New Commanders General Manager Adam Peters was in San Francisco as assistant G.M. when they screwed up the Trey Lance pick at No. 3 overall. He also was there when they hit on Brock Purdy with the final pick in the 2022 draft.
The 49ers got their franchise quarterback, but it turned out it wasn’t the one they thought was the one.
Peters, who now is in the hunt for a franchise quarterback for the Commanders, concedes that selecting a quarterback is a roll of the dice.
“If I knew that answer, I’d be somewhere else probably. Retired,” Peters said of the uncertainty of how a quarterback is going to develop. “I think the gist of it is it’s people evaluating people, and especially when it comes to that position, there’s so much more that goes into it besides the tape. If you’re evaluating a defensive end, I think we all can see what Nick Bosa or Myles Garrett looks like. At quarterback, there’s so much nuance that goes into besides the talent and skill set and the arm strength and all that. With really quarterback or any position, it’s people evaluating people, so you’re going to make mistakes. It’s a matter of if you have a better hit-rate really. In the draft, you try to hit on as many as you can and the more hits you have, whether it’s the first-round pick or the seventh-round pick or anywhere in between, that’s how you build your team.”
The Commanders hired Kliff Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator, and since they hold the No. 2 overall pick, there is a belief Washington hopes to draft Caleb Williams. Kingsbury helped coach Williams at USC last season.
“Really, Kliff and I haven’t talked to much specifically on him,” Peters said. “We really just have talked about quarterback play in general and what he looks for in quarterback and how we can find that right fit for him if that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Commanders have had 12 starting quarterbacks since letting Kirk Cousins walk away as a free agent in the 2018 offseason. Last year’s 17-game starter, Sam Howell, remains a candidate for the starting job, Peters said.
“Certainly [how the Commanders are going to address the position] hasn’t been decided by any stretch of the imagination,” Peters said. “We still have a lot of work to do. What we’re going to do whether it’s that pick or later, we really like what we have in Sam right now. So we’re really excited about that, too.
“Sam came to the facility a couple of weeks ago and got a chance to hang out. Instead of sitting around, we just took a walk. We took a walk around Commanders Park and around the fields and got to know him a little bit better, so I feel really good about him, too. So we’ve got a lot of different things we can do, but still really excited about him.”
If the Bears listen to offers for the No. 1 overall pick, Peters expects the Commanders to at least make a call.
“Really with anything that could happen in this league, you always want to be involved in it,” Peters said. “Whether you actually pull the trigger or not, that’s a different story. But you always want to understand what people are looking to do, what they’re doing whether it’s trading down to 28 — I don’t know who 28 is, so don’t like think I’ve got some master plan — or trading anywhere whether it’s a player or not. So, you always want to be involved in any of those things, whether you actually pull the trigger at the end. That’s when you gather all the information and make the best decision for the team.”