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John KeimApr 13, 2026, 06:00 PM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored\/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on ‘The John Keim Report’, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n ASHBURN, Va. — The 2026 NFL draft<\/a> (8 p.m. ET on ESPN, ABC, ESPN App) will start on April 23 in Pittsburgh. The Washington Commanders<\/a> are scheduled to make six of the draft’s 257 picks<\/a>, beginning with the No. 7 selection of the first round on Thursday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the three-day event (Rounds 2-3 on April 24 and Rounds 4-7 on April 25), we will update this page with analysis on every pick.<\/p>\n A full list of Washington’s selections are below, in addition to positional needs.<\/p>\n NFL draft coverage: Round 1: No. 7 overall<\/p>\n Round 3: No. 71<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 147<\/p>\n Round 6: No. 187<\/p>\n Round 6: No. 209<\/p>\n Round 7: No. 223<\/p>\n Top three needs<\/a>: WR, CB, C<\/p>\n The Commanders simply need more good players, but some positions definitely need more help. They fortified their receiver depth but lack a strong No. 2 opposite Terry McLaurin<\/a> after Alec Pierce<\/a> and Romeo Doubs<\/a> opted for other situations. At cornerback, Washington has only three players under contract who would be considered roster locks, but two of them are around 5-foot-9.<\/p>\n The Commanders released center Tyler Biadasz<\/a> and failed to sign Tyler Linderbaum<\/a>. Nick Allegretti<\/a> will compete for the job if nothing else, but adding a center to develop later in the draft would be wise.<\/p>\n What’s the best-case scenario for the Commanders at No. 7?<\/p>\n A team that is willing to trade up, which would allow them to recoup a day-two draft pick. Washington enters the draft with six picks, but only two in the first three rounds — with a roster they need to replenish with more youth. It’s doubtful they’d want to move back more than a few spots — there are players the Commanders like who could help them that will be available in the top 12. But with only one QB expected to be drafted in the top 10, GM Adam Peters said at the combine that it will be difficult to entice any team to move up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John KeimApr 13, 2026, 06:00 PM CloseJohn Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,7,6,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-865487","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\/116397022951414939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865487","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=865487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Latest expert mock drafts<\/a>
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