s no tackling (or pads) and very little intensity.
Despite that, however, OTAs do provide an early glimpse of how the roster is coming together. How will the rookies look against experienced NFL vets? Can any bubble players stake their claim for a spot on the 53-man roster? How’s the depth chart shaking out? These are just some of the questions that will get answered.
Given the Commanders’ 90-man offseason roster is largely final, roster battles can officially commence. With that in mind, let’s highlight some must-see dogfights fans should monitor over the course of the next few months.
4 position battles Commanders fans should watch
4. Wide Receiver
The Commanders’ top five wide receiver spots are seemingly locked and loaded. In order, the rotation should compose of Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, rookie Jahan Dotson, Cam Sims and second-year pro Dyami Brown.
Assuming the club keeps six wideouts on the 53-man, you’re looking at 2021 seventh-rounder Dax Milne, free-agent pickup Alex Erickson, old friend Kelvin Harmon, UDFAs Jequez Ezzard and Kyric McGowan and Marken Michel, a former Eagle whom Washington signed to a reserve/future contract after the 2021 regular season ended, as your main battle participants.
The expectation is most of that group will be practice squad stashes, as the Commanders will likely prioritize a return specialist for the final spot. With that in mind, Erickson, who has 268 career returns and led the NFL in kick return yards in 2016, is our current pick to make the team.
Ezzard is no stranger to returning kicks, so he could be an emergency option if one of Erickson or Milne got injured. Additionally, Dotson returned punts at Penn State and even shagged some during the opening week of practice at OTAs.
3. Defensive Line
No need to beat around the bush here.
If the season started today, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Phidarian Mathis and Efe Obada would be locks log significant snaps. Behind them, James Smith-Williams’ spot should be secure given the spark he personified when Young and Sweat were out of the lineup last season.
It’s expected Smith-Williams and Obada will kick inside on passing downs to help fill the void following the losses of Tim Settle and Matt Ioannidis.
If our math is correct, that leaves four remaining spots up for grabs between Casey Toohill (who’s likely to make the cut), Shaka Toney, who flashed down the stretch of 2021, Daniel Wise, David Bada, William Bradley-King, Bunmi Rotimi, Jacub Panasiuk and Tyler Clark.
Toohill, Toney and Wise are definitely the favorites amongst that group, but stranger things have happened in the build-up to roster cuts. After all, Young and Sweat both reported to OTAs Monday and Young is still recovering from ACL surgery. In other words, there will be plenty of first-team reps to go around.
2. Offensive Line
Barring any unforeseen changes, the Commanders will carry nine offensive linemen on the 53-man roster. There are seven shoo-ins, including Charles Leno, Sam Cosmi, Andrew Norwell, Trai Turner and Chase Roullier — the expected starters — as well as Wes Schweitzer, Cornelius Lucas and Saahdiq Charles.
Washington could always free up an extra spot, but the early projections suggest there could only be one roster spot up for grabs. The competitors include Tyler Larsen, Keith Ismael, rookie Chris Paul, promising UDFA pickup Tyrese Robinson, Beau Benzschawel, Deion Calhoun, Jon Toth and Nolan Laufenberg.
The experienced players have the inside track, but The Athletic’s Ben Standig understands Paul could make the final roster out of preseason. Schweitzer’s ability to play any of the interior position makes Tyler Larsen expendable after he started three games last year filling in for Roullier before he suffered a torn Achilles.
In Standig’s early roster projection, he has Paul making the team over Larsen, whose release would save Washington $895,000 against the cap while incurring a more-than-manageable $152,000 dead cap charge.
Get your popcorn ready, folks.
1. Tight End
The tight end position is last on this list in terms of importance, but it definitely presents the most intriguing roster battle. Logan Thomas is the starter and will log most of the snaps on passing downs when he’s back in the lineup and John Bates is the veteran’s backup by default after his promising rookie year.
The Commanders are expected to keep four TEs on the roster and 2022 fifth-round pick Cole Turner is the current favorite for the third spot on the roster due to his wide catch radius and mismatch potential in the red zone. The Nevada product is already turning heads at OTAs, so his spot seems secure.
After that, though, it gets interesting as five players (Sammis Reyes, Antonio Gandy-Golden, who was recently converted from wide receiver, Curtis Hodges, Armani Rogers and Dylan Cantrell) will slug it out for the final spot.
Reyes made the roster last year with limited football experience, the thought of Gandy-Golden’s big frame playing tight end is fun, Curtis Hodges was a Pac-12 standout last year and is a towering 6-foot-8 and Rogers can be likened to Thomas as a former college QB with freakish athletic traits.
There will be room on the practice squad for some of these players, but it’ll be interesting (to say the least) to see who wins this expected five-man melee. We personally cannot wait to see how the TE depth chart unfolds.