The Front Office: Adam Peters and Roster Construction

[SkinsFTW]

Dude put him behind Jerry Jones...

Seriously, how is JJ not bottom 3?

 

[KDawg]

I think better of Peters. Too many are overweighting 2025 in my book. The disaster of that season had so more to do with injuries and awful coaching than it did personnel. This season will tell the tale. I'm hopeful that Daronte Jones knows what to do with Newton and that Blough knows what to do with Sinnott and McCaffrey. We'll see.

But this is you putting too much weight on 2024.

I have no idea what to rank Adam Peters. And I’m not quite sure he is the answer here.

But I’m definitely not sure he isn’t. I have a hard time ranking the guy without understanding what his limitations are. If he is hamstrung by a cash limit, then, I have a hell of a lot more understanding for some of the issues.

If he isn’t, then I probably have less.

I’m of the opinion that a GM shouldn’t really be ranked until they have three full seasons as the helm.

There are circumstances where that isn’t necessarily the case - and absolutely horrendous couple of seasons, Super Bowl seasons back to back, etc., but I’m not sure he’s rankable right now.

For 2024, I’d put him top 10. For 2025 I’d put him bottom 5.

So by average he’s in that 17-20 range.

But we’ll see. It’s just too early either way.

 

[Discobob]

Most people I think are salty because 2024 was a dream situation for a blue chip GM to walk into, in terms of rebuilding a franchise in his image, extra premium draft choices, massive cap space, QB pick in a QB-rich draft.

I don't have a long winded post in me right now.... but I think you are overselling the situation as a "dream scenario." Of course there were some positives, but the roster was bottom 2-3 in the league.

I agree that Peters hasn't had that one wow off-season (although the first one was damn good). I just think fans expectations are completely unrealistic. I guess time will tell, but I'm solidly in the way too early to tell category in evaluating his performance.

 

[DWinzit]

I don't have a long winded post in me right now.... but I think you are overselling the situation as a "dream scenario." Of course there were some positives, but the roster was bottom 2-3 in the league.

I agree that Peters hasn't had that one wow off-season (although the first one was damn good). I just think fans expectations are completely unrealistic. I guess time will tell, but I'm solidly in the way too early to tell category in evaluating his performance.

Fans expectations are unrealistic.

Some seem to want to worship AP as a top GM. To me, that's unrealistic as he hasn't proven to have had any great off-seasosn or draft. Perhaps 2026 will be it.

Others think he stinks as a GM. To me, that too is unrealistic. He deserves this year, but he needs a positive year or to me he has failed.

 

[Riggo44]

Ryan Poles, the much ballyhooed GM of the Bears, was ranked 8 spots ahead of Peters. His record is 12 games under .500
Chris Ballard, the much ballyhooed GM of the Colts, has won one (1) playoff game since 2017, and has just four (4) winning seasons in 9 tries. He also traded a first round pick for Carson Wentz. Ranked 2 spots ahead of Peters.

This list sucks.

 

[Tinker0608]

I hear everyone on Peters. He absolutely needs more long-term core hits and I don’t think he should be immune from criticism at all.

I just think people forget what early Howie (who everyone can’t stop talking about when he makes a pick or a move) actually looked like in the early years.

Current Howie is obviously one of the best GMs in football. But early Howie was messy as hell and Eagles fans were extremely critical of him for years.

This wasn’t just draft misses either. The Eagles had the entire “Dream Team” era disaster. They signed Nnamdi Asomugha, Vince Young called them the “Dream Team,” and the whole thing completely blew up despite all the hype. The roster construction was weird, top-heavy, didn’t fit together well, and massively underperformed expectations.

Then on top of that you had the draft problems. Danny Watkins in the 1st. Jaiquawn Jarrett in the 2nd. Marcus Smith in the 1st. Brandon Graham getting called a bust early while Earl Thomas and JPP exploded immediately.

2012 was good (Fletcher Cox, Foles, Boykin), and 2013 had Lane Johnson and Ertz, but even those years had misses too. Matt Barkley was a whiff. Earl Wolff did nothing. Jordan Poyer became good somewhere else.

Then 2014 was ugly again with Marcus Smith, Josh Huff, and Jordan Matthews being decent but not special while guys like DeMarcus Lawrence, Davante Adams, Allen Robinson and Jarvis Landry were sitting there.

Then even later, after Howie had already improved a ton, he still had major misses. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside over DK Metcalf was awful. Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson was even worse. Andre Dillard never became the guy they hoped. The Wentz extension situation blew up badly.

And this wasn’t just fans overreacting. The perception around Howie got bad enough that he literally lost personnel control to Chip Kelly for a while.

Then he came back, adjusted, nailed the 2016/2017 reset, built a Super Bowl roster, and became the dude people talk about today.

That’s really my point. Howie’s career arc wasn’t “great from Day 1.” It was talented GM makes a ton of mistakes early, learns from them, adjusts, and eventually becomes elite.

So yeah, criticize Peters. That’s fair. I just think people are way too quick to make definitive declarations on GMs after 2-3 years when we literally watched Howie evolve over time into what he is now.

Me? I’ll take my chances on Peters. I think he’ll right the ship.

 

[Riggo44]

Seriously, how is JJ not bottom 3?

The guy who wrote it is named "RotoPat." I don't know about you, but that doesn't exactly scream "reliable and rational."

 

[Conn]

I hear everyone on Peters. He absolutely needs more long-term core hits and I don’t think he should be immune from criticism at all.

I just think people forget what early Howie (who everyone can’t stop talking about when he makes a pick or a move) actually looked like in the early years.

Current Howie is obviously one of the best GMs in football. But early Howie was messy as hell and Eagles fans were extremely critical of him for years.

This wasn’t just draft misses either. The Eagles had the entire “Dream Team” era disaster. They signed Nnamdi Asomugha, Vince Young called them the “Dream Team,” and the whole thing completely blew up despite all the hype. The roster construction was weird, top-heavy, didn’t fit together well, and massively underperformed expectations.

Then on top of that you had the draft problems. Danny Watkins in the 1st. Jaiquawn Jarrett in the 2nd. Marcus Smith in the 1st. Brandon Graham getting called a bust early while Earl Thomas and JPP exploded immediately.

2012 was good (Fletcher Cox, Foles, Boykin), and 2013 had Lane Johnson and Ertz, but even those years had misses too. Matt Barkley was a whiff. Earl Wolff did nothing. Jordan Poyer became good somewhere else.

Then 2014 was ugly again with Marcus Smith, Josh Huff, and Jordan Matthews being decent but not special while guys like DeMarcus Lawrence, Davante Adams, Allen Robinson and Jarvis Landry were sitting there.

Then even later, after Howie had already improved a ton, he still had major misses. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside over DK Metcalf was awful. Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson was even worse. Andre Dillard never became the guy they hoped. The Wentz extension situation blew up badly.

And this wasn’t just fans overreacting. The perception around Howie got bad enough that he literally lost personnel control to Chip Kelly for a while.

Then he came back, adjusted, nailed the 2016/2017 reset, built a Super Bowl roster, and became the dude people talk about today.

That’s really my point. Howie’s career arc wasn’t “great from Day 1.” It was talented GM makes a ton of mistakes early, learns from them, adjusts, and eventually becomes elite.

So yeah, criticize Peters. That’s fair. I just think people are way too quick to make definitive declarations on GMs after 2-3 years when we literally watched Howie evolve over time into what he is now.

Me? I’ll take my chances on Peters. I think he’ll right the ship.

I think this is a good post, and it’s always worth remembering that guys grow into their positions sometimes. Howie had a big “come to Jesus and adjust how I do things” moment when he was essentially ousted for Chip Kelly, which may be fairly unique. Rare for a guy to get a second crack at the same gig. But setting aside Howie’s weird journey, it’s still valid that these guys grow. Some grow from average to studly, very few started studly right away. It’s a valid source of optimism.

Of course, every GM who ever flunked out also had the potential to improve into a stud, and didn’t. It’s a high turnover league, for every guy that becomes a cornerstone GM, well…count how many there seem to be in the league. It’s not many. We all want to count our guy among that number.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I think this is a good post, and it’s always worth remembering that guys grow into their positions sometimes. Howie had a big “come to Jesus and adjust how I do things” moment when he was essentially ousted for Chip Kelly, which may be fairly unique. Rare for a guy to get a second crack at the same gig. But setting aside Howie’s weird journey, it’s still valid that these guys grow. Some grow from average to studly, very few started studly right away. It’s a valid source of optimism.

Of course, every GM who ever flunked out also had the potential to improve into a stud, and didn’t. It’s a high turnover league, for every guy that becomes a cornerstone GM, well…count how many there seem to be in the league. It’s not many. We all want to count our guy among that number.

Yeah, I think this is where I kind of go back to the mantra of process over results. You can’t always control every factor and get amazing results but you can control the process.

I am not in the room with AP. From what we can glean, there are real questions; one involving quotes indicating coach collaboration, which is typically what you want but presupposes good coaches who you have a good relationship with. That was one simple non-starter for Kliff; plenty of noise suggesting that relationship soured late in the year, and if so, he had to go in the model AP is running.

AP has to figure it out and interestingly I do think Josh will evaluate him more on process than results, and will take enough of an interest to make a strong read there. I expect AP to get another year or two after this - bit of a blind guess but my gut says Josh has a bit more patience in him for AP.

What happens this year is more in the hands of the coordinators. I think the tools they have are between ok and good but probably not great. So we shall see. A lot rests on those four shoulders.

 

[Conn]

Yeah, I think this is where I kind of go back to the mantra of process over results. You can’t always control every factor and get amazing results but you can control the process.

I am not in the room with AP. From what we can glean, there are real questions; one involving quotes indicating coach collaboration, which is typically what you want but presupposes good coaches who you have a good relationship with. That was one simple non-starter for Kliff; plenty of noise suggesting that relationship soured late in the year, and if so, he had to go in the model AP is running.

AP has to figure it out and interestingly I do think Josh will evaluate him more on process than results, and will take enough of an interest to make a strong read there. I expect AP to get another year or two after this - bit of a blind guess but my gut says Josh has a bit more patience in him for AP.

What happens this year is more in the hands of the coordinators. I think the tools they have are between ok and good but probably not great. So we shall see. A lot rests on those four shoulders.

I agree. Despite all my questions and skepticism, I’ve been saying for a long time that I think even if things go south AP gets another HC hire unless the roster is a disaster. I don’t think we’re at disaster level on paper at all, we’ll see how the on-field portion looks with new inexperienced coordinators. I’ve definitely been of the opinion that from an ownership perspective, AP is operating on a longer timescale than Quinn, all else being equal.

 

[Boone]

I keep seeing folks refer to fans who are calling AP a failure. But I don't actually see anyone referring to him as a failure (at least not here)

I actually find it refreshing that fans are viewing him with a critical eye and not treating him with kid gloves as we have so many previous Washington franchise leaders. He deserves our support AND our skepticism imho. He is just getting started in his career as a GM and we know there will be hits and misses. The most important thing to watch is how he learns from the stumbles and improves his approach and roster-building philosophy.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

Fans expectations are unrealistic.

Some seem to want to worship AP as a top GM. To me, that's unrealistic as he hasn't proven to have had any great off-seasosn or draft. Perhaps 2026 will be it.

Others think he stinks as a GM. To me, that too is unrealistic. He deserves this year, but he needs a positive year or to me he has failed.

With all due respect I have seen no posters who have these extreme views on AP. Most everyone is still in wait and see mode with some being more confident than others.

 

[DWinzit]

With all due respect I have seen no posters who have these extreme views on AP. Most everyone is still in wait and see mode with some being more confident than others.

No not recently with posters here. But there have been many fans that have lost love for AP just as some did with Harris very early on. There were some posters here who have not been present in a year due to these views. Are they right, I don't think so but their views are extreme. That's why I said those are unrealistic in my eyes.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

No not recently with posters here. But there have been many fans that have lost love for AP just as some did with Harris very early on. There were some posters here who have not been present in a year due to these views. Are they right, I don't think so but their views are extreme. That's why I said those are unrealistic in my eyes.

Oh I definitely remember the posts about AP and even one or 2 about Harris, made out of frustration as the losses piled up. But they were rare, I saw nobody worshipping AP or even calling him a top GM.

 

[DWinzit]

Oh I definitely remember the posts about AP and even one or 2 about Harris, made out of frustration as the losses piled up. But they were rare, I saw nobody worshipping AP or even calling him a top GM.

The worshipping of AP came when he was first hired. It was looked at as a coup by many that Harris was able to get him. He was looked at by many as the young stud GM with high expectations especially with personnel and drafting. He was viewed by many as the answer we have needed for decades to turn the franchise around. Also knowing he'd be able to draft a top franchise QB with his first ever draft selection as a GM

To date he has shown many good moves and some questionable ones. These questions are dominating multiple threads currently showing this also unrealistic

 

[burgold]

Oh I definitely remember the posts about AP and even one or 2 about Harris, made out of frustration as the losses piled up. But they were rare, I saw nobody worshipping AP or even calling him a top GM.

Or after the first day of free agency when we hadn't signed anyone yet and everyone went ballistic.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

The worshipping of AP came when he was first hired. It was looked at as a coup by many that Harris was able to get him. He was looked at by many as the young stud GM with high expectations especially with personnel and drafting. He was viewed by many as the answer we have needed for decades to turn the franchise around. Also knowing he'd be able to draft a top franchise QB with his first ever draft selection as a GM

To date he has shown many good moves and some questionable ones. These questions are dominating multiple threads currently showing this also unrealistic

I was in this group, although worship is way too strong a word. My confidence has faded after all those misses in the 2024 draft but I am still a firm believer in AP.

 

[Riggo44]

To date he has shown many good moves and some questionable ones. These questions are dominating multiple threads currently showing this also unrealistic

This is absolutely dead on--the myopic discussion on wide receiver for pages in the Free Agent thread is Exhibit #1.

Likewise, you can go through that list from "RotoPat" and find numerous GMs that were objectively worse their first several years than Peters has been in his first two:

Roseman: Demoted for Chip Kelly; first 6 years in the league--3 winning seasons, going 10-6 each time, winning 0 playoff games.
John Schneider: Awesome GM. Didn't actually have personnel authority until 2024. Pete Carroll did (per Pro Football Reference)
Brad Homes: Missed the playoffs 3 of his 5 years.
Shanahan/Lynch: Objectively some of the worst drafters in the league (see Warren Sharp's analysis). Three of four losing seasons around a SB appearance. I can only imagine the discourse around these two if they worked for the Commanders.
Nick Caserio: Texans, #9 on the list. Want to talk about protecting a young QB, Caserio shows you how NOT to do it. Won 7 games his first TWO years in the league
George Paton: Three straight losing seasons his first three years; traded a haul for Russell Wilson, who was cut after one year.
Jerry Jones: BAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....ok, ok, no really...BAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ryan Poles: Won fewer games in three years than Peters has in two. Caleb is objectively mediocre, at best.
Andrew Berry: The Browns?!
Chris Ballard: Probably the single most overrated GM in the league. 4 winning seasons in 8 years. Won 1 playoff game. Traded a 1st round pick for Carson Wentz
Dan Morgan: The Panthers GM, depsite playing the in biggest joke of a division in professional sports: 0 winning season his two year, 0 playoff wins. One sub-.500 division title.

Every GM has mistakes. Ever GM makes questionable moves. Peters has more objective success this early in his career than any of these other GMs. And before you say Jerry Jones won 3 super bowls, I will point out Jimmy Johnson's coat tails he was standing on...which is subsequently blew up out of ego.

 

[Conn]

The worshipping of AP came when he was first hired. It was looked at as a coup by many that Harris was able to get him. He was looked at by many as the young stud GM with high expectations especially with personnel and drafting. He was viewed by many as the answer we have needed for decades to turn the franchise around. Also knowing he'd be able to draft a top franchise QB with his first ever draft selection as a GM

To date he has shown many good moves and some questionable ones. These questions are dominating multiple threads currently showing this also unrealistic

I think looking backwards with a critical eye, the hype and belief in AP was so extraordinary that it actually overshadowed what was a sort of strange first HC hiring cycle for this new FO. The frankly weird Ben Johnson snub, the Macdonald whiff, the extended, belabored, indecisive process and its relation to those two events, and then the obvious Plan C Quinn hire sold to fans as Plan A (I don’t blame them for this spin, obviously. Everyone does it). I’m not saying people were ecstatic about it all at the time, it was critically looked at, but I do think it got swept into the past rather quickly due to optimism and “trust in AP”…and is now retroactively being more critically evaluated, since something sustainable hasn’t grown from this regime yet. In the rear view, that whole series of events seems weirder and weirder as time passes, and speaks to the inexperience of our first-time GM with new ownership. For those who never fully let it go, kudos. But I know after 2024 and the NFCCG especially it was easy to forget about for many.

 

[Conn]

Or after the first day of free agency when we hadn't signed anyone yet and everyone went ballistic.

Well, to be fair, not having signed a WR yet those first couple days did indeed end up being a portent that we wouldn’t be adding a reliable vet to the position group for Daniels. Which, in addition to the defense, was most peoples’ main concern for the offseason.