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The Sports Junkies break down the Washington Commanders' 2026 draft class!
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00:00On Friday, when we left the show, people were very excited about Sonny Stiles, who was the first-round pick
00:07for the Washington Commanders.
00:09I don't know if you saw the video of him being welcomed at Commanders Park.
00:15I did see that.
00:15Man, Adam Peters gives us a long hug.
00:17We always talk about Roger Goodell.
00:18Adam Peters will slap on a good one for your first-round pick.
00:22Well, he knows that his longevity here is tied to Sonny Stiles and a bunch of his other draft picks.
00:30He got here quick.
00:30He wants to hit on these guys because it makes the team better.
00:35It keeps Dan Quinn employed, keeps him employed.
00:37So, yeah, he's tied in with Sonny Stiles.
00:41He's got to hit, especially if he's a top-seven pick.
00:44So, when we left, we were speculating what the Commanders would do on day two and day three.
00:50They didn't have a ton of picks, didn't have a second-round pick, but they did have a third-round
00:55pick, which was number 71.
00:57And a lot of us predicted they would go wide receiver.
01:01They did.
01:01They draft Antonio Williams out of Clemson.
01:06Apparently, he's a separation stud.
01:09Yeah, and he's another guy.
01:11Now, he doesn't have, like, Sonny Stiles, RAS scores, but he scored relatively high in that metric, which seems to
01:17be a common thread amongst most of Adam Peters' high draft picks.
01:23Dealt with a few injuries in college.
01:25Nothing major.
01:26Yeah.
01:27A little undersized, but, look, if he can separate and he's got speed and he might play the Amon Ross
01:34-A-Brown type role in this offense under David Blau, who worked with ARSB in Detroit, then it seems like
01:42it's a quality pick.
01:44Look, they needed a receiver.
01:46Yeah.
01:46He's not the biggest guy, and like you said, he dealt with some injuries, but he's got good hands, obviously
01:53played in a really good offense, played a lot of games at Clemson, played four years there.
01:58So, we all thought it was a need, right?
02:01And they went out and got him, and it would have been nice if they would have had, hell, seven,
02:06eight, ten, eleven picks like some of these other teams.
02:08Yeah.
02:09I think it was Todd McShay that was kind of semi-raving about him.
02:13I think he said that he could see him being the type of guy that could have 70 or 80
02:17catches in this offense.
02:19Yes.
02:19As a rookie.
02:20Yeah, he did say that.
02:21And all that does is make me want to overbet, like, his rookie catch totals, which I've been vulnerable to
02:27do over the years.
02:28Yeah.
02:29But I like the pick.
02:31It seemed like a good value pick as well.
02:33When you look at Warren Sharp, was basically praising the commanders for not only getting players that they needed to
02:40fit their system, but good value with their picks as well.
02:43So, the projected wide receiver room is Tara McLaurin, Deami Brown, Trelon Burks, Luke McCaffrey, Jalen Lane, and now Antonio
02:55Williams.
02:56Yeah.
02:56And Van Jefferson, too.
02:58Yeah.
02:59Some people wondered.
03:00He'd probably be number seven.
03:02Apparently, he likes to operate out of the slot a lot.
03:05Like, what does that mean for McCaffrey?
03:07Now, McCaffrey's been a returner, so there could be somebody who's going to be an odd man out.
03:14Oh, 100%.
03:15It means McCaffrey better have a pretty good camp.
03:17He better flash in camp.
03:19Yeah.
03:20Because they're probably banking on Williams since he's a third-round pick and kind of fits what they want to
03:27do.
03:27They're probably banking on him being in the top three.
03:31I would think.
03:32I would assume.
03:32Yeah.
03:33When you draft a guy 71 overall, he's fitting into your plans pretty prominently.
03:39Yeah.
03:39But, I mean, I'm not sure how Commanders fans feel that they, you know, they didn't go out and get
03:44a big-name receiver in the offseason in free agency or trade.
03:48And there's still some guys available, so maybe they're not done.
03:52But just in terms of who they acquired, Deami, Van Jefferson, and now Antonio Williams, who they draft.
03:59So, I mean, how do you feel about the wide receiver room adding those three guys?
04:05I would say I feel pretty good about it.
04:08I don't feel great about it.
04:09Yeah.
04:10I mark myself as pretty good.
04:13Like you said, I mean, guys like McCaffrey and Burks, they've got to show up.
04:17Absolutely.
04:18They've got to get better.
04:20And I'm not sure what their roles are going to be.
04:23I'm not sure what they look like in the depth chart in their room.
04:27We can look at it on the depth chart and go, all right, so it's McLaurin, Burks, McCaffrey, and then
04:31you bring in Deami and Van Jefferson and draft Williams.
04:35But I would think Antonio Williams would be ahead, even before they've practiced one time, would be ahead of some
04:42of those guys.
04:43I would think.
04:43And I also wouldn't be shocked if they did some bargain shopping in the next month with whatever's left in
04:48the wide-out discount bin.
04:50Yeah, I agree.
04:51So, they get Antonio Williams.
04:53Here's our pal Brian Baldinger, who does great film breakdowns, talking about the commander's third-round pick, Antonio Williams, out
05:01of Clemson.
05:02When you study Clemson's Antonio Williams, you realize there's not a route he can't run.
05:07Here's a little arrow route, man.
05:10He drops his hips.
05:11He comes out fast.
05:12Like every kind of route.
05:13You'll see a lot of college receivers changing speeds.
05:16You watch him on this little flea flicker right here.
05:19And here he is.
05:20Change of speeds going down the field right here.
05:23That's one thing.
05:25All right, here it is.
05:26Here's the throw.
05:26But you watch this catch.
05:29Like he's a quick leaper at 37 inches.
05:32Five, 37 inch vertically at 5'11", 187 pounds.
05:36Runs a 4'4".
05:38You watch him with his deep over against Jalen Kilgore.
05:40Like a big cover safety right here.
05:42And his ability just to separate.
05:45Right there at the top of the route.
05:46That's what you see from him over and over again.
05:49A very talented receiver.
05:52I don't know.
05:53Like I'm not sure exactly how to stack these guys.
05:55But I know you got to mention Antonio Williams when you do.
05:58Yeah, one of the lines from Lance Zerline who works for NFL.com that I like was,
06:03he's more slippery than explosive with outstanding run after catch ability.
06:08So he's just going to find those little nooks and crannies that are available in the defense.
06:13And hopefully Jaden finds him.
06:16He uses the yak.
06:17And he seems like an explosive guy.
06:20I like the pick.
06:21Our colleague J.P. Finley asked this question.
06:24Is he that different than Jalen Lane?
06:28I think he's, I think he's a better just overall receiver than Lane.
06:33Yeah, I think, I think Lane, Lane, Lane just, he's more of a special teams guy.
06:37Like I've already, I've already pigeonholed him special teams guy, sometimes contributor on offense.
06:44Yeah.
06:44I mean, it's kind of what he is.
06:45Williams was just used a lot more in the passing game than, than Lane was.
06:49Right.
06:49A lot of that's because Virginia Tech's quarterbacks weren't even close to, to Cade Clubnick in terms of talent and
06:58throwing ability.
06:58But, you know, if you put Lane in Clemson's offense, all right, maybe he puts up similar numbers,
07:02but I would, I would give Williams the edge over, over Lane just as a receiver.
07:07But Williams did battle some injuries.
07:09I saw some people upset that they took Williams instead of some of the other receivers who were available at
07:15the time.
07:15I'm, I'm sorry, I just don't have that great depth of knowledge when you get down to the third round
07:21and the receivers that were available.
07:23Right.
07:23Like that's really the general manager's preference.
07:27They preferred him over some of the other guys who they could have drafted.
07:30Everybody becomes this super draft expert on day two and day three of the draft.
07:36I'm sorry.
07:36I can't go that deep.
07:37I'm going to assume that Adam Peters and his staff, they have watched thousands upon thousands of hours of all
07:43these prospects.
07:44And that the people on Twitter have not, they could, that's what I'm going to go with.
07:49When we were talking about receivers on a Friday morning, we, we talked about guys like Zach Branch from Georgia.
07:57We talked about Ted Hurst from Georgia state.
08:00Right.
08:01I'm sure there's a few others that we talked about.
08:04Skylar bell.
08:04We talked about who ended up going in the fourth round to Buffalo.
08:08Um, yeah, but I'm just going to, I'm going to trust their scouts of, of the ranking they had at
08:14that position.
08:14And they liked Williams better than all those guys.
08:17If you want to chime in, 1,800.
08:19He's going to be better than all of them.
08:20They liked them better.
08:211,800 6, 3, 6, 1 0 6, 7 is the number.
08:25The name that I saw, uh, pop up a lot on social media was branch.
08:30Oh, they should have taken branch.
08:31This guy's a shrimp.
08:32He's small.
08:34Well, if they want a guy who's going to be the number one slot receiver, it actually might mean they,
08:42depending on what they do, you're right.
08:44They might go to the, the free agency, um, bin, but if they don't, it might mean they really like
08:51trail on Burks and trail on Burks will be the number two receiver.
08:56A lot.
08:57Noah Brown two seasons ago.
08:59I guess that's their plan.
09:01And they did resign trail on Burks.
09:03So they must like something about him.
09:05I mean, there were some big guys that went after Williams that they could have taken.
09:10I mean, Jacoby Lane's a big receiver.
09:13Um, brazel from Tennessee is a big receiver.
09:16That's another name.
09:17Here's, here's the, here's an, uh, uh, uh, an example of a tweet.
09:20This is from somebody who goes by spinning back fist.
09:23Awful pick either go branch who is lightning in a bottle and can add a jet pancake or one of
09:31the big bodies lane or brazel would have been smart.
09:34They're both are jump ball demons with massive catch radius.
09:38They took jail and lane part two AP botching two drafts in a row.
09:43Oh, geez.
09:44So what is that?
09:45That's typical.
09:46I'm going to say if Antonio Williams has 65 catches and seven touchdowns as a rookie, I'm sure.
09:53I'm saying, man, probably not going to say much.
09:55He might not.
09:56If that's the way that works, he's going to go silent.
09:58But maybe you would want a bigger body because you're number one, Terry McLaurin is not the biggest guy.
10:04You know, I can see that argument, but, or you could, but the people that are saying that why draft
10:12a shrimp in Antonio Williams and they want Zach branch.
10:16Zach branch is smaller than Antonio Williams.
10:19Also, the people are acting like there aren't six foot tall or five 11 receivers that are effective.
10:25Like a Monterey St. Brown, like Tyree kill before his gruesome injury.
10:30Like, yeah, you don't have to be a six foot four physical specimen to be a great receiver in the
10:36NFL.
10:37It's been proven.
10:38You don't have to have that.
10:39I'll chime in on this.
10:41The NFL, as we know, is a copycat league.
10:44I'm not saying Williams won't be great.
10:45He might be.
10:47You saw what was happening on Friday night in the draft.
10:50These tight ends that have caught about a total of eight balls were drafted over and over and over again
10:56in the second and third round.
10:57The reason why teams like the Rams and the Seahawks are running this thing called 13 personnel, which is three
11:03tight ends.
11:04When you have three tight ends on the field, you're not having your slot receiver out there.
11:09They're out a lot.
11:10The Rams ran 350 plays last year of 13 personnel.
11:13They led the league.
11:14So you can see the shift again of where the league is going, where they're stacking the box, they're pounding
11:19the ball, and the slot receiver may not be as in vogue as it was five years ago.
11:25So I think that might be one of the reasons why people are saying, give me a bigger receiver who
11:29can block down the field, who can be out there if Traylon Burks isn't, you know, a long-term answer.
11:35Yeah.
11:36I could see that.
11:37And there were a ton of tight ends drafted.
11:39I mean, had to have been 20.
11:42So Malachi Fields.
11:43It was tight ends that weren't on anyone's board.
11:46They were like guys that were going to go in the sixth, seventh round.
11:49People were scratching their heads going like, what are the Jags doing?
11:52They just drafted a tight end with like who caught seven balls last year in the second round or whatever.
11:57Yeah, the guy out of Houston.
11:58So Malachi Fields, the wide receiver, was drafted a few picks later, and he went to the Giants.
12:06So, you know, some people have said, look, I saw a lot of people on social media loving the pick
12:10because you mentioned Todd McShay, and you look at some of these experts breaking down what Antonio Williams can bring
12:19to the table.
12:19And the words are separation.
12:22He knows how to find the spots in a zone.
12:25He seems to be what would be the perfect slot receiver.
12:29Here's a tweet from one of our listeners.
12:31You can always hit us up at Junk's Radio.
12:33My take is David Blau is going to lean into an offense similar to what we saw in Detroit.
12:37Look at their slot usage.
12:39Amon Ross St. Brown, 5'11", and Antonio Williams, 5'11", both work out of the slot.
12:44If he gets anywhere close, he stays healthy, solid A pick.
12:48So, we'll see.
12:49I just think it does mean that Luke McCaffrey, Jalen Lane, some of these guys are going to be battling
12:54for a spot.
12:56And maybe they do have to lean into their return game far more than they have to lean into their
13:03receiver game.
13:04And I don't think Williams is exclusively a guy that has to play in the slot.
13:08I mean, does he have the classic build of an outside receiver, like 6'2", 220?
13:14No, but he can do both, even though he probably specializes more in the slot.
13:19Yeah.
13:19I mean, it just depends on how they want to use him.
13:21Right.
13:22We have no idea.
13:23But they liked him.
13:24So, they took him, and they passed on the bigger guys.
13:27If they had more picks, okay, maybe they'd take a bigger receiver in the next round.
13:31But they didn't.
13:32For what it's worth, do you know who gave Antonio Williams a first-round grade?
13:38Don't tell me first-round mock.
13:40First-round mock.
13:42Oh, no.
13:42Our guy, Daniel Kelly.
13:43That could be trouble.
13:44He said, I like the pick.
13:45My pre-draft comp for Antonio Williams was Lavernius Coles had a first-round pre-draft value on Williams.
13:52Here's what Chad Reeder, I believe that's how you say his name, from NFL.com.
13:56He's been on this show at least once before.
13:58He said the commanders needed dynamic playmakers at receiver, and Williams can be just that,
14:04whether lined up outside or in the slot.
14:06The team got good value early in the third round for a top-50 prospect.
14:11So, he was expected to go before where he was selected at 71.
14:16Yeah, I wonder if, getting back to the Branch controversy of not taking him instead of taking Williams,
14:26I'm just wondering if they look at the actual person and his character.
14:31Of course they do.
14:32I'm sure that comes into consideration.
14:34No, but I'm saying with that particular player.
14:37Right.
14:37If they said, you know what, Branch might be a better player, but we don't like him off the field
14:41as much as we like Antonio Williams.
14:43I'm sure that it definitely goes into the equation and the selection.
14:47So, I think that fans that are criticizing not taking a certain player, well, there could be other reasons why
14:52they didn't take him.
14:53Right.
14:531-800-636-1067.
14:56So, they didn't have a fourth-round pick.
14:58In the fifth round, they took an edge rusher from Tennessee, Joshua Josephs.
15:04I'm kind of just ripping through these.
15:07They say he's got long arms, I believe.
15:11He definitely has long arms.
15:13I think 34 inches, maybe close to 35.
15:16So, he's not a Reuben Bain.
15:17He's not a Reuben Bain.
15:18Yeah.
15:20He ran the 40 and 4-7-3 for defensive end.
15:24They say that's pretty good.
15:25He finished his career with nine and a half sacks, 22 tackles for loss.
15:30By the way, the video that they showed of him and his family when he was selected, I'm going to
15:34guess that he didn't look super enthused because I guess he felt like he should have been picked before pick
15:40147.
15:41I mean, he just had a grim, sour look in his face when they showed him.
15:48Meanwhile, his family's going crazy jumping around.
15:50He's just looking.
15:51He's kind of looking back at the TV like this, not really showing any emotion.
15:56But I'm guessing he expected to go much higher than where he was picked.
15:59That probably had the majority to do with his demeanor.
16:03Sixth round, they had two picks.
16:04They took the running back from Penn State, Katron Allen.
16:08He's like a big banger type.
16:10He's got a great nickname.
16:11You know his nickname, right?
16:13It's Fat.
16:14Fat Man.
16:15Fat Man, yeah.
16:15Given to him by his mom.
16:18His mom called him Fat Man.
16:20He wants the fans to call him Fat Man, too, apparently.
16:23And then we speculated that they might draft the center at some point.
16:28They did.
16:28In the sixth round, they take the center from Michigan State, Matt Goldman.
16:32I saw some experts say he was the second-best center in the draft.
16:36To me, that's exactly when you take a center.
16:39Sixth round.
16:40And then kind of a surprise to me, if not all, they drafted a quarterback from Rutgers.
16:46Developmental young quarterback.
16:48Seems like a weird pick, but.
16:49He played a lot of college football, though.
16:51He played at Minnesota before transferring to Rutgers.
16:54Getting back to that center, Matt Goldman from Michigan State,
16:57he was the second-to-last center drafted.
17:01There was just one center after him in the seventh round.
17:04But, so, he was about the, I don't know, he's about the ninth or tenth center drafted overall.
17:12And some people thought he was the second-best center on the board.
17:16Yep.
17:16So.
17:16Maybe he'll compete with Nick Allegretti, or he'll just be a depth piece.
17:19I was a little surprised that they went edge in the fifth round.
17:24Because of what they added already.
17:28I think they did that because a lot of the guys they added are on one-year deals.
17:32Yeah.
17:32So, they just wanted.
17:33Oh, I'm sure there's a reason.
17:34Younger guys in the pipeline.
17:35I was just surprised.
17:36Like, Kalevon Chase onside to one-year deal.
17:38Yeah, I was just surprised they didn't go secondary there.
17:41Yeah.
17:41Or maybe go another receiver.
17:43But they decided to go edge.
17:45And I was just, that just surprised me.
17:46I didn't, I wasn't expecting that.
17:47Let's sneak in a call before the break.
17:491-800-636-1067.
17:52Our pal Mo in Largo is on line one.
17:55Mo, you're on with the Junkies.
17:56Good morning.
17:57Good morning, gentlemen.
17:58Thank you for taking my call.
17:59Yep.
18:01So, very, very happy with the draft.
18:04I'm going to start off with the wide receiver.
18:06So, the difference between Branch and Williams is if you look at Branch's routes,
18:11like, over 50% of his routes or his receptions took place behind the line of scrimmage.
18:17Versus Williams was getting downfield, creating separation, making catches, and producing.
18:22So, there's a big difference in the production that took place between the two players.
18:26But I guess, I guess my favorite, I can't even say who my favorite pick is.
18:30Because that edge that we picked up from Tennessee, he dropped because of off-field stuff.
18:34But if you actually watch his tape, his get-off is ridiculous.
18:38And you're talking about a continuous motor.
18:40I mean, his closing speed is extraordinary.
18:43I mean, this guy, he's going to be, it's going to be hard to keep him off the field.
18:48I like the running back for short yardage situations.
18:51I see he can work in some, maybe some early, early down situations, too, once he gets acclimated
18:56with the offense.
18:57But overall, I mean, they just, they hit everything that we needed to for the most part.
19:02And I see immediate impact from Antonio Williams.
19:06I mean, straight technician would come, when it comes to running routes.
19:09I mean, if you just watch his in and out slants, I mean, it's just very precise.
19:14You know, we're talking 90 degrees, not rounding him off and so forth.
19:18So, you know, I'm expecting big things from the young man.
19:21Yeah, they say his separation is excellent.
19:24You know, Cakes brought this up before.
19:25And I didn't fully understand the methodology, but Warren Sharp, who's one of the sharper guys
19:32in terms of analytics covering football, looked at all of the draft choices.
19:38And he went, he went by like value and where the average mock draft had them.
19:44And he came up with this metric.
19:48I think it's called draft capital over expected.
19:51Yep.
19:52The commanders were number one.
19:53That's right.
19:54Doesn't mean that they're going to hit, but at least on paper, based on expectations,
19:59these are great picks.
20:00I believe on the other end of the spectrum, they buried Jason's Niners.
20:04It's a John Lynch doesn't know what he's doing running that draft room.
20:08What was the, what was the rationale?
20:10I think just picking players that are way, they overdrafted for where they're being selected.
20:18Yeah.
20:19I think it was the wide out that they select.
20:21Is it stripling?
20:22Stripling Deshaun's from Ole Miss.
20:24Yeah.
20:24They did not love that pick.
20:26Felt like he could have been picked at least a round later.
20:28But you know, if you get your guy, it doesn't really matter where you pick him.
20:31Yep.
20:31Like if you love a certain guy and maybe you're overdrafting him compared to mock drafts and
20:36what the consensus is, but it's just got to hit.
20:40And I think with the commanders, clearly Sonny Stiles has got to hit.
20:45That's number one, most important.
20:47And you hope that Antonio Williams hits.
20:51It may be an admission that Luke McCaffrey is not your guy.
20:54You know, just a couple of seasons ago, they drafted Luke McCaffrey.
20:58It just third round shows you even a hundredth overall pick shows you.
21:02It's just an inexact science.
21:04I mean, we've known this for as long as we've been doing this radio show.
21:07It's kind of, it's the eye of the beholder because there are going to be certain people
21:10that look at the draft and go, great pick.
21:13He probably should have gone higher than, so they stole him.
21:16But then, you know, there are people like, just kind of reading draft grades from Pete Prisco
21:21and he gave the worst pick for Washington as Josh Josephs.
21:27Okay.
21:27The edge from Tennessee.
21:28Yep.
21:29Yep.
21:31So it's kind of just depends on who you're talking to.
21:341-800-636-1067 if you want to chime in.
21:38We'll talk more NFL draft with John Keim, ESPN Insider, at 7 o'clock.
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