5 wide receivers the Commanders could select in the 2023 NFL Draft

Commanders could draft Jalen Moreno-Cropper

My top Day 3 quarterback prospect was Fresno State’s, Jake Haener. Well, the guy he threw a lot of balls to over the last two seasons was Jalen Moreno-Cropper.

If you’re looking for a late-round player who fits the mold of the Washington Commanders’ top three receivers, he’s your guy.

Moreno-Cooper is not quite as explosive as Washington’s top three. You simply don’t find the likes of Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, and Jahan Dotson further down the pecking order. But he’s pretty close.

He is both fast and quick. Moreno-Cooper is strong enough to evade press coverage and runs excellent routes. He simply makes more plays than a lot of bigger receivers.

The prospect also has the athletic versatility to run plays out of the backfield. He is very good at shovel passes and jet sweeps. McLaurin and Dotson are locked up for the next couple of years, but Samuel is a likely free agent in 2024, so Moreno-Cropper could slide right into that role.

The Commanders did have pre-draft meetings with several higher-profile wideouts such as Zay Flowers and A.T. Perry. But the chances of acquiring either remain unlikely.

Flowers will be long gone by Day 3. Perry probably will be as well, though he is harder to predict.

Since I think it’s a lock that the Commanders will wait until later on to even consider receivers, I doubt either of them will be in their plans. But there is still some value to be found in the later rounds.

Washington did not draft a receiver last year, and it has been a decade since they went consecutive years without drafting at least one. I think it’s better than 50/50 that they pick up another wideout in the later rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft.