2025 Road to the Draft – Part 12
April 22, 2025
By Noonefromtampa
The NFL annual draft is upon us once again. For the second straight year, Washington has the same competent people in the front office and on the coaching staff. The franchise is coming off a 12-5 season and a spot in the NFC Championship game. So much positive change has occurred over the last couple of years, including negotiations on a deal to return the team to a stadium on the old RFK stadium site.
If you have been following this column for the past 11 weeks, you have seen the diversity in the positions and players been mocked to Washington at the 29th pick. While it is fun to banter about what will be done with the pick or who gets drafted, the reality is that whatever Adam Peters does, the chances are the team will get better because of it.
With the quarterback position settled by drafting Jayden Daniels last year, the team will likely accelerate the “win now” mentality while Daniels is still on his cap-friendly rookie deal. This may make the team more inclined to wheel and deal during the draft to add missing pieces to make a stronger run at the Super Bowl appearance they just missed out on.
Draft Data
There are now 326 mock drafts published since December, up 27 from last week, with 54% of the picks being made or updated in the last two weeks. In the 2025 NFL Draft, the Commanders will have the 29th overall pick in the first round. The position picked for Washington, by descending frequency, is:
| Position | Picked Count | Picked % | Last Week % | % Change |
| Edge | 127 | 38.96% | 33.11% | 5.85% |
| WR | 55 | 16.87% | 19.06% | -2.19% |
| CB | 28 | 8.59% | 8.70% | -0.11% |
| RB | 25 | 7.67% | 8.03% | -0.36% |
| OT | 24 | 7.36% | 8.03% | -0.66% |
| S | 21 | 6.44% | 6.69% | -0.25% |
| DL | 20 | 6.13% | 6.69% | -0.55% |
| N/A | 9 | 2.76% | 2.68% | 0.09% |
| LB | 8 | 2.45% | 2.34% | 0.11% |
| IOL | 6 | 1.84% | 3.34% | -1.50% |
| TE | 2 | 0.61% | 1.00% | -0.39% |
| QB | 1 | 0.31% | 0.33% | -0.03% |
| Grand Total | 326 | 100% |
The N/A comes from Washington trading out of the first round for more draft picks.
The big gainer this week was edge rusher, which went up 5.85%, while most of the other groups went down or only had slight increases. The biggest losers this week were wide receiver and interior offensive line.
The players mock picked to the Commanders at the 29th pick, in descending frequency, are:
| Player | Position | School | Picked Count | Picked % |
| Donovan Ezeiruaku | Edge | Boston College | 33 | 10.12% |
| James Pearce Jr. | Edge | Tennessee | 27 | 8.28% |
| Omarion Hampton | RB | North Carolina | 17 | 5.21% |
| Mike Green | Edge | Marshall | 17 | 5.21% |
| Emeka Egbuka | WR | Ohio State | 16 | 4.91% |
| Shemar Stewart | Edge | Texas A&M | 15 | 4.60% |
| Matthew Golden | WR | Texas | 12 | 3.68% |
| Nick Emmanwori | S | South Carolina | 12 | 3.68% |
| Mykel Williams | Edge | Georgia | 10 | 3.07% |
| Nic Scourton | Edge | Texas A&M | 10 | 3.07% |
| Josh Simmons | OT | Ohio State | 9 | 2.76% |
| Maxwell Hairston | CB | Kentucky | 9 | 2.76% |
| No Pick | N/A | N/A | 9 | 2.76% |
| Luther Burden | WR | Missouri | 8 | 2.45% |
| Walter Nolen | DL | Mississippi | 8 | 2.45% |
| Malaki Starks | S | Georgia | 8 | 2.45% |
| Josh Conerly Jr. | OT | Oregon | 8 | 2.45% |
| Jihaad Campbell | LB | Alabama | 7 | 2.15% |
| Derrick Harmon | DL | Oregon | 7 | 2.15% |
| TreVeyon Henderson | RB | Ohio State | 6 | 1.84% |
| Tre Harris | WR | Mississippi | 6 | 1.84% |
| Azareye’h Thomas | CB | Florida State | 5 | 1.53% |
| Tetairoa McMillan | WR | Arizona | 5 | 1.53% |
| Trey Amos | CB | Mississippi | 4 | 1.23% |
| Kenneth Grant | DL | Michigan | 3 | 0.92% |
| Jahdae Barron | CB | Texas | 3 | 0.92% |
| Aireontae Ersery | OT | Minnesota | 3 | 0.92% |
| Isaiah Bond | WR | Texas | 3 | 0.92% |
| Grey Zabel | IOL | North Dakota State | 3 | 0.92% |
| Landon Jackson | Edge | Arkansas | 3 | 0.92% |
| Shavon Revel Jr. | CB | East Carolina | 3 | 0.92% |
| J.T. Tuimoloau | Edge | Ohio State | 3 | 0.92% |
| Benjamin Morrison | CB | Notre Dame | 3 | 0.92% |
| Tyler Booker | IOL | Alabama | 2 | 0.61% |
| Jack Sawyer | Edge | Ohio State | 2 | 0.61% |
| Princely Umanmielen | Edge | Mississippi | 2 | 0.61% |
| Jalon Walker | Edge | Georgia | 2 | 0.61% |
| Kelvin Banks | OT | Texas | 2 | 0.61% |
| Elic Ayomanor | WR | Stanford | 2 | 0.61% |
| Oluwafemi Oladejo | Edge | UCLA | 2 | 0.61% |
| Cameron Williams | OT | Texas | 2 | 0.61% |
| Colston Loveland | TE | Michigan | 2 | 0.61% |
| Darius Alexander | DL | Toledo | 1 | 0.31% |
| Ashton Gillotte | Edge | Louisville | 1 | 0.31% |
| Jalen Milroe | QB | Alabama | 1 | 0.31% |
| Jayden Higgins | WR | Iowa State | 1 | 0.31% |
| Tyleik Williams | DL | Ohio State | 1 | 0.31% |
| Barrett Carter | LB | Clemson | 1 | 0.31% |
| Xavier Watts | S | Notre Dame | 1 | 0.31% |
| Jack Bech | WR | TCU | 1 | 0.31% |
| Quinshon Judkins | RB | Ohio State | 1 | 0.31% |
| Jonah Savaiinaea | IOL | Arizona | 1 | 0.31% |
| Tory Horton | WR | Colorado State | 1 | 0.31% |
| Will Johnson | CB | Michigan | 1 | 0.31% |
| Ashton Jeanty | RB | Boise State | 1 | 0.31% |
| Grand Total | 326 | 100.00% |
The total count of players mocked to the Commanders remains at 55. Donovan Ezeiruaku has taken a significant lead over the other edge rushers James Pearce and Mike Green. Emeka Egbuka and Omarion Hampton round out the top 5 most selected players.
Thoughts
Because of the good work Peters did in free agency, there no position group that screams “Draft Me”, so I still think that Washington is likely to trade down for additional picks in the draft. If they stay at 29, the players I think make the most sense for the Commanders are Nic Scourton and Landon Jackson on the edge, and Nick Emmanwori at safety. Scourton and Jackson are high on my list for their ability to play the run as well as rush the passer. Emmanwori can play multiple roles on a defense, from being in coverage at as single or double high safety to an in-the-box run stopper. He has the versatility that defensive coordinators love to scheme around.
The outside possibility in the draft is running back with Omarion Hampton or TreVeyon Henderson as the leading candidates. This would give Daniels another weapon on offensive and address the running game which declined during the latter part of the 2024 season.
Two players I think Washington stays away from because of various red flags are James Pearce and Mike Green. Peters likes to draft people with great character and those two players fall short on that mark.
Overall, the mocks had 7 trade downs and 5 trades up for Washington with edge rusher being the most targeted player in the trade up scenario. The Browns and 49ers were the two teams most linked to a trade with Washington.
The draft starts at 8:00 P.M. on Thursday, with team allocated 10 minutes to make their pick. We should know what Washington is doing somewhere around 11:30 give or take 30 minutes.
Noone’s First Round Mock
If Noone were the general manager of every team, who would I select? Here is my guess of how the draft goes down:
- Cam Ward, QB, Miami FL
- Travis Hunter, CB, Colorado
- Abdul Carter, EDGE, Penn State
- Will Campbell, OT, LSU
- Mason Graham, DL, Michigan
- Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State
- Armand Membou, OT, Missouri
- Jalon Walker, EDGE, Georgia
- Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss
- Tyler Warren, TE, Penn State
- Kelvin Banks Jr., OL, Texas
- Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona
- Will Johnson, CB, Michigan
- Colston Loveland, TE, Michigan
- Mike Green, EDGE, Marshall
- Mykel Williams, EDGE, Georgia
- Derrick Harmon, DL, Oregon
- Grey Zabel, OL, North Dakota State
- Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama
- Omarion Hampton, RB, North Carolina
- Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
- Kenneth Grant, DL, Michigan
- Matthew Golden, WR, Texas
- Nick Emmanwori, S, South Carolina
- Tyler Booker, OL, Alabama
- Jahdae Barron, CB, Texas
- Shemar Stewart, EDGE, Texas A&M
- Donovan Ezeiruaku, EDGE, Boston College
- Nic Scourton, Edge, Texas A&M
- Malaki Starks, S, Georgia
- Josh Simmons, OT, Ohio State
- Walter Nolen, DL, Ole Miss
Thursday night will tell how close I came to the real result. Odds are I got about 10 picks exactly right, because there will be a few trades in round one. Overall, I probably have about 25 of the players selected in round one on my list.
Lastly, thanks to all the readers of the column these past months and maybe next year we won’t get to start until later in February.
Sources: nflmockdraftdatabase.com, nfldraftbuzz.com, overthecap.com, sports-reference.com