The Commanders missed a massive opportunity with the NFL trade deadline officially here, and it could backfire
The Commanders don’t make a single move at the NFL trade deadline.
The NFL trade deadline has finally arrived, and it’s crickets for the Washington Commanders, unfortunately.
Their season is over after falling to 3-6 with the brutal loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and everyone is thinking rebuild now, with the playoff hopes gone for the year. The one problem, however, is that the Commanders don’t have much draft capital, and they needed to get more at the trade deadline.
Well, that didn’t happen. The Commanders have six picks to work with, and that might come back to haunt them.
The Commanders stay put at the trade deadline
Everyone was waiting for the Commanders to trade a player away, with them being obvious sellers, but the trade deadline arrived, and nothing happened. The Commanders didn’t have a lot to trade away anyway, but they did have some options with Deebo Samuel, Von Miller, and Andrew Wylie.
But it also takes two to tango. Trades aren’t easy in the NFL because both sides have to agree on compensation, and the Commanders could’ve simply not had a trade partner willing to give up what they wanted.
Injuries are another concern for the Commanders, and they might have to hang onto some players that people named to be traded away, just because they’re running out of players at this point.
The Commanders have four healthy wide receivers on the active roster and three others on the practice squad who have barely played this season. The same can be said about the defensive line after losing Deatrich Wise and Dorance Armstrong for the season, and now Frankie Luvu has been suspended for one game as well.
What happens next for the Commanders?
General Manager Adam Peters once again faces a critical offseason ahead, but the season isn’t over, and he needs to conduct a thorough roster evaluation to decide who should stay and who should go after the season.
The Commanders have roughly $64 million in effective cap space for 2026 right now, according to Over The Cap, and it can go up with moves like moving on from Marshon Lattimore before the new league year. Regardless, the Commanders will be in a position to spend money in free agency as a top team with cap space and a lot of free agents.
The upcoming offseason will be the most important one for Peters since he took over, following a wake-up call this season.
The conservative approach last offseason clearly didn’t work after getting a taste of success in the playoffs, and now we can admit that this team wasn’t as close as we thought it was. Unfortunately, the Commanders don’t have a ton of draft capital to build the young foundation of the team with no additional moves made at the trade deadline, so Peters has to act wisely with every move he makes.
Washington Commanders News
One recent move means the Commanders have hit the final stage before drastic changes happen on defense
Dan Quinn is making one last possible change to stop the bleeding on defense.
