The Washington Commanders agreed to trade four draft picks to the Houston Texans for five-time Pro Bowler and Jayden Daniels’ bodyguard Laremy Tunsil on Monday.
The blockbuster trade garnered just as much attention as the Monday opening of the NFL’s legal negotiation window for free agents ahead of the official start of free agency at 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The deal saw Washington send 2025 third- and seventh-round picks and 2026 second- and fourth-round picks to Houston for Tunsil and a 2025 fourth-round pick. Above all else, it confirmed exactly what the football world expected after Daniels produced the best rookie quarterback season in NFL history: the Commanders are all in.
While fans in the nation’s capital have every right to be excited after decades of irrelevance, consider this a reminder that progress in professional sports is not always linear. Just because General Manager Adam Peters has his chips in the center of the table does not mean that he bought the flop card.
And if you want my opinion, the Commanders are playing a very dangerous game.
Commanders trade for Laremy Tunsil
Who is new Washington Commanders trade acquisition Laremy Tunsil?
He’s a 6-foot-5, 313-pound, 30-year-old left tackle from Ole Miss. He made five of six possible Pro Bowls with the Texans after a three-year start to his career in Miami and has a reputation as one of the best tackles in the National Football League.
Pro Football Focus graded Tunsil as the fourth-best tackle in pass protection last year and the best in 2023. He gave up 1.15 pressures per game last year and four total sacks, two in Week 1 and two in a Divisional Playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, in what was a “down” year.
Those numbers and that resume dwarf Brandon Coleman, Washington’s incumbent left tackle and third-round draft pick from last summer. Coleman gave up 10 sacks and 41 pressures and ranked 67th of 81 qualified tackles in pass protection, per PFF.
Tunsil’s arrival likely means Coleman will slide over to guard, where he played several years in college at TCU, if he retains a starting spot on the line.
It also means that Daniels, who was fourth in QBR and fifth in PFF’s quarterback rankings, will have more time in the pocket and be under far less duress than he was during his rookie year that saw him lead his team to the NFC Championship Game and garner MVP consideration.
The deal is already an overwhelming success from that perspective. But sports are like deep-sea fishing in that the undesirable elements are often hidden beneath a beautiful appearance. That’s where my critique begins.
Spend to gain
In trading for Marshon Lattimore, Deebo Samuel, and Tunsil, the Commanders have now parted with:
- One second-round pick
- Two third-round picks
- Two fourth-round picks
- One fifth-round pick
- One sixth-round pick
- One seventh-round pick
They recouped a fourth- and a fifth-round pick in those trades, meaning they essentially sacrificed:
- One second-round pick
- Two third-round picks
- One fourth-round pick
- One sixth-round pick
- One seventh-round pick
This is not an indictment on teams being aggressive in trading for players. Far from it.
What it is instead is a critique of the Commanders’ front office potentially believing they are closer to the finish line than they are.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that since the team was only one win away from playing for the Super Bowl trophy, they only need one or two key players to push them over the edge. In actuality, their roster has tons of holes and still needs a massive overhaul to become a consistent force in the NFC like it was last year.
Their 2-4 regular-season record against teams above .500 and 55-point allowance against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game should be proof of that, no matter if they won two playoff games or not.
Is Washington’s aggressiveness shortsightedness?
PFF’s rankings placed Washington fourth in passing offense and sixth in rushing offense (largely because of Daniels’ dual-threat abilities), 13th in receiving, 22nd in pass-blocking, 28th in run-blocking, 29th in rush defense, 15th in tackling, 15th in pass-rush, and 30th in coverage.
In trading away draft picks, the Commanders’ front office is limiting their ability to restock the cupboard with players for the present and the future.
The contract sizes of the players they traded for also limit their ability to spend all of the massive cap space they accrued, creating a two-for-one effect for the price of acquiring one player at a time.
The players they obtained are big in name but are all close to exiting or already exited their prime.
Samuel, 29, only had 670 receiving yards for three touchdowns and 136 rushing yards for one touchdown last year. Lattimore, soon to be 29, was often injured and struggled mightily when he was on the field, and Tunsil, who will be 31 when the season starts, led the league in penalties.
The Commanders also owe the Samuel-Tunsil-Lattimore trio $56.9 million next year.
For comparison, the Eagles will pay DeVonta Smith, Jordan Mailata, and Zack Baun $48.97m. That’s 16.1 percent more for older players performing at a lower level, all of whom required compensatory draft picks, while Philly’s guys were either homegrown or signed in free agency.
Laremy Tunsil Commanders trade is still a win
Despite my concerns over Washington’s ability to properly fill out the roster with appropriate depth pieces, the Tunsil trade cannot be classed as a standalone failure.
Drafttek.com assigned numeric values ranging from 1-3,000 points for every pick in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft. The values of Washington’s second-, third-, and seventh-round picks together equaled 488 points, roughly the same as the 40th pick in the draft.
Players selected with the 40th selection in recent drafts include:
- CB Cooper DeJean – Eagles
- DE Isaiah Foskey – Saints
- EDGE Boye Mafe – Seahawks
- S Richie Grant – Falcons
- DT Ross Blacklock – Texans
- CB Trayvon Mullen – Raiders
- WR Courtland Sutton – Broncos
- WR Curtis Samuel – Panthers
- WR Sterling Shepard – Giants
- WR Dorial Green-Beckham
Tunsil is clearly a better player than everyone on this list except for DeJean, who hasn’t played enough years to determine his standing. Tunsil wins the tiebreaker by virtue of his five Pro Bowl appearances and reputation around the league.
Daniels only needed one year to establish himself as one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL. Beefing up his protection was a necessity, and the attention now turns to adding playmakers around him.
The running back-rich 2025 NFL Draft class would be a nice place for Washington to investigate.
Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, Virginia Tech’s Bhayshul Tuten, Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson, UCF’s RJ Harvey, Kansas’ Devin Neal, Kansas State’s DJ Giddens, and Texas’ Jaydon Blue are all examples of players who should be available when Washington picks from rounds 2-4. There’s also a chance that Nort Carolina’s Omarion Hampton falls to pick #29, which belongs to the Commanders.
Washington also needs help outside the numbers and at several spots on defense. The free-agent wide receiver market has nearly run dry, which means they may also need to look at the draft for answers there.
Meanwhile, the strength of this draft is in the middle rounds. Look for Peters and coach Dan Quinn to find consistent contributors everywhere in picks 40-90.
Until the draft begins on April 24, the Commanders can continue to build around their Tunsil-Daniels pairing when free agency opens on Wednesday.
