BIG HOLES: Why Washington Commanders MUST Address Cornerback & Edge GAPS Before 2026 NFL Draft

Believe it or not, the recent moves around the National Football League and at the NFL

scouting con by did nothing to the watch the commander's draft plans because simply,

they don't have any draft plans.

You are Lockdown Commanders, your daily podcasts on the Washington commanders, part of the Lockdown

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This is Lockdown Commanders, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports

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And I'm David Harrison, your guy on the ground covering the Washington commanders, credential

member of the media for WSA 9, also writing for commanders on S. I hear with you five days

a week and coming up on today's episode, it is a short form episode, mail bag question.

One question is all we're going to get into this one because it's a good question.

There's got multiple layers.

We're going to dive into all those layers talking about draft strategies.

How did the NFL scouting con mine developments?

How did recent developments for the watch commanders releasing Tyler Biotish, getting new deals

with Andrew Wiley, Nick Gallagherty, Dietrich wise, junior, shy, tuddle, how did those impact

the NFL draft plans for the Washington commanders?

Not at all.

And I'm going to explain to you here in just a moment, all that coming up on today's

episode of Lockdown Commanders, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every

day.

Patrick and Thomas, all access every day or club members insiders came through the mail

bag, asking question about draft strategy, defensive ends and cornerbacks in German McCoy,

all in one beautiful question package, did the combine up end draft plans?

That's the number one question.

Does releasing March on a lot of more mean moving away from an edge at the top of the draft

and is Tennessee cornerback, German McCoy, a prime target for a trade back scenario.

We're going to answer all those questions here on this episode of Lockdown Commanders.

And my basic answer is no, no, the NFL, the combine did not up end draft plans.

No, releasing March on a lot of more does not move edge off the top of the draft list.

And no, Tennessee cornerback, German McCoy is not a prime trade back target because of

multiple things.

But starting off with that first question, commanders don't have draft plans yet.

It's really easy for us, and I mean us, media fans, all of us to get really wrapped

into like the draft strategy and all that stuff, even in March, but I will tell you

right now.

And if you didn't catch the Dan Quinn interview during a radio row, I can't remember which

outlet it was with.

But he even said right then that he was asked about Jeremiah love and he even said right

there and they're like, I really have not gotten a look at him.

Like they're focused on free agency right now.

These coaches are looking at free agent targets are doing all this other stuff.

The scouts have certainly been scouting college players, but even they've been scouting

these players for over a year now.

And Peter is certainly working a little bit here on the draft a little bit on free

agency.

So right now he's working more on free agency than he is the draft.

There is no draft plan in Ashburn right now.

There is no draft plan for the wash completely.

There is no big board that had well, they might have a big board set up truthfully.

But if they have their big board, like it's not set, it's not locked in in any way, shape

or form, because it's too early in the process, keep the main thing, the main thing right

now, the main thing is free agency and that's where they're sticking.

So right off the bat, first answer note, the draft plans not upended.

Now your draft plans may have gotten upended, my draft plans might have gotten upended.

But we are all out here operating at about a 20 to 25% clip, compared to what they're

doing in Ashburn.

Remember these guys are working in 60 hour weeks, you know, seven days a week getting

this thing ready.

So the amount that they're putting into this is a lot compared to what we're putting into

it.

So it's easier for us to kind of get through all the noise and get to the point there

a little bit faster.

By as far as March on ladder more did cutting March on ladder more fundamentally shift

the draft math.

I will just tell you this edge is a massive need.

Washington now has a massive hole at corner back number one.

That hole has always been there, right?

We have known or even assumed if you want to call that, but we have known March on ladder

more was not going to return to the Washington commanders since before the end of 2025,

since before the season was over for the washpares not even the playoffs.

Since the Washington manors walked out of locker for the last time, we knew March on ladder

more was not coming back to be a corner back.

So that hole has always been there.

I think what has happened here, the shift that you're seeing, if you're seeing one, is

that the news has been solidified, right?

It's turned into we expected to happen to know what's happening.

And now it's real.

Now you can touch it.

Now you can feel it.

Now it's tangible.

And it's made a lot of people say, Oh, hold up.

There's a hole here now that holds always been there.

You have Trey A.M.

You got Mikey Starr.

So we talked about this a little bit on yesterday's episode as well, and then you've

got a bunch of guys on futures deal, Doronte Jones needs a corner who can live at least

for a little bit on an island, at least one.

Trey A.M.

I think had a really good solid rookie year.

I cannot sit here and tell you that after his rookie season, which he finished injured

as well, that I can tell you like he is a shut down island corner back in year two.

I just can't do it.

Not in good faith.

So you need to go find that guy right now, and if you're making me choose between a shut

down corner, number seven, or a top adressure at number seven with A.M.

and saying we're still in Armstrong and potentially can laws of big end, the church-wise

you're coming back.

I'm going corner back because the edge class is stronger.

So I can find better talent later in the edge group than I can at a corner back position.

So that's kind of how I'm going to go.

So has it has it come I flipped the draft plans not really because again, that finality

of martial law that we're not being here has been there the entire time.

I think what it's done is it's flipped our understand or not even our are our awareness

of that whole being there this entire time.

But this time next week, those needs are going to be reshuffled again.

The commanders got there and signed Jalen Watson veteran free agent come out of Kansas

city.

If they go out there and signed to reap woolen, if they go out there and signed Alante Taylor,

those needs are going to change.

They go out there and signed Odefe Owe and trade for John the Grinard, those needs are

going to change.

But bottom line is, regardless of what happens next week, no way that I am going to advocate

for the commanders to draft Montsort Elaine or Jermon McCoy for that matter.

If you go out and sign those corner backs, but if they don't go out and sign those corner

backs, then you're looking at day three guys like Daddy is Dixon on North Carolina, Charles

Demings out of Stephen F. Austin, plus if I'm taking Mansort Elaine, I would not be training

out of number seven to target your mom McCoy anyway.

If Mansort Elaine is in play number seven and I trade out number seven is not to take

your mom McCoy anyway.

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for this episode as well.

Continuing with this mail bag episode, listen, the conversation turning now to is Jermon

McCoy corner back at a Tennessee, a good enough player to warrant training out of number

seven to go and get him.

The only way I think you asked this question, it has to be in the light of if avion terrell,

if men sort of lane are there number seven as well, do you trade back understanding that

Jermon McCoy may be there as well, because if you are going, if you're targeting corner

and you have man sort of lane rated higher than Jermon McCoy and he's there number seven,

I think you take him outside of a king's ransom.

I think you got to take him, right?

And I'm not going to get into that rabbit hole of what a king's ransom would look like.

Right now Jermon McCoy to some, well, it's everybody's a consensus first round talent,

right?

Some of them view him as a top 10 overall player.

Some of them, some people even view him as the number one corner in this class.

However, he towards ACL in January of 2025, missed the entire 2025 NFL season hasn't played

in a meaningful rep of football since then, 2024 tape and from Tennessee, it's elite,

but he hasn't played it in over a year, didn't participate in the combine drills and that's

pretty big because he's over 12 months into what's supposed to be a nine to 12 month recovery

process.

He's not doing combine drills says he wants to focus on his pro day.

Now, medical is the most important part of the NFL scouting combine.

He did participate in that team's got the results of that.

We don't get privy that sometimes you get leaks here and there.

There was a report out of Dallas that the Cowboys have actually moved your mom McCoy down

their board for whatever that's worth, like I said, boards are being built.

They're just not being locked in from a draft plans standpoint that Dallas has moved

him down their board because of the medical now, take out the grain salt.

I don't know what that means.

Okay.

I don't know if means that, you know, he's got a bad knee still or whatever it is, but

your mom McCoy said he's focusing on his pro days, pro days March 31st, which is almost

the last day for pro days.

And then the last day for pro days is April 1st.

So literally the second to the last day of the pro days, they're in Tennessee.

So that workout is basically going to dictate what he does.

Like he basically has to now come out there and his pro day and ball the F out because

if he doesn't ball out, his stock is going to drop because you had over 12 months to recover

from this ACL.

You didn't work out the combine.

If the medicals weren't great at the combine, then you come to your pro day and you wait

till the second or last day, not you wait, but you know, Tennessee does.

And you don't do well.

Like your stock is in a slide.

Doesn't necessarily mean the slide all the way out of the first round, but he's going

to slide.

He's got a pro nail his pro day.

Now if I'm training at a number seven, a man's where to land on the board, then I'm

not targeting a corner in the first round.

That's basically what it says.

It's less about your mom McCoy, but because it's your mom McCoy situation, even with

avioncer all there, that's the situation I'm looking at now.

When McCoy's pro day changed that, it could, right, you could, he could come out there

and have like the greatest workout ever.

Well, across that bridge, when we get there, I'm not going to be able to attend it, but

hopefully I can get some tape or other people are going to share tape who are there covering

the event.

I'm going to cover Tennessee, I'll be in Arizona for the NFL annual league meetings during

that pro day.

Now this bleeds into what I asked out on Peter's and Indianapolis and he said, what I've

always said here on the show every day, is that you have to operate based on what you

know.

You know, is that the only corner worth taking the very top of this draft man sort of lane

is probably going to kill his pro day.

And if he does, he may not even be there at number seven.

Now, you need not want an outside corner.

And if you know that there is a chance of man sort of lane is not going to be there at number

seven, which of course there's a chance because the NFL drafted anything happens.

You can't leave it up a chance.

So the only way I'm taking to your mom McCoy is if I trade back expecting one result in

another presents itself, like what happened earlier this off season in a mock off season,

I traded back to 16 and it did not go well.

The board fell in a way where I did not expect it.

But if I'm the commander, I'm not trading back further than 15 and at 15, I ran through

a couple of mock drafts and pretty consistently one of the following players is available.

Safety, Dylan, Thiniman, edge, Akime, Meza, Meza door, edge, edge, Kendrick, Falk, edge

cashiest, how, which I'm not really involved with him as an edge, wide receiver, Jordan, Tyson,

wide receiver, Denzel, Boston, demons, alignment, Kaden McDonald, offens a guard, Vega, Eona,

Kaden, Kenyans, Cedeek.

If I'm trading at a number seven with Mansort Elaine, or even maybe on Terrell on the

board, I'm not doing a draft corner, I'm doing a draft from one of those guys.

So too many guys take a role to dice on, especially for a cornerback who again hasn't played

in over a year, skip the combine, do a tour in ACL 13 months ago, when the recovery timeframe

is supposed to be 19 to 12 months, cornerback is one of the most most difficult positions

to recover from or to transition from the college game to the NFL from.

So you're already fighting that uphill battle, the last time I saw him, McCoy clearly

the better athlete than Mansort Elaine, clearly, I think he's probably the best athlete

in the cornerback group out of all of them, and you love that, and you don't ignore that.

But all things considered until I see McCoy do anything football related, I cannot, good,

in good conscience tell you that I have him over Mansort Elaine, I think the commander

should have him over Mansort Elaine, either I'd rather take a flyer on the lane, becoming

a shut down corner and forcing ball of some Mikey St. Schiller, Trey Amos, who have a

better ball production history in their past than on a bigger, better athlete who may

not be healthy.

But again, that's a pre pro day opinion.

So what I say today could be much different than what I say come April when the pro days

are done.

And we have that information.

That's going to do it for today's episode though, great mail back question.

We've got more great mail back questions.

So our next episode will be another mail back episode.

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