Commanders GM Adam Peters has spent months surveying the 2026 draft class (Courtesy of All Pro Reels)
When it comes to gauging which direction the Washington Commanders will go with their first selection in the upcoming NFL Draft, the past is prologue.
Start here: this front office, under general manager Adam Peters, prioritizes elite athletes. All players are physical specimens regardless of position, but a smaller tier qualifies as outliers — the “freak shows” — and this group runs toward them.
Being a “great” athlete does not automatically equate to on-field success. That’s a separate evaluation. The goal here is narrower: use athletic thresholds to help identify realistic candidates for the No. 7 pick.
The Playbook:
Washington prioritizes elite athletic traits under Adam Peters — not just “good,” but top-tier RAS profiles
Both Commanders’ draft classes under Peters ranked No. 1 in combined Relative Athletic Score
Applying that lens trims the realistic options at No. 7 as several popular names in mock drafts fall short of Washington’s typical athletic thresholds
Relative Athletic Score, or RAS, is a metric created by Kent Lee Platte — known as @mathbomb on X — that grades NFL prospects based on their athletic testing at the annual Scouting Combine or their school’s Pro Day. The evaluation of size, speed, explosiveness and agility is quantified on a 0–10 scale and then compared to positional peers dating back to 1987.
The results under Peters are not subtle. This year’s free-agent signings only strengthened this notion, with the goal of adding “athleticism everywhere.” Peters said at this week’s league meetings.
If that trend holds, Washington’s board at No. 7 isn’t nearly as wide as it looks.