We are officially under a week away from the start of free agency's legal tampering period, which means the offseason is really about to kick into high gear.

We also have a clearer picture when it comes to what will happen in the NFL Draft now that the Combine has wrapped, but free agency's developments will play a large role and even dictate, to a degree, what happens in April. 

That's especially true for the Washington Commanders, who have 28 unrestricted free agents to make decisions on. Many of them are key guys like Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, Dante Fowler Jr., etc. who can still provide quality snaps and showed last year that they are great fits in Washington.

What happens with those guys and the others will go a long way in determining what the Commanders do come draft time. However, there's one topic that can be discussed in depth despite the lack of free agency developments and that's the fact that the Commanders are a bit "undermanned", so to speak, when it comes to their current list draft picks.

As it stands, Adam Peters has six picks to work with in 2025 and that includes zero picks in the fourth and fifth rounds. On top of that, the picks in Rounds 1 and 2 are Nos. 29 and 61, meaning they are both bottom-4 picks in each round. Only Round 3, where the Commanders pick 79th, is a non-back-end pick. Those three selections are also their only three options in the first 206 projected picks, as well.

It's obviously a far cry from the six picks they had in the top-100 of the 2024 NFL Draft, including four in the first two rounds. Peters is in a great spot to change that, however.

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It's completely feasible for the Commanders to trade back with the Jaguars and Raiders in Rounds 1 and 2

The Commanders are in a great spot to trade out of the first round and into the early second. The key with not going too far into the second is the idea of being in a spot where Aireontae Ersery is still on the board. He makes a ton of sense after his Combine workouts and would fit Kliff Kingsbury's scheme.

Ersery still needs to work on his pass protection and his blocking in zone-schemed runs, but no rookie is perfect and he would immediately come in and challenge Andrew Wylie for the starting right tackle position. If he wins out, that means he showed enough throughout camp and the offseason to warrant the job and if he loses, the Commanders still have a decent player at the position in Wylie and now Ersery has time to work on his skills and should be in a spot where he can take over in 2026.

The Commanders wouldn't want to trade past the 37th spot at most, though, as Ersery's expected draft position hangs around 38th as of February 24. Meaning, it's probably going to go up after his strong Combine performance:

What could Washington get trading back from 29 to 36?

The Jags are the perfect trade partner, here. The good news is the Browns, Raiders, and Titans (if they trade out of No. 1) are legit targets as well, but Jacksonville represents the best chance for max value in a potential trade, as they have the 36th overall pick, on top of two third-rounders, two-fourth rounders, and then a fifth- and two sixth-rounders.

I went back over the past five drafts to find trades similar to a potential move where Washington drops back from 29 to 36. There are three instances close to those points that give us a good idea of what the Commanders could land in a hypothetical trade such as this.

• 2022 Bucs-Jags: The Bucs traded back from No. 27 to No. 33 and received the 33rd overall pick, Round 4 No. 106, and Round 6 No. 180.
• 2022 Titans-Jets: The Titans moved back from 26 to 35 and received No. 35 overall, Round 3 No. 69, and Round 5 No. 163. The Jets received No. 26 overall and Round 3 No. 101.
• 2019 Seahawks-Giants: The Seahawks moved back from 30 to 37 and received No. 37, Round 4 No. 132, and Round 5 No. 142.

The Bucs-Jags/Giants-Seahawks trades are clear and there's just one detail to explain from the Titans-Jets: The Titans moved out of the first round, but flipped sides in the third round, going all the way from the 37th pick (101) to the fifth pick (69).

Following the Titans-Jets trade, there's certainly a world where the Commanders and Jags could swap the 29th and 36th picks and the Commanders get the Jags' Round 3 No. 88 pick by also trading away their 2026th fourth-rounder. Per the Jimmy Johnson draft chart, that would be an even trade when projecting the fourth-rounder as a mid-round pick, which is what the process usually entails. In this scenario, the Commanders would have pick Nos. 79 and 88 in Round 3.

When taking the Bucs-Jags trade into account, the Commanders could simply take the Jags' projected Round 4 No. 106 and Round 6 No. 196 picks. That would get them back in the fourth round of the draft.

There's one more scenario that doesn't involve Jacksonville, but is fun to think about and it's the idea of trading back from 29 to 37. That would be the Raiders' second round pick and a potential package for that would be Las Vegas' Round 3 No. 68 and Round 4 No. 107 pick for the Commanders' Round 3 No. 79 pick. So, the Commanders would move up 11 spots in the third round and get back into the fourth round.

And obviously, Ersery isn't the only option at 36 or 37, but he's currently a guy that makes a lot of sense to me when it comes to the personnel reasoning behind a move like this.

The Raiders are a prime target to trade out of the second round and get more picks

The Jags make a lot of sense as a dance partner in Round 1 and then there are the Raiders in the back end of Round 2. As a reminder, the Commanders currently have the 61st and 79th picks in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively, and none in the fourth or fifth rounds. The Raiders are projected to have pick Nos. 68 and 73 in Round 3, No. 107 in Round 4, No. 144 in Round 5, Nos. 182, 218, and 214 in Round 6, and No. 224 in Round 7.

There's one past trade that gets pretty close to the above context and it's the Patriots-Ravens trade from 2020.

• 2020 Ravens-Pats: Baltimore trades back from No. 60 to No. 71 and they receive No. 71 and Round 3 No. 98. Patriots receive No. 60 and Round 4 No. 129.

The Commanders could trade back from 61 to 73 and also nab the Raiders' projected Round 4 No. 107 pick. They'd have to send their projected Round 6 No. 207 pick, but that's certainly a price worth paying.

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Final results

So, if we were to follow the blueprint of obtaining Jacksonville's 36th and 88th pick, along with the Raiders' 73rd and 107th picks, then the Commanders' list of draft picks would look like the following:

• Round 2, No. 36 overall
• Round 3, No. 73 overall
• Round 3, No. 79 overall
• Round 3, No. 88 overall
• Round 4, No. 107 overall (projected)
• Round 7, Nos. 230 and 258 overall (projected)

That's a pretty solid haul, considering the Commanders had just three selections in the first 206 projected picks before this exercise. Jumping it from that number to five picks in the first 107 selections is quite the upgrade and that's a good spot to be in when considering there's good value in the middle rounds of this draft.

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