2025 Road to the Draft – Part 12

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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:

  1. Cam Ward, QB, Miami FL
  2. Travis Hunter, CB, Colorado
  3. Abdul Carter, EDGE, Penn State
  4. Will Campbell, OT, LSU
  5. Mason Graham, DL, Michigan
  6. Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State
  7. Armand Membou, OT, Missouri
  8. Jalon Walker, EDGE, Georgia
  9. Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss
  10. Tyler Warren, TE, Penn State
  11. Kelvin Banks Jr., OL, Texas
  12. Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona
  13. Will Johnson, CB, Michigan
  14. Colston Loveland, TE, Michigan
  15. Mike Green, EDGE, Marshall
  16. Mykel Williams, EDGE, Georgia
  17. Derrick Harmon, DL, Oregon
  18. Grey Zabel, OL, North Dakota State
  19. Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama
  20. Omarion Hampton, RB, North Carolina
  21. Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
  22. Kenneth Grant, DL, Michigan
  23. Matthew Golden, WR, Texas
  24. Nick Emmanwori, S, South Carolina
  25. Tyler Booker, OL, Alabama
  26. Jahdae Barron, CB, Texas
  27. Shemar Stewart, EDGE, Texas A&M
  28. Donovan Ezeiruaku, EDGE, Boston College
  29. Nic Scourton, Edge, Texas A&M
  30. Malaki Starks, S, Georgia
  31. Josh Simmons, OT, Ohio State
  32. 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

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