Commanders 81-player 2026 post-draft depth chart/roster

Getting younger and faster

Speed

The theme of this offseason has been “younger and faster”, especially on defense. Anyone who has been following free agency and the draft will know that — outside of, perhaps, the final 2 or 3 draft picks — Adam Peters has definitely been adding speed.

Youth

In free agency, we saw a distinct difference between 2025, when the bulk of free agents signed were 30 y.o. or older, and this season, when 12 of the 14 free agents signed from other teams were between 26 and 29 years of age.

In the draft, Washington’s 6 draft picks had an average age of about 22.5 years of age compared to the league-wide average of 22.67, ranking as the 12th-youngest draft class overall. The two defensive picks — Sonny Styles & Joshua Josephs — have an average age of less than 22 y.o.

Among Washington’s draft picks, only center Matt Gulbin (24) and RB Fatman Allen (23) are on the ‘older’ side, and both are offensive players. Sonny Styles is the youngest of the draft picks at just 21 years of age. The other 3 players — Antonio Williams, Joshua Josephs and Athan Kaliakmanis — are all 22.

The defense, with 11 new players among the likely 53-man Week 1 roster, is definitely getting younger and faster than it was in 2025.

The updated offseason roster/depth chart

In the chart, the 14 players signed from other teams as veteran free agents (9 on defense; 5 on offense) are highlighted in pink, including former Washington players Tim Settle and Dyami Brown. The 6 newly drafted players are highlighted in yellow.

The numbers that appear beside some players’ names are 2025 cap hits per Over the Cap. I have not included cap hits below $1.5m. Newly drafted players do not have cap hits listed.

The Commanders currently have 40 defensive players, 38 offensive players and 3 special teams players.

Please note that assigned positions are my own personal opinions; they do not necessarily represent the thinking of Washington’s coaches or front office, nor are they necessarily consistent with fan consensus, or the thoughts of other writers on Hogs Haven. Finally, when it comes to backup players, I don’t put much effort into making sure that they are on the right or left or behind the specific player that they backup. I mostly just try to fit everyone on the chart efficiently.

It’s also probably worth noting that my goal is primarily to illustrate the full offseason roster, not to create a conventional depth chart. I have, for example, 12 positions on offense and 13 on defense. Readers can imagine 11 or 12 personnel (or whatever else) on offense, as well as multiple defensive alignments.

Notes:

Wide Receiver

No doubt the most common objection in the comments section will be my decision to list drafted rookie Antonio Williams — almost universally regarded as a slot receiver — as the starting wideout opposite Terry McLaurin. This is a considered decision made for a few reasons, but the weightiest of them is that GM Adam Peters’ comments about Williams in his Friday night press conference focused almost exclusively on Williams’ 2024 season and his abilities playing outside, mentioning his ability to play the slot as ‘flexibility’. At the moment, the Commanders have other options at slot receiver, but lack a clear starter opposite McLaurin. Based on the general manager’s comments, I think he believes he has drafted a player who can fill that role — at least unless/until the team acquires a player better suited to the role.

Here’s much of what Adam Peters had to say about Antonio Williams on Friday:

So, this guy’s a tough kid and you go back and watch his 2024 film, you really get to see what             a special talent he is. I’d describe him as just a great athlete. Great athlete, really fast and he’s fast in a lot of different ways. He’s fast at the 40 time. The GPS is really, really high on him. End game. And then the old scout’s eye, you see him, he plays fast and he plays at a high level.         He’s an NFL route runner. He can win versus press. He can beat man coverage and so we really like the versatility of him as well. He can play inside. He played a lot inside this year. He played outside last year and that’s really the thing that differentiated him from a lot of guys is winning outside and winning against really good players outside, especially in 2024. So, NFL route runner there’s just a lot of really, really good things about him an d just an all around great package. So thrilled to have him, thrilled to add him to the wide receiver room and just a happy, good couple days here.

I think, if he could, he can play Z and F or you know, Z and slot. And so, he’ll work at both of those.          There are things that he can show you can play outside: He’s      not huge, but he is not small. He     ’s just a hair under six feet and he’s a really tough player and he’s got really good releases. He plays really fast. So those things allow him to win on the outside versus bigger corners. So even though he is not a 6-4 guy, he can still win on the outside and his speed and his releases and his route running and his details allow him to do that. And the same thing with inside is he can win with his quickness as well.”

I think the [game] that really sold it for me was playing Georgia in 2024, and just seeing him play outside and just seeing him win like you would see NFL guys win on Sundays.”

He is a good blocker as well. He’s a willing blocker; he is a tough blocker and he is willing to sell out over the middle. You know, there’s a lot of plays where he is exposed but will go up and get it, and he’s not worried about getting hit — and that impressed me a lot too. actually. I saw that — I wasn’t expecting that — and then seeing that on the tape it was really a pleasant surprise.” He’s not huge, but he is not small either. Where they’re not the 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 guys, they can play and they can run and they can do the other things that maybe allow you to play outside.”

Defensive alignments

As mentioned in the notes under the chart, 13 defensive positions are shown, with 3 DTs, 2 DE/EDGE, 3 LBs, 3 CBs and 2 safeties. Obviously, only 11 players will take the field at one time, but this should allow readers to mix & match players to imagine anything from nickel coverage to 3- or 4-man fronts, to a 5-man ’bear’ front.

I don’t think we’ll have a clear picture of the actual defensive scheme(s) employed by new defensive coordinator, Daronte Jones, until we see the players on the field in preseason — and we may not see the real defensive scheme until the regular season.

We won’t have to wait for training camp for the process to begin, however. The offseason conditioning program for veterans began on April 20th and rookie minicamp will take place in early May, with 3 OTA sessions between May 27th and June 11th. The offseason programs will wrap up with minicamp June 16-18. The players will enjoy a 5-week break before training camp kicks off in late-July.