Welcome to the Commanders Today Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. Well. Washington traded back from the eleventh overall pick to start the draft, selecting Penn state wide receiver John Dodson with the sixteenth overall pick, and then they picked up a pair of Alabama guys with their next two. Defensive lineman Fiderian Mathis with the in the second, followed by running back Brian Robertson Junior in the third. Now Robinson zero fumbles on five hundred and forty five career Russia attempts
at Alabama. Talk about ball security, right, It's one things you always have to have as an r beat. Now, on day three, Washington added safety Percy Butler out of Louisiana, followed by UNC quarterback Sam Howell in the fifth round. Nice surprise that he was there for them. Yeah, yes, big arm guy, young talent yea, and the expectations are sitting back and learn. He threw for ninety two touchdowns in three seasons at North Carolina that is the third
most in ACC history. And then they selected two more offensive players, tight end Cold Turner out of Nevada and guard Chris Paul out of Tulsa no, not thought Chris Paul a little different size to him. Yeah, a cross over, yeah, no, no no. And then they ended the draft selecting cornerback Christian Holmes out of Oklahoma State with a two hundred
fortieth overall pick. They came out with more selections than they went in, which was what thing that general manager Mark Mayhew said is they wanted to be able to have more guys coming back with this, so they get eight as opposed to sixth. Grand Who are you saying, Tana most excited to see out of this draft class? I mean, do we you have to even ask that question? I really want to Dowson. Dawson is one of those guys.
And you know, yes, I'm a receiver and you know I'm always going to play close attention to those guys. But he's one of the guys that me and Logan talked about weeks ago. But he wasn't high on my list as in having opportunities to come here, not to say that he didn't have the ability I thought he had. You know, trust me, he has a wide range of things that when you watch his film him, it speaks for itself. But I'm really looking forward to see how he can make a splash because I think he's one
of those guys that can make a big difference. Yeah, absolutely, I totally agree with that. I think he's got a really nice skill set. The guy that I'm most excited about, though, is persony. Butler is the safety. Like when you turn on this if I didn't know that much about him, when you turn in the state man, he rips to the football and he is physical when he gets there. He can play the most time he talked about he can play in the box. And I love the physicality Gunner.
I just like people to have tape like that. It makes me super excited to see that physical, fast football player and what he brings to this defense. Were you surprised that they went more on offense than defense in this draft? I wasn't. You know. One of the things our preachers is talking about just the best available player, but the guy that we need that's gonna fit us,
you know. And so for so long the last few years, we was going D lineman at the D linemand into linebacker last year, and so I knew we was going to have a chance to address that receiver position. You know, we were sending out the gate that it's so many receivers, it was six that went in the first round. You couldn't help. But you know, pick one of them and you couldn't miss either. One of those guys you would have got would have came in or come in and
have potentially a plan for you the gate. Yeah. And I also think that they all fit a need, right. I think obviously the receiver. You got a new quarterback here in Carson Wentz. Bring somebody in there that can help his transition, make him the best version of himself. You paid him all that money, Let's make it happen. I think Brian Robinson also makes Gibson a better football player. He increases his value. And then the tight end later with Logan Thomas is injury. I think that's a nice
pick up. It's just they're they're not like maybe the flashiest players of all time, but they fit needs and I think they make this team better. Feel like Robinson will be a nice compliment to that running back room because like ag is still learning the position, they're using him a lot. They want to use them much more in the passing game, and so this is kind of
like a good pounder, like a good first second down guy. Yes, has good ball security, and that's something even Jadie McKissick, you know, us him more the passing game as well. So I feel like this is a really good need for them in that room. But also you get you get a tall you get a passing tight end. Yes as well. I mean they like that he's basically just a really big wide receiver for the most part. Yeah, it was really interesting having these conversations because you're looking
at the tight ends. You're saying, there's no true f there's no true rep. And now I have a conversation with someone downstairs one day during lunch, it's like, oh, you can have n FF tight end that gets open just because they're big. And they found him, and then they found another guy, Curtis Hodgens from A's you six eight two fifty can run like a receiver. And finding two guys with that type of skill set is so rare, and I think they're gonna be outstanding weapons for this team.
How much of a factor do you think it is, Santana that the guys that they did draft come in with more experience than most. I mean a lot of times you draft on the kind of like the upside, you kind of know what you're kind of getting with these guys to where you come in and you might be able to be plug and play go early. Well, we were just talking about a backstage and then listening to Logan because he always had the great breakdown. He
knows it all. He's like the encyclopedia of just knowing everything. You know. But when you think about the last year we were gotten, we got a few guys that didn't have the experience, but you know, they had the Billy and you know, when you look around, you want to make sure you get some guys that season, you know. Especially Yeah, of course they're not going to be seasoned on this level because these guys are all new draft picks, but these guys played a lot of snaps coming from
the collegiate level. So it's great to know that we have guys with experience that's going to come in and be able to have potential day one to compete for those jobs out the gate. And the quarterback that they drafted Sam Howell basically zero expectations, just come in sit learn. They just couldn't pass up the value when that bid
came and he was still available. So addressing a lot of needs, also getting a lot of great guys, so they went from six selections to eight after a few trades and got some good value for the guys as well. Be sure to tune into Washington Football Today weeknights five thirty and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. And while you're at it, be sure to follow at Commanders on all social media platforms for the latest news on the team. Thanks for listening to