How realistic will it be to improve the 2024 roster through the draft?

Over the past weekend, I participated in the annual SBNation full mock with “GMs” from the 31 other NFL franchises. Yes, it’s a fanciful exercise, subject to all the pitfalls of any other mock drafts, but I enjoy it because the other individuals tend to be well versed on their team needs and are highly reluctant to engage in trades that would undercut the capacity of their team to add talent in the current year.

I’m constantly impressed with the level of analysis many of the participants put into college player evaluation, which is at the upper edge of what one could reasonably expect from anyone not getting paid professionally to do such work.

This piece is intended to be a companion to Eboracum’s excellent article from yesterday, “How much did the NFC East improve in Free Agency?” where he evaluated the relative improvement of each NFC East team based on additions and subtractions in the first wave of free agency.

As Ebo showed, Adam Peters has done a very nice job of filling roster holes in free agency, allowing him to try to raise the ceiling of the roster in the draft.

This article adds hypothetical draftees, from a fairly aggressive draft – which included two trade ups – to explore what a reasonable roster might look like this coming season, with those additional rookies added to the mix. Here’s the outcome of that SBNation draft:

• R1, P2: Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
• R1, P23: Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
• R2, P40: Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
• R3, P78: Ben Sinnott, TE (Kansas State)
• R3, P88: Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
• R5, P139: Brandon Coleman, OT (TCU)
• R7, P222: Decamerion Richardson, CB (Mississippi State)

I don’t think there’s any controversy in asserting there will be a new QB1 in Washington DC this time next week. Whether that’s Daniels or Drake Maye, we might not know until Roger Goodell reads from the podium.

It’s only slightly less controversial to assert that Washington’s second pick will be an offensive tackle. Whether that pick will involve a trade up or standing pat at 36, I think it’s a very safe bet. I also think Washington is going to need to move back into the first round in order to assure grabbing a tackle who would reasonably be equipped to start in 2024.

Beyond that point, we’re pretty clearly in the “fog of draft” zone. Who Washington picks is likely to be highly dependent on who has fallen, and if they’ve traded draft picks. My scenario is just one of thousands, but I think it’s a reasonable one.

In this case, the team has added some weapons for the new QB, a developmental defensive player, and another tackle talent who has fallen because the depth of the position in the draft.

For good measure, a couple of special teamers were added as undrafted free agents to compete with Tress Way and Brandon McManus in camp.

The draftees and UDFAs slot into the current depth chart along the following lines:

As you see above, even in this scenario where the team ends up with two first round picks, only three potential immediate starters are added to the roster. Depth is added in several other locations, and that might bear some fruit in 2025 and beyond, but expecting much from those players this coming season would represent the triumph of hope over experience.

That said, Washington’s 2024 draft capital far outstrips that of its NFC East peers, which should bode well for additional, incremental improvement this season against its archrivals.

All that said, there will be a subsequent wave of free agency to add some more talent, and hope remains that some salary cap-constrained teams may have to offload talent that Washington could eventually grab, with tons of space available.

With special thanks to Bill-in-Bangkok for providing access to his depth chart graphic and for the article idea.