Commanders pre-Draft depth chart and salary cap update: Washington currently has 75 players and 6 draft picks

Roster changes since the last roster update

Three players have been signed to the roster since the last depth chart update:

• OT Foster Sarell
• CB Ahkello Witherspoon
• DT DJ Davidson

The International Player Pathway program:
The Commanders have a defensive player, TJ Maguranyanga, acquired last year under the International Player Pathway program and retained on a contract extension for the ’26 season.

After training camp, IPP athletes will be eligible to fill a 17th practice squad roster spot across any of the 32 teams — an additional spot reserved for an international player — following the rule change beginning with the 2024 season applicable to athletes outside of the United States and Canada.

While the IPP player is eligible to make the regular roster (as David Bada did in 2023 & 2024 with Washington and Detroit), if he is on the practice squad, he is the 17th player on the squad (normally only 16 players). During the offseason, teams with IPP players have an exemption that allows each to carry 91 players, with the IPP being the 91st guy. Washington, then, will be able to bring 91 players to OTAs, mini-camp and training camp.

6 Draft picks

Per tankathon, the Commanders enter the draft with 6 picks:

If Washington ends up drafting exactly 6 players this week, then, after adding the team’s 6 drafted rookies, the Commanders will have 81 players at the end of the 7th round. The full training camp roster, as mentioned, comprises 91 players.

UDFAs

As it stands now, the front office would be able to sign 10 undrafted college free agents, which is a pretty typical number for an NFL training camp. Like everything roster & cap related this time of year, this estimate is tentative and somewhat fluid — easily affected by changing circumstances (like draft trades) — but we’re starting to have a good idea of the composition of the training camp roster. That vision will come into sharp focus in the first week of May.

Players first reported to the team facility in Ashburn, Virginia, on April 20, kicking off a nine-week period for the new roster to prepare for the 2026 regular season. Here are the dates you should keep in mind until June:

• First Day: April 20
• OTA Offseason Workouts: May 27-29, June 2-4, June 9-11
• Mandatory Minicamp: June 16-18

Estimated Salary Cap available

Over the Cap currently estimates that the Commanders have $49.5m in available cap space.

Rookie Pool estimate

As always, the team needs to reserve money for the draft class, which is currently expected to comprise 6 rookies.

The Commanders need to reserve $5.88m for the draft class.

Here’s the math:

The 1st-round pick will have a cap hit of $6.744m, but will push Lawrence Cager and his $1,145,000 cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for the #7 pick = $5,724,133

The #71 3rd-round pick will have a cap hit of $1.327m, but he will push Jordan Magee and his $1,167,807m cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for the #71 pick = $159,603.

The lowest remaining salary on the top-51 is $1,175,000 (Shy Tuttle). The final 4 draft picks from rounds 5 to 7 all have cap hits of less than $1.1m in 2026, so these final 4 draft picks are not counted in the top-51 and have no impact at all on the offseason salary cap.

This means that the actual amount of available cap space that the Commanders need to reserve is $5,883,736 ($5,724,133 + $159,603).

The Commanders will need $5.88m to sign their 6 draft picks.

• That adjustment (for drafted rookies) drops the available cap space from $49.5m to around $43.6m.
• Every NFL team needs a ‘contingency’ to allow the team to sign injury replacements in-season. In 2026, I estimate that the team needs to reserve about $6.6m, which would drop the money available for any remaining free agency contracts (such as Brandon Aiyuk) to about $37.m.

There will be many other changes to the estimated cap space going forward, which will include accounting for the entire 53-man roster and practice squad and other adjustments, but for now, if the team doesn’t acquire any more high-dollar veteran players, my best-guesstimation is that the team can be expected to roll over around $25-30m at the end of the season.

Any cap space that is rolled over will be added to the Commanders’ 2027 salary cap. Of course, as is true of most salary cap numbers, this is a highly conditional estimate that may be subject to dramatic changes between now and the end of the regular season.