Washington Commanders: Mistakes to avoid in the 2022 NFL Draft

Washington Commanders drafting two quarterbacks

This is something the Washington Commanders have done before. Famously, they took Kirk Cousins in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, the same year they took RGIII. That was weird. They had already traded away a lot of future picks, and only had one pick between the two quarterbacks in that draft – they took offensive guard Josh LeRibeus.

Another perfect example of Washington not utilizing the draft to add offensive weapons. In a draft where they lost a lot of future picks and took their franchise quarterback, they took just as many other QBs (1) as they did offensive weapons (1). That one weapon was running back Alfred Morris, which worked out really well – but it still proves the point.

You could be sitting there thinking that it makes no sense to tell them to avoid taking two QBs. I have one example in recent times, it’s not like it’s a pattern of bad behavior that they exhibit. There are a few reasons it felt necessary to bring this up though.

First of all, there is a pretty alarming amount of fans on Twitter making mock drafts that feature multiple quarterbacks. Even worse, they have them selecting those multiple quarterbacks in the first two rounds.

This hurts the team a lot. And it brings me to the other points. Washington has other needs, including offensive weapons. Taking two quarterbacks takes away one of those picks that could’ve been used to help your first QB. Or maybe some defense to take some of the pressure off your QB (Benjamin St-Juste was a really solid addition to the secondary in the third round of last year’s draft for example).

It also immediately plants that seed of doubt. You could try and say they are professionals and it doesn’t bother them. But if you got hired for a job and then a few hours later your boss informed you that they hired someone else for the same position in case you struggle, you’d be paranoid and feel like they don’t trust you.

This also is going to split the fanbase. And the Commanders fans don’t need help with that. Remember how fun Twitter was during the RGIII-Cousins days? You couldn’t say a single good or bad thing about one without 50 people screaming at you. It was mayhem.

Now you have fans actively hoping a QB fails. They’ll pretend they aren’t but they’re very quick to point out whenever the QB they don’t like does something that isn’t 100% perfect. And you might not think this hurts the team, but do you really think the players don’t see it? Do you really think it creates a good environment at the games? Are fans actively against a QB just because they like the backup better?

There are simply too many issues that come with taking two quarterbacks. You’re making the path to success for the first selection that much harder. He’s also going to never feel comfortable. And you’re going to have the fans against each other. We’ve seen that Washington Commanders show before and no one enjoyed it. It helps no one.