Decision to Host Group QB Visit Backfires for Commanders

Getty LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.

The Washington Commanders are weathering some bad press on the verge of making a decision that could define the franchise for the next decade.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter went on Get Up on April 19 to confirm Washington’s decision to host a group visit with four draft-eligible quarterbacks earlier in the week — LSU’s Jayden Daniels, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. — seems to have backfired.

“It didn’t seem to go over too well with the agent for Jayden Daniels, Ron Butler, who sounded off on social media last night that he didn’t seem particularly pleased with the process,” Schefter said. “I think Jayden Daniels thought it would be a visit with just him meeting with the Commanders. Many people think that Jayden Daniels will wind up being the No. 2 overall pick. But the Commanders essentially opened up the process.”

According to USA Today’s Bryan Manning, the four quarterbacks arrived on Tuesday and went to a Top Golf that night with general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn. All four had visits with the team on Wednesday and Thursday.

Butler, who represents Daniels, liked a tweet posted on X of a video of Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio criticizing the Commanders for the group visit.

“Why would you dilute the ability to get maximum time and just the opportunity to evaluate?” Florio asked. “You’re trying to evaluate four guys at once?”

Adam Peters’ Long History of Bad QB Draft Decisions: Part I

Peters, who was hired in Jan. 2024, told The MMQB’s Albert Breer that the idea of a group visit with something he brought with him from San Francisco, where he was the vice president of player personnel and assistant general manager from 2017 to 2023.

If history teaches us anything, Peters evaluating and drafting a quarterback could be a cause of concern for Commanders’ fans.

During his time as a scout, assistant director of college scouting and college scouting with the Denver Broncos from 2009 to 2016, Peters oversaw or helped make the decision to draft Tim Tebow (1st round, 2010), Brock Osweiler (2nd round, 2012), and Paxton Lynch (1st round, 2016).

The two first-round picks, Tebow and Lynch, lasted two seasons each with the Broncos. Tebow went 8-6 in 14 starts and Lynch was 0-4 in his four career starts and was out of the league by 2018.

Adam Peters’ Long History of Bad QB Draft Decisions: Part II

Peters didn’t stop making bad decisions when it came to drafting quarterbacks when he left Denver to go to work for the 49ers.

According to Schefter, in 2017 Peters and general manager John Lynch believed that Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins would sign with them as a free agent following the upcoming season and decided not to evaluate quarterbacks in that year’s draft — one in which they could have selected Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes at No. 3 overall but chose to select Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas.

In 2021, the 49ers decided they wanted a quarterback bad enough that they sent the Miami Dolphins their first-round pick (No. 12), plus two more first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 and a third-round pick in 2022 to move up and select either BYU’s Zach Wilson or North Dakota State’s Trey Lance at No. 3 overall.

The 49ers selected Lance, who went 2-2 in four career starts before being traded to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fourth-round pick before the 2023 season.

One pick Peters did nail with the 49ers? The very last pick in the entire 2022 NFL draft, where the team selected Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy, who has led San Francisco to back-to-back NFC championship games in 2022 and 2023, including a Super Bowl appearance in 2023.