Sam Fortier wrote an article in WaPo this week about Adam Peters’ roster-building strategy, calling this year a ‘bridge year’ – which, as you might suspect and as Fortier told Craig Hoffman Wednesday, means exactly as it sounds.
“I say he is building a bridge roster, particularly in free agency, because if you look at the way he's approached free agency despite all of the cap space, the highest base value contract he's given out is three years, $33 million to Dorance Armstrong,” Fortier said. “When you look at the way that other teams approached free agency with new GMs, they’ve made big splashes and locked in guys that are gonna be there for maybe the entire tenure, or are planting a stake of ‘this is the new era.’ When you look back to 2020 when Ron Rivera signed Kendall Fuller, it was like that; that was a four year deal and he might not be here for all four years, but we've committed to him to be a big part of this rebuild. Adam Peters has not done that; he has talked about wanting to build through the draft, and obviously, he has a lot of draft capital and he's going to be able to do that.”
With free agency, though, it looks a lot like back in 2017 when Peters became VP of Player Personnel for a rebuilding 49ers team.
“After a 2-14 year, they had a very similar approach: a ton of guys on short-term, low-risk contracts, let's raise the floor of this roster and figure out who our long term pieces are in the draft,” Fortier said. “Maybe one of these free agents hits like Kyle Juszcyzk did, but if you look at the whole class, only three guys made it at least three seasons. So to me, I'm looking at this free agent class and thinking the same thing; outside of Frankie Luvu and Dorance Armstrong and Tyler Biadasz, a lot of these dudes, even though they've signed 20 of them, are probably here today, gone tomorrow or gone next year.”
Craig gets that, and also understands the value some of the players the Commanders have signed will bring as tone-setters, culture changers, locker room leaders, or whatever other off-field metric they contribute to that will far outlast their impact on the field – and yes, that’s important for the future, too.
“You wanna build through the draft, because it's the best and most economical way to get guys in your building and develop them,” Fortier said, “and having Bobby Wagner or Zach Ertz or Austin Ekeler, this takes the pressure off those guys, because you have Ertz who's gonna figure out how to get open on third down for this young quarterback, and not putting pressure on the picks at linebacker or wherever. To me, it really all builds on everything.”
So, then, why has offensive tackle, which might be the next biggest need left after QB, not get addressed outside of Cornelius Lucas re-signing, despite two interior linemen being added?
“This is a strong tackle class, and even at the end of the first round you will have starting caliber options, I think,” Fortier said. “It is a glaring need, and could they package their two twos and move up late in the first to get the guy that they want? I think that's possible, but what I'm saying here is they will have options, and you're not going to go into Week 1 with Cornelius Lucas starting at left tackle. Lucas is a very good swing tackle and can step in at any moment, just not a guy you would want to be a starter for 17 games.”
And a similar notion plays at QB, where the move was sign Marcus Mariota short-term and trade Sam Howell rather than keep the cheaper, younger, more controllable player of sign a different veteran.
“We do know that they talked to other people, including Sam Darnold, but they landed on Mariota, and obviously they have Brian Johnson, the former offensive coordinator in Philly with Mariota last year, so I would imagine that Brian Johnson was a big part of that,” Fortier said. “Everybody knows that Mariotta left Atlanta in 2022 after they benched him for Desmond Ridder and did not play the role that you would want out of a veteran mentor quarterback, but he went to Philly last year and said all the right things in public. It's very hard to know what he was like in the meeting room with Jalen Hurts, especially when things were going wrong, but obviously, Brian Johnson felt comfortable enough with him and his behavior there to bring him in. So I would say that is maybe the first big bet we're seeing from Brian Johnson and Adam Peters – and it sounds cliché, but the NFL really is a week-to-week league.”