It was an eventful Day 3 for the Washington Commanders. This is where general manager Adam Peters had the most picks, and the front-office leader didn't have to go chasing for all that much. There were some surprises, but the roster looks much better.
The Commanders struck gold in the seventh round last year. Peters took running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt with the No. 245 overall selection. Little was expected of the rookie, especially considering he missed almost the entire 2025 season due to eligibility issues. But after taking the team by storm over the summer, he went on to gain more than 800 rushing yards.
These seventh-round gems are hard to find. Peters will be able to get lucky once again, but he'll also hope that Athan Kaliakmanis, Washington's final pick at No. 223, won't play much at all.
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As is the case with almost every seventh-rounder, Kaliakmanis is a shot in the dark. The Rutgers quarterback flashed during his college career, but expecting him to walk right into the building and immediately establish himself just isn't going to happen. This is a development project in every sense of the term, and the Commanders should take a patient approach with his progress in the coming months.
Best case scenario? Kaliakmanis becomes a viable backup option or even a potential trade chip a little later in his career. He is not going to unseat Jayden Daniels. In fact, he'll probably be battling it out with former undrafted free agent Sam Hartman for the No. 3 job initially.
The Commanders either saw something in Kaliakmanis that others didn't, or Peters felt there was no more juice left to squeeze out of this class. Either way, it's a strange one, especially considering Washington only had six picks to spend on improving the roster.
It's worth remembering that Daniels suffered countless injury problems last season. Marcus Mariota is still the backup, but Peters didn't want to be scrambling around for alternatives if one of them gets hurt again.
Kaliakmanis will be brought along behind the scenes and will be an emergency option on game days if he makes the team. And the Commanders decided to spend their final pick on the signal-caller rather than taking their chances in undrafted free agency.
Peters was part of the San Francisco 49ers' front office when they took Brock Purdy with the final draft pick. Whether he can rekindle that magic is highly debatable.
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