5 decisions from last the 25 years that set Commanders franchise back

5. Drafting Montez Sweat – conceptually speaking

I like Montez Sweat. He is a good player. This criticism really has nothing to do with him. It has to do with the decision to trade up into the first round to get any player – any player who is not a potential franchise quarterback, that is. It should never be done.

I don’t want to nitpick specific draft picks. That’s a black hole. Every team has many, many examples of taking the wrong player at the wrong time. Everyone who passed on Tom Brady – in other words, everyone – made the wrong pick. But we can go a little deeper on the overall decision to trade up into the first round.

In 2019, Washington had already selected quarterback Dwayne Haskins in the middle of the first round. Late in the round, they traded up with Indianapolis to get Sweat. They gave up their second-round picks in 2019 and 2020.

The Colts would trade the 2019 pick and move back again, allowing Cleveland to select cornerback Greedy Williams with Washington’s original pick. Williams has been an average NFL corner, who has been slowed by injuries. If it was just a Sweat/Williams comparison, obviously Washington wins.

But would Washington have taken a cornerback in the second round? With their next pick, in the third round, Washington chose Terry McLaurin. Not bad at all. However, if they held onto their own pick, the following wide receivers would have been available in Round 2: AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, Diontae Johnson.

If Washington took their receiver in Round 2, they may have decided to double up and take McLaurin anyway. Or, they may have looked at running back, because that’s the position they went for in round 4, when they took Bryce Love. The running backs that were drafted between McLaurin and Love were Damien Harris and Alexander Mattison.

So now, we are looking at swapping out Sweat and McLaurin for perhaps AJ Brown and Damien Harris. Still looks like a pretty good deal for Washington. But it wasn’t finished. There was still the 2020 second-rounder.

The pick that Washington gave up in the second round of 2020 ended up being Michael Pittman. If you throw him into the trade, it shifts against Washington. But maybe with AJ Brown on board, Washington wouldn’t have gone with a wide receiver. The picks after Pittman – all of whom would have been available to Washington had they not traded up – include running backs D’Andre Swift, Jonathan Taylor, J.K. Dobbins and A.J. Dillon. Or perhaps they would have addressed the depleted secondary with someone like Xavier McKinney, Antoine Winfield Jr. or Travon Diggs. Maybe they would have taken a chance on the quarterback Jalen Hurts. All went shortly after Washington’s original second-round pick in 2020, and any of them would have swung the trade against Washington.

You’d be correct in pointing out that there is no guarantee that the Commanders would have taken one of these players. There were duds selected around those picks as well. So even though there was such a rich vein of players available, you never know.

That’s the whole point. You never know. That’s why teams that win consistently over the years – the Pats and Steelers and Ravens – rarely trade up. They trade down. Like good actuaries, they realize this is all basically a numbers game. You have to increase your odds by accumulating more picks.

Then, when you see your chance to grab a quarterback, ideally you are trading up from a position of strength, with a surplus of draft picks in your pocket.

I won’t go on – I know this is kinda in the weeds. But if you want to look at the other times in the past 30 years when Washington traded multiple picks to move into the first round, you can see for yourself. The players they ended up with were Andre Johnson (1996) and Jason Campbell (2005). They missed out on far more value than they received.

BONUS: Touchdown, Washington (Commanders)

I know some of you will still rant over the name change. TBH, at this point, I’m done with that conversation. If you want a symbolic move that still pisses me off, I’m going with this one, though, like the name change, I don’t think this has anything to do with poor on-field performance.

In February, 2004, Washington fired longtime play-by-play icon Frank Herzog and replaced him with corporate shill Larry Michael. It was a terrible look. Most fans hated it. Frank had narrated the franchise’s glory days. Larry Michael was a smooth-talking cheerleader. To make matters worse, he was unceremoniously canned when troubling reports of abusive workplace culture began leaking out around 2019. The team has concealed most of the presumably sordid details of what went on, but a lot of people assume, based on the timing of his abrupt departure, that Michael was involved in some of it.

Another stain on a once-proud franchise. Just one of many in recent years.