2026 Road to the Draft – Part 1

January 14, 2026

By Noonefromtampa

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Road to the Draft.  In this weekly series, I will focus on the draft and the players mocked to Washington in various mock drafts published on the internet. It will be published weekly in the run up to the draft on April 23^rd in Pittsburgh.

The team went from the NFC Championship game last season to the seventh pick in the 2026 draft. Those aren’t the results that anyone from the owners of the team down to the fans expected for the 2025-26 season.

The coaching staff is undergoing major changes and the roster will need a huge overhaul during the offseason.

Under Contract

The team has 35 players under contract and another 14 on reserve/future contract status [italicized on the list below]. The breakdown by position group is:

CB

Marshon Lattimore

Trey Amos

Mike Sainristil

Car’lin Vigers

Darius Rush

Tre Hawkins III

DL

Daron Payne

Dorance Armstrong

Javon Kinlaw

Javontae Jean-Baptiste

Jer’Zhan Newton

D.J. Johnson

Ricky Barber

T.J. Maguranyanga

LB

Ale Kaho

Frankie Luvu

Jordan Magee

Kain Medrano

Nick Bellore

OL

Brandon Coleman

Josh Conerly Jr.

Laremy Tunsil

Julian Good-Jones

Nick Allegretti

Samuel Cosmi

Tyler Biadasz

Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu

Timothy McKay

Tyler Cooper

QB

Jayden Daniels

Sam Hartman

RB

Jacory Croskey-Merritt

S

Will Harris

Jeremy Reaves

Percy Butler

Quan Martin

Tyler Owens

Robert McDaniel

ST

Tyler Ott

TE

Ben Sinnott

Colson Yankoff

John Bates

Lawrence Cager

WR

Terry McLaurin

Jaylin Lane

Luke McCaffrey

Jacoby Jones

Ja’Corey Brooks

Nick Nash

Additionally, the team controls the rights to RB Chris Rodriguez (RFA) and K Jake Moody (ERFA).

I expect Washington to release Lattimore ($18.5M cap hit in 2026) and Payne ($16.8M cap hit in 2026), which would clear another $35M in cap space to go with the $67M they already have.

Free Agency

With only 35 players under contract, Washington will be a serious player in free agency. The team’s needs include players in every position group. Priorities will include edge rusher, cornerback, safety, running back and wide receiver. I’ll have another post looking into possible free agent acquisitions that Washington may pursue.

Draft

Having traded their 2^nd round and 4^th round picks for Laremy Tunsil the Commanders are left with these picks in the 2026 draft:

• Round 1, pick 7
• Round 3, pick 71
• Round 5, pick 145
• Round 6, pick 187
• Round 6, pick 198
• Round 7, pick 223

If you want to have some fun making up your own mock drafts, check out these sites:

• Fan Speak
• NFL Draft Buzz
• NFL Mock Draft Database
• Pro Football Network
• PFF NFL Mock Draft

Early Mock Data

So far, 72 mock drafts have been published since December and last year we ended up tracking 326 different mocks. The Commanders will have the 7^th overall pick in the first round.  The position picked by descending frequency is:

Position	Picked Count	Picked %
Edge	34	47.22%
S	18	25.00%
LB	7	9.72%
WR	6	8.33%
RB	3	4.17%
DL	2	2.78%
CB	2	2.78%
Grand Total	72	100.00%

The players mocked to the Commanders in descending frequency:

Player	Position	School	Picked Count	Picked %
Caleb Downs	S	Ohio State	18	25.00%
Rueben Bain	Edge	Miami	17	23.61%
David Bailey	Edge	Texas Tech	13	18.06%
Arvell Reese	LB	Ohio State	7	9.72%
Keldric Faulk	Edge	Auburn	4	5.56%
Jordyn Tyson	WR	Arizona State	3	4.17%
Carnell Tate	WR	Ohio State	3	4.17%
Jeremiyah Love	RB	Notre Dame	3	4.17%
Peter Woods	DL	Clemson	2	2.78%
Jermod McCoy	CB	Tennessee	1	1.39%
Mansoor Delane	CB	LSU	1	1.39%
Grand Total			72	100.00%

 

Sources: nflmockdraftdatabase.com, nfldraftbuzz.com, overthecap.com, spotrac.com, sports-reference.com