My round one draft board for Washington

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April 13, 2026

by Steve Thomas

With the 2026 NFL draft fast approaching, it seemed like the right time to add my thoughts on Washington’s approach to round 1 to the chorus of others who’ve been having this discussion.  Considering that Washington has the seventh overall pick this year, with only 6 total picks, including just 2 in the top 100, the team has a pretty strong incentive to get their first round pick right.

My general thoughts about draft strategy is that teams should not simply pick the “best player available”.  It only makes sense to take team needs into account to some degree or another, and I my view, most teams do exactly that.  It appears as though only a handful truly adhere to an unbreakable “best player available” strategy at the top of the draft.  If I were in charge of a draft board, I would develop a system that takes both talent and team needs into account in order to arrive at one scoring system.

Don’t worry – I’m not going get into a huge amount of detail here, with a statistical formula.  Instead, first I’m going to take a look at what players are projected to be available at the top of round 1, then do a dive into team needs, by position group.  The end result will be my personal recommendation for a draft board for Washington.  I have no doubt they’ll take my views into consideration.  As I always say, I don’t have a specific outcome in mind before I start this exercise.  The results will be what they will be.

The available candidates

To start off with, I’m not going to do a deep dive into the statistical production for each of these players, because that would need several columns, not just one.  Instead, we’re going to examine who the mock drafts say are the realistic universe of players who could possibly be available to Washington at 7 and are worthy of consideration.  Here they are the following, in alphabetical order, according to a variety of different draft analysis websites:

  • David Bailey, edge rusher, Texas Tech
  • Reuben Bain, edge rusher, Miami
  • Masoor Delane, corner, LSU
  • Caleb Downs, safety, Ohio St.
  • Spencer Fano, offensive tackle, Utah
  • Monroe Freeling, offensive tackle, Georgia
  • Makai Lemon, wide receiver, USC
  • Jeremiyah Love, running back, Notre Dame
  • Francis Mauigoa, offensive tackle, Miami
  • Sonny Styles, linebacker, Ohio St.
  • Carnell Tate, wide receiver, Ohio St.

Obviously, all players will technically be available at 7, but those specific 11 are roughly the consensus list of players who are worthy of selection with that pick.  Note that I left Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Ohio St. linebacker Arvell Reese off this list – that’s because I think there’s an almost zero percent chance that either of them will still be available at 7.

The website www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com claims that the consensus rankings amongst the professional mock drafts for those players are as follows:

#1: Jeremiyah Love, running back, Notre Dame

#2: David Bailey, edge rusher, Texas Tech

#3: Francis Mauigoa, offensive tackle, Miami

#4: Sonny Styles, linebacker, Ohio St.

#5: Reuben Bain, edge rusher, Miami

#6: Carnell Tate, wide receiver, Ohio St.

#7: Caleb Downs, safety, Ohio St.

#8: Mansoor Delane, corner, LSU

#9: Spencer Fano, offensive tackle, Utah

#10: Monroe Freeling, offensive tackle, Georgia

#11: Makai Lemon, wide receiver, USC

For the sake of the discussion, let’s run with this list as the rankings of player talent; meaning, the higher the ranking, the better the player.  Consequently, this means that the team drafting the higher ranked players would have a better chance of getting a more impactful player, team needs aside.

Washington team needs

Next, let’s take a look at Washington’s needs left to address in the draft, by position group, starting with the offense.  At the end, I’ll rank order the remaining team needs.’

Quarterback

I think we can all agree that quarterback is not a need to address in round 1.  Washington has Jayden Daniels, and while Daniels has yet to conclusively prove that he’s a long-term franchise quarterback, Washington is rolling with him, at least for 2026.  Enough said.

Steve’s need ranking: 10

Running back

Washington currently has 4 running backs on the roster.  Of those four, only Jacory Croskey-Merritt is a Washington draft pick, a seventh round pick in 2025.  Of the remaining three, Jerome Ford, Jeremy McNichols, and Rachaad White, none of them are signed beyond the 2026 season.  Furthermore, White has the biggest cap hit at just $2M.  Croskey-Merritt certainly outperformed his draft status, and with an average of 4.6 yards per carry last year, showed promise.  Nevertheless, he was very inconsistent and hasn’t shown that he can be the team’s clear-cut franchise back.  McNichols is a backup, and neither Ford nor White have demonstrated so far in their respective careers that they are franchise-caliber backs either.  Therefore, the running back position group is a pretty big need.

Steve’s need ranking: 1

Wide receiver

Washington currently has 9 receivers on the roster.  This position group is essentially the team’s 30 year old franchise receiver, Terry McLaurin, and a bunch of other guys.  McLaurin has an $18M cap hit in 2026.  To be fair, Washington has put a good amount of recent draft assets in this position group: Luke McCaffrey was a third round pick in 2024, and Jaylin Lane was a fourth round pick in 2025.  None of the rest of these players is (a) signed beyond 2026, or (b) has a cap hit bigger than $1.99M.  As I wrote last week (click here to read), Dyami Brown could conceivably become useful to the team as a starter given his existing relationship with Daniels, but nevertheless, Washington has a pretty gaping need a this position group.

Steve’s need ranking: 2

Tight ends

Washington has 5 tight ends on the roster, including one of their featured, big ticket free agent signings this offseason, Chigozeim Okonkwo, who has a 3 year, $27M contract.  Okonkwo is supposed to fill the role of big-time receiver in this offense.  The two draft picks are John Bates, who is a 2021 fourth round pick and serves essentially as an inline blocker, and Ben Sinnott, a second round pick in 2024.  Sinnott has yet to live up to his draft status.  Nevertheless, the team has put significant free agent and draft resources into this position group, making it very low on the list of team needs.

Steve’s need ranking: 8

Offensive line

This position group is a very low need for Washington in terms of top of the draft selections, considering how many resources have been put into this area.  To start with, two players have cap hits of over $10M, with guard Samuel Cosmi at more than $20M and Laremy Tunsil at almost $12M.  The team used its 2025 first round pick on Josh Conerly Jr. and a third round pick on tackle turned guard Brandon Coleman.  They also have center Nick Allegretti signed through 2027.  The only remotely questionable position would be the left guard.  Currently, Chris Paul is probably the starter, with a cap hit of $3M, but he’s only signed through 2026.  The big picture point, though, is that Washington does not need to put top of the draft picks into this position group.

Steve’s need ranking: 9

Interior defensive line

Washington has two very expensive interior starters, Daron Payne and Javon Kinlaw.  Payne has a $27M cap hit but is only signed through 2026.  Kinlaw has a $16M cap hit and is signed through 2027.  Payne could conceivably be traded due to his cap hit, while would then leave a big hole to fill.  To date, of course, there hasn’t even been talk of such a trade.  Plus, the team did sign interior player Tim Settle on a 3 year, $24M deal.  As a result, this is not a big team need.

Steve’s need ranking: 7

Edge rushers

As everyone knows, Odafe Oweh was the team’s biggest offseason signing, with a 4 year, $96M contract.  Therefore, he’s definitively one of the starting edge rushers.  Washington signed both K’Lavon Chaisson and Charles Omenihu this offseason to one year deals worth $11M and $4M, respectively.  Chaisson is almost certainly going to be a starter opposite Oweh at edge rusher due to his contract, so the team doesn’t really need another starter this season.  There’s a ton of cap space in the defensive line in general, and in the edge rusher subgroup specifically.  Long term, though, none of these players except for Oweh are signed beyond 2026.  That makes the position group projection an issue beyond 2026.  However, at least for this year, I do not believe that this is a need sufficient to merit a high ranking for this year’s team draft needs.

Steve’s need ranking: 5

Linebackers

Washington has two linebackers signed to starter-level money, Frankie Luvu and Leo Chanel, and one promising player still in his rookie contract in Jordan Magee.  Luvu will be 30 years old this year and is only signed through 2026, so his role for the long-term future isn’t clear.  Chanel, though, was newly signed this offseason to a three-year, $24.75M deal, so he’s a starter for at least the next two seasons.  I could see a pick here in round 1 only if someone like Arvell Reese unexpectedly fell to Washington.

Steve’s need ranking: 4

Corners

Washington has a put a fairly large investment into this position group.  First, they drafted Mike Sainristil in round 2 in 2024 and Trey Amos in round 2 in 2025.  Then, Washington signed Amike Robertson to a 2-year, $15.02M contract that comes with a 2026 cap hit of more than $5M.  That’s starter money.  Admittedly, beyond that, the team has several street free agent type of players, but in terms of the top of the position group, they are well stocked.  Washington is likely to try to find out how many long-term starters they have between Amos, Robertson, and Sainristil.  The only question to me is whether one of those three players is well-suited to be in the slot.

Steve’s need ranking: 6

Safeties

Washington currently has a decent amount of money invested into safeties for 2026.  Nick Cross has a two-year, $13M contract with a $5.25M cap hit in 2026.  Will Harris, who is 31, and Jartavius Martin has cap hits of $4.76M and $4.3M, respectively, but are both only signed through 2026.  Jeremy Reaves is signed through 2027 and has a $3.4M cap hit in 2026; however, Reaves is really more of an elite special teams player.  So, while this isn’t a huge need for the team in 2026, the long-term projections at starter aren’t well settled.

Steve’s need ranking: 3

Specialists

No. Nobody (except the Raiders) is dumb enough to draft a kicker, long snapper, or punter at the top of the draft.  Plus, the team is fairly well settled at this position group.

Steve’s need ranking: 11

After going through all of that, here’s a summary of my rankings of Washington’s draft needs:

#1: running back

#2: wide receiver

#3: safety

#4: linebacker

#5: edge rusher

#6: corner

#7: interior defensive line

#8: tight ends

#9: offensive line

#10: quarterback

#11: specialists

My big board for Washington

The purpose of my “big board” is to establish who I’d draft with the seventh overall pick were I in charge in Washington, taking into account both player rankings and talent and team needs.

After going through my analysis of team needs, I’m removing the three offensive linemen from consideration no matter if they are available or not.  I’ve sorted the rest of these players in accordance with their rankings as compared to the needs of the team at each prospective position group.

Without further ado, here’s my list:

#1: Jeremiyah Love, running back, Notre Dame

#2: Sonny Styles, linebacker, Ohio St.

#3: Caleb Downs, safety, Ohio St.

#4: Carnell Tate, wide receiver, Ohio St.

#5: David Bailey, edge rusher, Texas Tech

With the assumption that Fernando Mendoza will go the Raiders with the first overall pick, and that Arvell Reese will almost certainly go in the top 4, possibly as the #2 pick, one of those five players are guaranteed to be available.  If Reese were to unexpectedly fall to #7, he should be the pick given his projection and Washington’s needs.  That’s extremely unlikely, though.

Washington could, of course, trade either up or down, but that’s a different column for a different day.

So there you go.  That’s my list.  What are your thoughts?  Let me know in the comment section below.