The Front Office: Adam Peters and Roster Construction

[skinsinparadise]

To be fair, it is relative chump change compared to player salaries.

I don’t know if Harris has been ‘cheap’ in some endeavors or if Adam Peters is uber-conservative. It does feel like we’ve outbid quit a bit on some possible signings and of course when you have needs and don’t use all your free agency $$$ it gets fan attention.

I think Harris deserves a lot of credit. He's been a classy owner, he helped bring back RFK Part II, and he's invested in upgrading facilities that had fallen well behind the rest of the league.

Where I'm less sold is the narrative that he's an aggressive spender. In terms of actual cash spending, Washington ranked 18th last year and sits around 14th now—solidly in the top half of the league, but nowhere near the top tier. He's clearly though not cheap either.

The salary cap numbers that get cited are mostly noise. When you build a roster around one-year contracts, you're naturally going to have a lot of turnover. The cap figures only count what you bring in, not what walks out the door. As long as the team operates this way, it's going to look like they're spending aggressively on paper even when the real cash commitment is much more modest. It's an artificial metric.

That doesn't mean they're being cheap. They're spending at a respectable level, and I can live with that. But if the plan is to preserve flexibility and avoid fully pushing all the chips in this year, then I'd like to see them hit the accelerator next offseason while Jayden is still on his rookie contract. That's the window when good teams become great ones.

 

[Conn]

I didnt mention Snyder, nor did I mention any kind of glowing endorsement of Harris. I quoted, and pointed out, that he's investing money in the team despite some people calling him cheap. If you want to be critical of his spending within roster constraints? Sure. Be that way. I disagree, but to blanket argue that he's cheap is flat out wrong. He's investing money in the team, and that's what I was highlighting. If you disagree with where that money was spent, fine, but there has been money spent.

I work in finance, 11 people in Scouting, and another 10 in trainers is probably conservatively $1.5m against the bottom line with no direct return on investment It's added expense, and it's not equivalent to vet min, because there's a bunch of different factors that negate Vet Min contracts against a pre-determined and budgeted cap. This is expenses that were not previously on the books.

So you were preemptively arguing against something that nobody said? People with criticisms about the roster spending don’t think Harris is “cheap” and in fact almost always go out of their way to complement the other things involving the team he’s spending money on. The stadium, training facilities, practice fields, general organizational buildout and staffing, etc. Although on that topic it was rumored at the time in 2024 that we were shocked by the numbers floating around for Johnson + Macdonald, generally we’ve fleshed out the staff and he’s had no problem spending money that doesn’t directly impact on-field performance, as you said (which nobody argued against).

It’s very clear that your post was meant to wield this behind-the-scenes spending as a shield against the people who have criticized the player payroll spending over the last few years. That’s what I was arguing against. Nobody thinks Harris in general has been “cheap”, everyone is aware of all the money he’s spending on facilities and staffing, and it’s usually acknowledged alongside any criticism. That’s why they’re two completely different topics.

 

[Primus Porcus]

So you were preemptively arguing against something that nobody said? People with criticisms about the roster spending don’t think Harris is “cheap” and in fact almost always go out of their way to complement the other things involving the team he’s spending money on. The stadium, training facilities, practice fields, general organizational buildout and staffing, etc. Although on that topic it was rumored at the time in 2024 that we were shocked by the numbers floating around for Johnson + Macdonald, generally we’ve fleshed out the staff and he’s had no problem spending money that doesn’t directly impact on-field performance, as you said (which nobody argued against).

It’s very clear that your post was meant to wield this behind-the-scenes spending as a shield against the people who have criticized the player payroll spending over the last few years. That’s what I was arguing against. Nobody thinks Harris in general has been “cheap”, everyone is aware of all the money he’s spending on facilities and staffing, and it’s usually acknowledged alongside any criticism. That’s why they’re two completely different topics.

No, I made a 1 sentence comment that I hope those calling him cheap read the reporting that he’s added payroll to benefit the team with no direct return on that investment.

There are a lot of people who question whether or not the team is cash strapped, or if Harris and co are bargain shopping because there is a clear narrative that he did that with the Sixers and Devils. I choose to actually not draw some predetermined conclusion based on social media, I just look at things how they happen.


Again, form your own opinions, I just hope people look at what’s happening, and use all info, including yet another instance where he is investing money in the team

 

[Conn]

No, I made a 1 sentence comment that I hope those calling him cheap read the reporting that he’s added payroll to benefit the team with no direct return on that investment.

There are a lot of people who question whether or not the team is cash strapped, or if Harris and co are bargain shopping because there is a clear narrative that he did that with the Sixers and Devils. I choose to actually not draw some predetermined conclusion based on social media, I just look at things how they happen.


Again, form your own opinions, I just hope people look at what’s happening, and use all info, including yet another instance where he is investing money in the team

So then you are talking about the roster spending? Because again, nobody is saying he’s cheap with all the other stuff. We all read the posts here, there’s like 30 regular posters, we all know the major players and their opinions. And I don’t think anybody here thinks or posts that Harris isn’t spending off the field. In fact that aspect of his ownership is pretty much universally celebrated.

Your post was very clearly meant to correct the people who think he’s not willing to spend enough on player payroll. Which has nothing to do with the other spending you’re praising (along with everyone else, including critics). That’s the only reason I quoted you, because your post came off like you think those who don’t agree with you (that he’s spending plenty on player payroll) need to be educated. We’re aware of the well-accepted and highly-praised evidence that he spends on things that don’t impact on-field performance, it just has nothing to do with the roster-building and player spending criticisms. They aren’t related.

 

[Primus Porcus]

So then you are talking about the roster spending? Because again, nobody is saying he’s cheap with all the other stuff. We all read the posts here, there’s like 30 regular posters, we all know the major players and their opinions. And I don’t think anybody here thinks or posts that Harris isn’t spending off the field. In fact that aspect of his ownership is pretty much universally celebrated.

Your post was very clearly meant to correct the people who think he’s not willing to spend enough on player payroll. Which has nothing to do with the other spending you’re praising (along with everyone else, including critics). That’s the only reason I quoted you, because your post came off like you think those who don’t agree with you (that he’s spending plenty on player payroll) need to be educated. We’re aware of the well-accepted and highly-praised evidence that he spends on things that don’t impact on-field performance, it just has nothing to do with the roster-building and player spending criticisms. They aren’t related.

I never said "i hope the members of this board."

I don't understand your obsession with dissecting a very generic comment about how, he once again is showing that he's not cheap, and making it about some sort of attack against people being critical. Spending money and investing in the team is just that. He's spending dollars to improve the team, despite what a vocal part of this fanbase wants to argue. You mentioned player spending, I did not take it here.. I addressed again, the claim that he's going to try and cut corners and do things on the cheap.. the added payroll contradicts that narrative... that's all I was pointing out.

 

[burgold]

Where I'm less sold is the narrative that he's an aggressive spender. In terms of actual cash spending, Washington ranked 18th last year and sits around 14th now—solidly in the top half of the league, but nowhere near the top tier. He's clearly though not cheap either.

There's something just strikes me as dishonest about your choice of statistics. This is from an article published three days ago. It says we have spent the 3rd most in the league. Put simply, this team has spent heavily this year.

Breaking down every NFL team's offseason spending and most expensive free agent

Breaking down every NFL team's offseason spending and most expensive free agent

A look at all 32 teams' 2026 offseason spending breakdown and which free agent each squad spent the most money on

www.cbssports.com

3. Washington Commanders​

• Total free agent spending: $259.49 million

 

[Boone]

We've all heard the adage 'there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics'. We don't even know if the actual costs publicized are accurate. Some stats will probably including the costs of re-signing current players, some may not. So some variation is going to be inherent. And as humans, we will tend to gravitate to the stats that support our beliefs and away from those that don't.

The whole 'has Harris opened his wallet to get the best players possible or has he imposed restrictions or been disinclined in some situations to do so' is an interesting debate but I'm not sure it is that simple or even necessarily provable one way or the other.

 

[burgold]

We've all heard the adage 'there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics'. We don't even know if the actual costs publicized are accurate. Some stats will probably including the costs of re-signing current players, some may not. So some variation is going to be inherent. And as humans, we will tend to gravitate to the stats that support our beliefs and away from those that don't.

The whole 'has Harris opened his wallet to get the best players possible or has he imposed restrictions or been disinclined in some situations to do so' is an interesting debate but I'm not sure it is that simple or even necessarily provable one way or the other.

Sure, but I think that re-signing players count. Wouldn't we be less happy if Tunsil was holding out? Getting Tunsil signed, sealed, and delivered early was as important or more important than signing pretty much any free agent. So, from my perspective all my spent is actually money spent.

 

[skinsinparadise]

There's something just strikes me as dishonest about your choice of statistics. This is from an article published three days ago. It says we have spent the 3rd most in the league. Put simply, this team has spent heavily this year.

Breaking down every NFL team's offseason spending and most expensive free agent

Breaking down every NFL team's offseason spending and most expensive free agent

A look at all 32 teams' 2026 offseason spending breakdown and which free agent each squad spent the most money on

www.cbssports.com

3. Washington Commanders​

• Total free agent spending: $259.49 million

Okay, recently you accused me of using circular reasoning. What's ironic is that it was on the same page of posts supporting your side of the argument, I pointed out three factual errors in those arguments and the poster who made them acknowledged they were wrong.

Now we're onto "dishonesty," with the implication that I'm purposely missing that free-agent spending equals overall spending. Except my post explicitly explained why those are not the same thing, and it's not the first time I've made that point. Others have explained it too. Free-agent spending measures what you acquire. Total cash spending measures what you actually spend. Those are different metrics. That's not opinion; it's math.

How much you spend on groceries isn't determined by how many new items you put in your cart. It's determined by the total amount that leaves your wallet. Same principle here.

If a company employs eight people and hires two more, it's paying ten employees. If another company employs five people, lets three go, and hires four replacements, you can say it spent more on new hires, but that doesn't mean it's spending more overall. High turnover can inflate acquisition numbers while lowering total spending.

As for motives, I'm way too old to care about "winning" arguments on a message board. Nobody is winning these debates. The people who defend almost every move this regime makes are dug in just like the people who criticize. Neither side is convincing the other.

I want the team to win -- I care about nothing else. When I spend thousands of dollars taking my family to London this year, and if worst-case scenario they lose to the Colts, I'm not going to be thinking, "Well, at least I can go online and tell strangers I was right about Dyami." I couldn't care less. I want to see this franchise lift a Lombardi Trophy. That's the outcome that matters.

And contrary to the way some frame my posts and some others, I'm actually more optimistic about this team than much of the national media. A lot of people think they're headed for a bad season. I don't. I think they're a good football team and a legitimate playoff team.

I like Adam Peters. I like Josh Harris. Before either arrived, I was one of the louder voices on ES pushing for both of them. Peters was ranked 25th in one GM ranking. Other executives weren't particularly impressed by this year's free agency. Harris gets hammered constantly by Philadelphia fans and media. I on the other hand think they've both been good. Far from hating on either.

My view has never been that this is a bad operation. My view is that it's a good operation that hasn't yet proven it's a great one.

To show that I get both sides of the discussion, I've written multiple long posts laying out the positive case for Peters and this front office. Not sarcastically. Not as a strawman. I tried to explain why some people see this operation as elite already or how every best case scenario can come true, and I even asked one of Peters' biggest defenders if I fairly represented that perspective. He said I did.

What I don't see nearly as often is the reverse effort—the willingness to understand the position that this is a solid operation with room to improve.

I run my own business. If I approached my work believing everything I did was perfect, I'd fail. The minute you stop looking for areas to improve, you stop getting better. That's true in business, and I think it's true in football operations.

I've spent more than twenty years dreaming about seeing this franchise get back to a Super Bowl, especially while taking my kids to games and watching season after season end short of the goal. I'm not interested in celebrating 9-8 or 10-7 seasons as the destination. I want to see this team compete for championships.

And when I look at the organization, I see progress. I see competence. I see smart people. I see a front office that is better than what came before it.

But I also see a team that, in my opinion, still needs to push harder if it wants to maximize a rare opportunity with a quarterback on a rookie contract.

The encouraging part is that Peters strikes me as someone who learns. Someone who adjusts. Someone who isn't stubbornly locked into one approach. That's why I'm optimistic. Not because I think they've already arrived, but because I think they can.

 

[Boone]

Sure, but I think that re-signing players count. Wouldn't we be less happy if Tunsil was holding out? Getting Tunsil signed, sealed, and delivered early was as important or more important than signing pretty much any free agent. So, from my perspective all my spent is actually money spent.

The point is, statistics (no matter which ones are cited) are not static or immutable truths. They can be manipulated any way the user wants to manipulate them. I don't think 'dishonesty' is a relevant or appropriate word because someone chooses to use or trust different statistics, that's all I'm saying.

 

[Conn]

I never said "i hope the members of this board."

I don't understand your obsession with dissecting a very generic comment about how, he once again is showing that he's not cheap, and making it about some sort of attack against people being critical. Spending money and investing in the team is just that. He's spending dollars to improve the team, despite what a vocal part of this fanbase wants to argue. You mentioned player spending, I did not take it here.. I addressed again, the claim that he's going to try and cut corners and do things on the cheap.. the added payroll contradicts that narrative... that's all I was pointing out.

Apologies, you posted your thoughts about fans on this message board, I don’t know why I assumed you were directing your comments towards the people who would read them?

I’m really not trying to be an asshole, but these are the words you posted:

“I hope people read this when they talk about Harris and his apparent apprehension to spending money”

This is very obviously a passive aggressive comment wafted towards those you disagree with, so I felt the need to clarify that nobody is making the argument you’re defending against, we’re only talking about player payroll. Nobody else would need this “proof” that Harris is willing to spend money, when it’s widely acknowledged that he’s spending a ton of money everywhere else and improving the franchise, org, and facilities off the field (and literally the field!). This comment couldn’t have been directed at anyone else unless there’s an invisible contingent of fans arguing that Harris isn’t doing all these things, no? It feels very directed towards the people who have complaints about the player spending

 

[Conn]

There's something just strikes me as dishonest about your choice of statistics. This is from an article published three days ago. It says we have spent the 3rd most in the league. Put simply, this team has spent heavily this year.

Breaking down every NFL team's offseason spending and most expensive free agent

Breaking down every NFL team's offseason spending and most expensive free agent

A look at all 32 teams' 2026 offseason spending breakdown and which free agent each squad spent the most money on

www.cbssports.com

3. Washington Commanders​

• Total free agent spending: $259.49 million

His point is that because this regime has been hesitant to allocate large guaranteed contract money to FA’s (until this very offseason), we have a ton of short term contracts that turn over every year, so almost ALL our spending is technically “new spending” which is where your top-5 2026 spender stats come from. It’s essentially an illusion, or at least not representative of what people here are worried about.

 

[Primus Porcus]

Apologies, you posted your thoughts about fans on this message board, I don’t know why I assumed you were directing your comments towards the people who would read them?

I’m really not trying to be an asshole, but these are the words you posted:

“I hope people read this when they talk about Harris and his apparent apprehension to spending money”

This is very obviously a passive aggressive comment wafted towards those you disagree with, so I felt the need to clarify that nobody is making the argument you’re defending against, we’re only talking about player payroll. Nobody else would need this “proof” that Harris is willing to spend money, when it’s widely acknowledged that he’s spending a ton of money everywhere else and improving the franchise, org, and facilities off the field (and literally the field!). This comment couldn’t have been directed at anyone else unless there’s an invisible contingent of fans arguing that Harris isn’t doing all these things, no? It feels very directed towards the people who have complaints about the player spending

Got it, so I will never post anything on this board that is directly related to anyone not on this board.


^ that was passive aggressive

I quoted something from X which is one of the biggest social media platforms on the planet. It was an open observation on an open message board about one of the biggest topics of the off season, about the team this message board is literally built around. If you some how took it personally like some call out… I’m sorry?

 

[NickyJ]

For my family, there's only two people interested in football. Me and my dad. I was born during the Norv years, my dad is in his late 70's now. I'm not even sure how much he actually cares about football, part of it is probably that it's one of the handful of medias that we can share and talk long conversations over.

We've watched 2 seasons that had a playoff win. 2005 when I was in my single digits, and 2024 when he reached his mid-70s. People live long lives now, but for every season that passes, every obituary of a Redskins player who died younger than my dad, it nags me just a little bit more. Will we ever get to celebrate a Super Bowl win together? Will we ever be able to go a full 2 seasons without having our conversation always turn to "Well, it's the same old deadskins."

I'm selfish. It's not my money. If I were a multi-millionaire rich enough to buy multiple sports franchises, maybe I'd count the spare change in my bank account too. But I'm not, so all I can do is hope, and wish, and want the team to do everything it can so that I have a kind of nice moment to celebrate with my dad while I still can.

 

[Conn]

Got it, so I will never post anything on this board that is directly related to anyone not on this board.

I quoted something from X which is one of the biggest social media platforms on the planet. It was an open observation on an open message board about one of the biggest topics of the off season, about the team this message board is literally built around. If you some how took it personally like some call out… I’m sorry?

So in your opinion:

1. There are lots of fans saying that Harris is generally cheap (not regarding roster), ignoring all the infrastructure, staffing, and off the field organizational spending he and the ownership group have done,

2. That group doesn’t reside on this message board, and

3. THAT’s the group of people your comment was aimed towards?

Alright, then I guess I got you all wrong, and we won’t see this sort of unrelated organizational spending brought up in future discussions regarding the roster spending, player payroll, and cap philosophy.

 

[Primus Porcus]

So in your opinion:

1. There are lots of fans saying that Harris is generally cheap (not regarding roster), ignoring all the infrastructure, staffing, and off the field organizational spending he and the ownership group have done,

2. That group doesn’t reside on this message board, and

3. THAT’s the group of people your comment was aimed towards?

Alright, then I guess I got you all wrong, and we won’t see this sort of unrelated organizational spending brought up in future discussions regarding the roster spending, player payroll, and cap philosophy.

I didn’t think that much about it to get that deep… simply said I hope people read this and understand the expense behind it… no different than going in the food thread and saying I hope people realize how good cheeseburgers are. Not trying to say everyone on this board believes cheeseburgers are bad, or that there is some blanket statement that NO cheeseburger can be bad.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

Looks like we're so bored now that we're starting to eat our own.

Happy Friday everyone and.............have we signed Diggs yet?

 

[Conn]

I didn’t think that much about it to get that deep… simply said I hope people read this and understand the expense behind it… no different than going in the food thread and saying I hope people realize how good cheeseburgers are. Not trying to say everyone on this board believes cheeseburgers are bad, or that there is some blanket statement that NO cheeseburger can be bad.

So you have no idea what you meant by what you said, other than being very sure it wasn’t what I thought you meant. Alright, my bad for trying to engage with your ideas, I’ll leave you to it.

(I really wasn’t trying to be a jerk, and did chuckle at your “now that was passive aggressive”. We communicate through text format here, I try to be clear about what is and isn’t being said and towards who and why. If you really don’t see why what you originally posted was received as passive aggressive, then alright)

 

[Primus Porcus]

So you have no idea what you meant by what you said, other than being very sure it wasn’t what I thought you meant. Alright, my bad for trying to engage with your ideas, I’ll leave you to it.

(I really wasn’t trying to be a jerk, and did chuckle at your “now that was passive aggressive”. We communicate through text format here, I try to be clear about what is and isn’t being said and towards who and why. If you really don’t see why what you originally posted was received as passive aggressive, then alright)

Last word

 

[Faithful Fan]

skinsinparadise and NickyJ said something I really feel, they are frustrated with decades of mediocrity and worse, and they just want to win. I’m sure we all relate to that.

Where I differ, I think, is that I do not believe championships can be bought. I’m old enough to remember Dan Snyder’s infamous spending sprees in 2000, 2006, 2009, etc. Given the choice between signing the next Deion Sanders or Brandon Lloyd and developing our own draft picks, I tend to prefer the latter. Although learning that some of you believe a player like Jauan Jennings or Stefon Diggs is the difference between a championship run and continued mediocrity does help me understand the rest of your posts related to this topic.