{"id":856514,"date":"2026-04-06T07:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T07:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/856514\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T07:12:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T07:12:51","slug":"the-commanders-chase-elite-athletes-its-the-clearest-clue-to-pick-no-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/856514\/","title":{"rendered":"The Commanders chase elite athletes. It\u2019s the clearest clue to pick No. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!Dnor!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e3e5304-0fc0-4aae-af91-f2c624885c63_1024x683.jpeg\" data-component-name=\"Image2ToDOM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/1e3e5304-0fc0-4aae-af91-f2c624885c63_1024.jpeg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/1e3e5304-0fc0-4aae-af91-f2c624885c63_1024x683.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:683,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:118246,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/lastmanstandig.substack.com\/i\/193032162?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e3e5304-0fc0-4aae-af91-f2c624885c63_1024x683.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}\" alt=\"\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"sizing-normal\"\/><\/a>Commanders GM Adam Peters has spent months surveying the 2026 draft class (Courtesy of All Pro Reels)<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u2014 the \u201cfreak shows\u201d \u2014 and this group runs toward them. <\/p>\n<p>Being a \u201cgreat\u201d athlete does not automatically equate to on-field success. That\u2019s a separate evaluation. The goal here is narrower: use athletic thresholds to help identify realistic candidates for the No. 7 pick.<\/p>\n<p>The Playbook:<\/p>\n<p>Washington prioritizes elite athletic traits under Adam Peters \u2014 not just \u201cgood,\u201d but top-tier RAS profiles<\/p>\n<p>Both Commanders\u2019 draft classes under Peters ranked No. 1 in combined Relative Athletic Score<\/p>\n<p>Applying that lens trims the realistic options at No. 7 as several popular names in mock drafts fall short of Washington\u2019s typical athletic thresholds<\/p>\n<p>Relative Athletic Score, or <a href=\"https:\/\/ras.football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RAS<\/a>, is a metric created by Kent Lee Platte \u2014 known as <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MathBomb\" rel=\"nofollow\">@mathbomb<\/a> on X \u2014 that grades NFL prospects based on their athletic testing at the annual Scouting Combine or their school\u2019s Pro Day. The evaluation of size, speed, explosiveness and agility is quantified on a 0\u201310 scale and then compared to positional peers dating back to 1987.<\/p>\n<p>The results under Peters are not subtle. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastmanstandig.substack.com\/p\/commanders-get-younger-faster-and?r=5rru9i\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This year\u2019s free-agent signings<\/a> only strengthened this notion, with the goal of adding \u201cathleticism everywhere.\u201d Peters said at this week\u2019s league meetings.<\/p>\n<p>If that trend holds, Washington\u2019s board at No. 7 isn\u2019t nearly as wide as it looks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commanders GM Adam Peters has spent months surveying the 2026 draft class (Courtesy of All Pro Reels) When&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,7,6,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-856514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-commanders","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-commanders","13":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116356527992815872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856514","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=856514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}