{"id":838602,"date":"2026-03-28T07:23:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T07:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/838602\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T07:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T07:23:33","slug":"commanders-showing-interest-in-freakishly-athletic-defensive-tackle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/838602\/","title":{"rendered":"Commanders showing interest in freakishly athletic defensive tackle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could the Washington Commanders<\/a> use the 2026 NFL Draft to begin preparing for life after defensive tackle Daron Payne? Payne is entering the final year of his contract in 2026. The 2018 first-round pick is usually at his best when playing on an expiring contract.<\/p>\n

The Commanders<\/a> all but ruled out an extension for Payne this offseason, noting that left tackle Laremy Tunsil was the only extension that was a priority at the time. Since then, Tunsil has signed a record extension, while guard Nick Allegretti and safety Jeremy Reaves each signed one-year extensions.<\/p>\n

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Washington holds the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and could look to add a defensive tackle. While there is no tackle likely to be drafted inside the top 10, the Commanders could trade down and acquire more picks or address the position with a later pick.<\/p>\n

While Washington has been linked to numerous players throughout the pre-draft process, we haven’t heard them speaking with many interior defenders. However, according to Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic, the Commanders recently met with Louisville<\/a> defensive tackle Rene Konga. Specifically, Konga met with Washington’s defensive line coaches, Eric Henderson and Darryl Tapp.<\/p>\n

Who is Konga?<\/p>\n

Konga is a 6-foot-3, 299-pound Canadian who spent four seasons at Rutgers before transferring to Louisville in 2024. In two years for the Cardinals, Konga played in 23 games and finished his career as a second-team All-ACC selection. He played in 44 career games, recording 63 tackles, including 11 for loss and five sacks.<\/p>\n

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Konga is a rare athlete.<\/p>\n

Those are ridiculous numbers for his size. He has some interesting tape, too.<\/p>\n

Finally, we know how Washington general manager Adam Peters is a big fan of the Relative Athletic Score (RAS) metric. Several of the Commanders’ recently signed free agents all produced high RAS scores coming out of college. Here’s Konga’s score:<\/p>\n

If Konga were at the NFL combine last month, he would’ve tested at or near the top of every test.<\/p>\n

Washington isn’t the only team interested in Konga. The Cowboys are reportedly bringing him in for a top-30 visit. His performance at Louisville’s pro day this week only helped his stock.<\/p>\n

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The Commanders have Payne, Javon Kinlaw, Tim Settle, Jer’Zhan Newton and Ricky Barber under contract next season. They appear deep on paper, but Payne’s future, along with a new defensive scheme, could make Konga an interesting match for Washington.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders recently met with Louisville DT Rene Konga<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could the Washington Commanders use the 2026 NFL Draft to begin preparing for life after defensive tackle Daron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[4955,4094,427,5191,13146,13147,2793,7,11172,22372,594,994,6,15,8564,115461,11306,855,111,2480],"class_list":["post-838602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-aaron-donald","tag-commanders","tag-cox","tag-daron-payne","tag-darryl-tapp","tag-defensive-tackle","tag-football","tag-javon-kinlaw","tag-jeremy-reaves","tag-laremy-tunsil","tag-louisville","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nick-allegretti","tag-rene-konga","tag-tim-settle","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116305605836599032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}