Culture is a huge part of what drives the Commanders’ moves in free agency and the draft, as Dan Quinn and Adam Peters always say they’re looking for ‘Commanders.’
Talent plays into it too, but even as Josh Conerly wasn’t really a thought to many pre-draft, and offensive tackle wasn’t a top need per se, James Crepea from the Oregonian told BMitch & Finlay Friday that the Commanders’ first-round pick checks all the boxes for the team.
And about Kliff Kingsbury leaving a note on Adam Peters’ desk to take Conerly, and Peters saying Conerly was the top guy on their board all along? None of that is without a good reason, or a good fit in Kingsbury’s style of offense.
“Those things are hardly foreign concepts here. They do a lot of pulling at Oregon in the run game, and a lot of guard/tackle combo, and counters and pulls and those sorts of things, and Josh is one of those guys who they were very, very comfortable with doing that,” Crepea said. “For all intents and purposes, Josh really followed Penei Sewell, and they were still extremely effective on offense, in particularly in the run game getting tackles out in space. They did a lot in the screen game each of the past two years, and for the tackles, that means getting out in space and opening some stuff up on the perimeter. Conerly did that quite a bit.”
Take a listen to Crepea’s entire visit above!