The Front Office: Adam Peters and Roster Construction

[KDawg]

Yeah this is what I'm responding to more than anything else. Just trying to disrupt the echo a little bit. As Primus points out above, a positive IF could change the mood quite a bit. We'll see.



I can see your line of thought but man, you are one decisive son of a b (I admire it).

You cite retaining a lame duck HC/GM as a waste of our franchise QB's potential, I say pushing the reset button on a salvageable operation too early could land you in the same predicament.

The Bears and Jets are recent examples of where things go wrong. Premium draft pick used on QB, regime is ousted quickly, QB is deemed damaged goods by the new group, rinse and repeat.

However, Bears might have broken the cycle with Caleb and Ben, basketball guy hating, Johnson. That could be a shut me up positive example of your approach.

We'll see.

I ask, what so far, besides hope, makes you see this as salvageable? Proof is in the pudding and it’s ugly.

But again, I’m not saying make the decision now. Ownership made the decision to keep Quinn. He should get the chance to see it through.

And if Jayden plays out of his mind maybe things do pan out. But that is my hope hat right now, not my logic hat.

 

[DWinzit]

Yeah this basically sums up my stance.

But to Conn and others' point, we really ought to see one All Pro/Pro Bowler emerge from his past draft selections this year. I really want to see that happen to go from feeling ok to great about AP.

Yes along with most of the others becoming serious contributors. That is high expectations with only 3 picks in the top 180 picks. The team however has so many needs and missed on so many draftees in recent years they need them hit. We have a shot at one 6th being a heavy RB contributor, the other 6th could be a good backup IOL and maybe someday a starting C and the 7th should be our QB3 with upside to be our QB2.

 

[Conn]

I mean look, even you Conn, you’re arguing a 3rd round 2026 draft pick is the type of deep draft gem AP never finds. Guy hasn’t played a meaningful NFL snap.

I think you mistook me there. My point was that even if we nail the Styles pick (and we should nail the hyped 1st round selection, if nothing else)…if our rival then finds a good off-ball LB in the 3rd in the same class, are we getting ahead? It was just an example of finding talent all over, and how you need to do it at a higher rate than your rivals to be great. You have to stack talent in this league, you have to compete in your division first. If we aren’t building something longterm, year over year, and are instead constantly replacing the talent we had the previous year, then we’re treading water. Not every team can nail drafts and become great, but that’s the goal no? I don’t want to grade AP against the average, because I don’t aspire to watch an average franchise.

We aren’t signing enough talent to longterm deals with our insane cap space, we aren’t drafting enough difference-makers and building block players to scaffold the rest of the roster around. If that changes, I’ll be the first one beating my chest and bragging about the decision-makers.

 

[Hailer]

Kdawg and Conn - I think we’re just interpreting the same things differently. You expect this ship to sink, I’m not as pessimistic.

Plenty I can point to that give me optimism.

-Several AP picks have flashed potential of being really good players. 2024 class is put up or shut up time but enough potential hits remain for me to feel like we have a good draft operation
-AP aggressively pursued talent this offseason. Didn’t plug every hole but at least attempted to. Shows me he learned from past mistakes (what happens at C may change my thought dramatically)
-We’re winning more trades than losing. Trading for and extending a premium LT is an excellent maneuver
-Picking JD over Maye… I think this was an elite move. JD carried us to NFCE during the playoffs. Maye was dragged to the SB by good fortune and excellent D.
-We won negotiations with Terry. AP may have sacrificed the 25 season with his stubbornness but I’d rather have the appropriate contract than one that hinders our future deals. Lesson prob learned on the timeline over which it was negotiated but I am overall pleased with the outcome.
-AP has plucked late offseason gems before - Noah Brown was a significant contributor in 24. We got him around the same time we should be finding our C depth.

Overall I think this regime has made its fair share of mistakes but demonstrates an ability to course correct. I think we’re good enough to go on a run this year.

And I think it’s fair to say you both feel less charitable about each of my points of optimism. Doubt we’re changing opinions here. But we’ll have more useful data to work with in a few weeks.

 

[Boone]

I think the ability to course correct is still in serious question. Last year there was no course correction. We imploded. It's fair to chalk that up to a ridiculous number of injuries, so I'm not saying 2025 was some kind of litmus test. But they had another full season to prepare for the worst. If a handful of injuries derails us again, and we can't overcome adverse events, that's going to call leadership into question. and honestly - it's year 3 - we should be expecting to see improvement across the board. I'm open to the idea that they can surprise us this season, primarily because of the defensive overhaul, and also because we did add a couple of weapons for Jayden.

 

[The Rook]

Sometimes I think the FO suffers from "group-think", where they remain in lockstep on their strategy and choices. I'm not sure they have a devil's advocate in the building.

The Rook

 

[lovemaskins]

Kdawg and Conn - I think we’re just interpreting the same things differently. You expect this ship to sink, I’m not as pessimistic.

Plenty I can point to that give me optimism.

-Several AP picks have flashed potential of being really good players. 2024 class is put up or shut up time but enough potential hits remain for me to feel like we have a good draft operation
-AP aggressively pursued talent this offseason. Didn’t plug every hole but at least attempted to. Shows me he learned from past mistakes (what happens at C may change my thought dramatically)
-We’re winning more trades than losing. Trading for and extending a premium LT is an excellent maneuver
-Picking JD over Maye… I think this was an elite move. JD carried us to NFCE during the playoffs. Maye was dragged to the SB by good fortune and excellent D.
-We won negotiations with Terry. AP may have sacrificed the 25 season with his stubbornness but I’d rather have the appropriate contract than one that hinders our future deals. Lesson prob learned on the timeline over which it was negotiated but I am overall pleased with the outcome.
-AP has plucked late offseason gems before - Noah Brown was a significant contributor in 24. We got him around the same time we should be finding our C depth.

Overall I think this regime has made its fair share of mistakes but demonstrates an ability to course correct. I think we’re good enough to go on a run this year.

And I think it’s fair to say you both feel less charitable about each of my points of optimism. Doubt we’re changing opinions here. But we’ll have more useful data to work with in a few weeks.

I have the exact opposite interpretation of your perspective:

Other than Jayden, that 2024 draft class has been below average at best, and considering we had multiple early and mid round picks (and trading back with Philly and passing on DeJean) makes it worst.

To Conn’a point, AP plugs holes with 1 year contracts at bargain rates, so we re-create the same holes year after year while never improving the roster overall. We still don’t have any foundational players except Jayden and now Styles?

Not sure picking Jayden is elite, he was a supernova in college, though I am happy we did. But rumor was McCarthy was his 2nd favorite… but other than him, all the early QBs seem to be fairing well.

I was and still am in the camp that we completely mishandled the Terry situation. Complete stupidity playing chicken with your 2nd year QBs primary target if you’re prioritizing QB development. Hurt Jayden in camp and Terry got the hamstring injury we all feared he’d get after ramping up too fast.

Choosing to depend on “gems” like Noah Brown, who couldn’t make the Texans roster, who became our #2??? Are you kidding me…?

And for me, he trades draft picks… Him thinking we were a corner away in 2024 and trading picks for Lattimore has me questioning his entire philosophy as a GM.

Then traded for Tunsil after Coleman did fine at left, sure he still needed development, but he was fine, only to draft another tackle last year. Then we botch Biadasz, still trying to plug a tackle into a guard spot, with Allegretti at Center without a competent backup…

I just can’t get with his logic or team building philosophy at all. 3 years in and I still don’t know what we’re trying to build.

Just that he likes a high RAS score.

 

[Hailer]

lovemaskins I think we both agree AP has built something.

Good luck to our team. Could be a contender, could be an airplane without wings! We’ll see

 

[KDawg]

Kdawg and Conn - I think we’re just interpreting the same things differently. You expect this ship to sink, I’m not as pessimistic.

Plenty I can point to that give me optimism.

-Several AP picks have flashed potential of being really good players. 2024 class is put up or shut up time but enough potential hits remain for me to feel like we have a good draft operation
-AP aggressively pursued talent this offseason. Didn’t plug every hole but at least attempted to. Shows me he learned from past mistakes (what happens at C may change my thought dramatically)
-We’re winning more trades than losing. Trading for and extending a premium LT is an excellent maneuver
-Picking JD over Maye… I think this was an elite move. JD carried us to NFCE during the playoffs. Maye was dragged to the SB by good fortune and excellent D.
-We won negotiations with Terry. AP may have sacrificed the 25 season with his stubbornness but I’d rather have the appropriate contract than one that hinders our future deals. Lesson prob learned on the timeline over which it was negotiated but I am overall pleased with the outcome.
-AP has plucked late offseason gems before - Noah Brown was a significant contributor in 24. We got him around the same time we should be finding our C depth.

Overall I think this regime has made its fair share of mistakes but demonstrates an ability to course correct. I think we’re good enough to go on a run this year.

And I think it’s fair to say you both feel less charitable about each of my points of optimism. Doubt we’re changing opinions here. But we’ll have more useful data to work with in a few weeks.

I don’t expect the ship to sink. I don’t see what’s going to happen in the future. But I do see that the ship is taking on water and if we don’t do something quick it’s going down.

People say they see my points but I’m not sure they do.

It’s not that we are going to be bad. It’s that right now things aren’t going well and I haven’t loved our direction all offseason.

I do think time is running out. But it’s not over.

I just don’t trust our ability to pivot. We haven’t shown that ability over the last two seasons.

Doesn’t mean we won’t.

We just haven’t. I trust my eyes.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Yes, I feel many are looking at smaller windows and using those small windows to make them feel better. Like, ok, with our new coordinators we may have a better chance this season. True. We however did not refresh many assistants. Many were in-house promotions.

It is ok, the team may certainly play better than preseason shows. That is always possible because preseason is not a good predictor. The thing is, people like KDawg, myself, others, we are looking at specific aspects not looking right; that is not preseason W/L or sky is falling nonsense.

Like, do our OL seem like their technique is right. That won’t improve with schematic improvement. It can mask bad technique, sure.

We will see. Some of the things people are talking about may indicate some issues at the assistant level. We will have to see how it all plays out.

 

[method man]

To Conn ’s point, if we finish 7-10 and we fire both AP & DQ at the end of the season, as long as JD holds serve as a top 15 QB, this is going to be a very attractive job for the next GM & HC. Maybe the HC is in house in Blough or maybe we get a Rams package in John McKay and Nate Scheelhasse or it is Tomlin, which for all the hate he gets, is an upgrade over DQ

 

[SkinsLife]

To Conn ’s point, if we finish 7-10 and we fire both AP & DQ at the end of the season, as long as JD holds serve as a top 15 QB, this is going to be a very attractive job for the next GM & HC. Maybe the HC is in house in Blough or maybe we get a Rams package in John McKay and Nate Scheelhasse or it is Tomlin, which for all the hate he gets, is an upgrade over DQ

If we finish 7-10.. then O wasnt good either... so doubt Blough gets a HC job. Only way that happens is that if Quinn gets fired mid season (pretty likely is we go 2-4/1-5) Blough is the interim HC and finishes 7-10.. while O is carrying the D.. i could see that. But Peters has to go.. and the new GM might not choose to keep Blough

 

[Boone]

I have the exact opposite interpretation of your perspective:

Other than Jayden, that 2024 draft class has been below average at best, and considering we had multiple early and mid round picks (and trading back with Philly and passing on DeJean) makes it worst.

To Conn’a point, AP plugs holes with 1 year contracts at bargain rates, so we re-create the same holes year after year while never improving the roster overall. We still don’t have any foundational players except Jayden and now Styles?

Not sure picking Jayden is elite, he was a supernova in college, though I am happy we did. But rumor was McCarthy was his 2nd favorite… but other than him, all the early QBs seem to be fairing well.

I was and still am in the camp that we completely mishandled the Terry situation. Complete stupidity playing chicken with your 2nd year QBs primary target if you’re prioritizing QB development. Hurt Jayden in camp and Terry got the hamstring injury we all feared he’d get after ramping up too fast.

Choosing to depend on “gems” like Noah Brown, who couldn’t make the Texans roster, who became our #2??? Are you kidding me…?

And for me, he trades draft picks… Him thinking we were a corner away in 2024 and trading picks for Lattimore has me questioning his entire philosophy as a GM.

Then traded for Tunsil after Coleman did fine at left, sure he still needed development, but he was fine, only to draft another tackle last year. Then we botch Biadasz, still trying to plug a tackle into a guard spot, with Allegretti at Center without a competent backup…

I just can’t get with his logic or team building philosophy at all. 3 years in and I still don’t know what we’re trying to build.

Just that he likes a high RAS score.

I agree with most of this - except that trading for an elite LT in his prime in Tunsil is exactly the kind of bold move you want from a GM, especially when you are trying to protect a young franchise QB. I particularly agree on the 1 year contracts. I get that strategy in the first year because we were so bereft of talent, but it feels like trying to build cohesive units on both sides of the ball when half your roster is new every season is a pretty steep climb and it may also be contributing to it taking us half a season for guys being comfortable playing together every year. I think one of the biggest issues with the organizational reboot was greenlighting Dan Quinn's choice of coordinators, and his subsequent replacement of both coordinators in a crucial year 3. Quinn clearly feels he picked the wrong guys for both roles or he wouldn't have replaced them both after just 2 seasons. I view part of APs jobs not necessarily to be to override or interfere with the head coaches decisions, but it's certainly his job to advise, vet, and challenge them. If he did those things, he did them poorly and the end result is starting over in season 3 with inexperienced new coordinators. If those were our only question marks right now, they would still be huge question marks.

Maybe those moves will prove to be genius. I hope so. My fear is that Quinn won't be here long enough to find out what we have in Daronte Jones and David Blough.

 

[burgold]

One thing I will say, three years enough to know or get a really good feeling.

Year 1: Outstanding
Year 2: Train wreck
Year 3: TBD

If it is a train wreck again, then you have to consider that the reality of this regime.
If it is average it depends on how we got to average. If it's the coordinators finding their groove and the team coalescing in a positive way then good. If it limps to 7-10 and dies with an effort like we saw at the end of '25 or yesterday, then that, too, is the reality of the regime
If it is a bullet train to success, well then, we'll all be partying.

Weirdly, I can see all three of these scenarios playing out though, admittedly, it's easier to see the first two.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I found it interesting that Adam chose now as the time to step out and do things like the event with G&D, and now weekly appearances with the Junkies.

Perhaps trying to win the fans over with charisma, but if the wheels fall off - it’s going to be a long season of having to answer for it weekly.

I’ve got to believe if this team craters this season, there’s a whole reset coming.

Wasn’t long ago that AP was far and away the next greatest thing himself.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I found it interesting that Adam chose now as the time to step out and do things like the event with G&D, and now weekly appearances with the Junkies.

Perhaps trying to win the fans over with charisma, but if the wheels fall off - it’s going to be a long season of having to answer for it weekly.

I’ve got to believe if this team craters this season, there’s a whole reset coming.

Wasn’t long ago that AP was far and away the next greatest thing himself.

Yeah, I wondered the same thing. Seeing Harris mic’d up and calling him Adam “f’ing” Peters, and then hearing Peters himself acknowledge — even if somewhat indirectly — that the regime may have gotten a little arrogant or complacent after the success of 2024, feels telling. Especially when you couple that with some beat guys echoing the same sentiment.

Peters came in with an enormous amount of hype. He was treated like the crown jewel of the GM market, 2024 immediately exceeded everyone’s expectations, and suddenly almost everything he touched seemed to work. It’s not hard to imagine how that could create a little overconfidence. And Peters is no dummy. I’d imagine he sensed the pendulum swinging back the other way after last season.

And it’s not just fans criticizing him. Some of his front-office peers criticized his offseason haul in The Athletic’s post-free-agency survey. Washington has ranked near the bottom in some national roster evaluations. Even Louis Riddick, who absolutely loves Jayden, recently raised the question of whether Peters has done enough around him.

Then there was Scot McCloughan on Sheehan. When asked about Peters, he vouched for him as a good guy but stopped short of vouching for him as an evaluator, basically saying he didn’t know. Maybe that meant absolutely nothing. But considering everything else, I at least wondered whether there was a little more behind that answer.

For me personally, I loved the Peters hire at the time. I obviously loved how 2024 turned out. I think some good fortune was involved, but who cares? Every great season has some luck involved, and Peters deserves credit for the moves that worked.

I was much less impressed with the 2025 offseason. I thought he left some pretty obvious holes at key positions, and I didn’t love some of the vibes heading into the season, although I certainly didn’t anticipate the whole thing collapsing the way it did.

This offseason, I mostly dig what he’s done. But I also recognize that my take is somewhat at odds with a lot of the national media and pundits. In various forms, plenty of them seem to think this is one of the weaker rosters in the NFL.

So we’ll see. If they’re right and this really is one of the worst rosters in the league, that’s a pretty damning indictment of Peters considering the draft capital and cap flexibility he inherited. At some point, the roster is the GM’s résumé.

But if this season turns out well and some of these moves hit, Peters will be vindicated and the narrative will swing right back in his direction. I’m hoping hard of course for the latter.

 

[Primus Porcus]

Something to remember about how the NFL works

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Here how I think about Peters' moves:

- 2024 FA class as a whole: Absolutely brilliant, and everything he tried worked. How much of that was luck and how much was talent, I'm not sure. But he got a lot of has-beens and never-gonna-be's and literally just about every one of them hit
- 2024 Draft Class: HUGE question mark. At the moment, there are 3 sure-fire starters from that group: Daniels, Coleman and Sainristil. The question is, how good are they outside of Daniels? And there are some apparent busts with Newton, Sinnott and probably McCaffery. Maybe a few other depth pieces are fine, but with that number of picks, you need more from that class than we have gotten. Either Coleman or Sainristil needs to turn into a stud muffin, or that class needs 2 more starters to contribute. Otherwie outside of Daniels it would be a big disappointment.
- 2024 trade for Lattimore: I loved the aggressiveness. We had nothing at CB. They traded for a former pro-bowl CB, but it didn't work. Ultimately, it goes down as a huge mistake, however I liked the idea of attacking success.
- 2025 trade for Tunsil: If you have the chance to get a top 5 LT in their prime, you do it and don't ask questions. Great move.
- 2025 trade for Deebo: I have no real opinion. I fall much more into the "fuck them picks" Rams than a "draft picks are sacred" methodology overall. Trading a 5th for one year of a starting WR, I'm totally fine with, but I know others would disagree.
- 2025 FA: Complete and total debacle. Peters tried to band aid together the roster while walking the tight rope of keeping the band together and adding some key pieces. It all failed. Also, they let some people go which made no sense and kept at least one which made no sense. They kept Noah Brown (why coming off a kidney injury or whatever) and let OZ and DBrown walk, they also let Chinn walk. They re-signed Ertz, fine, but didn't bring in anybody else with better athleticism as well. The WR room was placing a big bet on Noah Brown to complement Terry and Deebo, and that went bust really fast.
- 2025 philosophy: Rely on larger contributions from the 2024 draft class. That didn't materialize at all.
- 2025 draft class: Still too early to tell, but Amos is STILL hurt from his injury last year. Conerly hasn't quite taken the leap forward based on camp. Bill has missed the majority of camp with an injury. Starting to look more bleak than it was 6 months ago.
- 2026 FA: Really liked what they did on defense especially with one exception outlined below. They had to get faster and younger and they did. So we'll see how that plays out. Loved the Chig signing. They swung and missed at WR, but eventually filled that void.
- 2026 Center: They created a hole when they released Biadasz. Whatever you think of that move, Peters had to have a plan to fill that void. They went hard for Linderbaum, but came up short. Then they had OverPlan B, which I suspect was one of the centers who retired, but it hasn't been reported. When those fell through, they did nothing else, which has been a complete and total debacle.
- 2026 CB: This position terrified me more than WR and Center from the outset of 2026. Amos was hurt. Sainristil had a bad second season. They signed a nickel guy in Robertson who struggled outside, even though he's a "dog ass competitor." It wasn't until later in the summer they signed Douglas. Who might be the best CB on the team. This room was devoid of starters AND depth. And Amos is still hurt. This is still a huge concern.

What will make Peters' roster construction look better is if the 2024 and 2025 drafts hit. I think so far, that's the biggest question mark. He hasn't drafted well enough. We'll see how draft 3 goes. In FA there has been some good, some bad. But if you're going to build through the draft, you have to draft well. Which he hasn't, at least not yet.

And not even the best GMs hit on all of their draft picks. But Peters needs to have at least one good draft in his first three.

One additional note for the 2024 draft: Because of the timing of when he was hired, Peters had whatever analysis he had personally done and carried with him in his head from San Fran, and whatever our existing staff had put together. He was working with the former regime's staff, not his own. Is there something to that? Maybe. At the end of the day, GMs do rely on their scouts for input a lot. Teams really can't change their scouting department between Jan and the draft. So it would be interesting to see if Peters thought the work the staff was doing was sub-par or whatever. I know there have been changes to the scouting department since Peters took over. How much, it's never really reported on because it's all behind the scenes.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter, Peters is the person making the picks. But I do wonder, drafts for new GMs using the old staff, how do they generally go?

 

[burgold]

Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

I hope they are working the phones hard today and scouring tape in anticipation of making waiver claims tomorrow. I'd really love to trade one of our probable cuts (because we have too much quality depth) for someone else's likely cut (because they have too much quality depth.) I'd love to get a bird in hand.

Still, chances are, given how methodical Peters is, we will probably have to wait and see on Monday if we've made any claims.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

I hope they are working the phones hard today and scouring tape in anticipation of making waiver claims tomorrow. I'd really love to trade one of our probable cuts (because we have too much quality depth) for someone else's likely cut (because they have too much quality depth.) I'd love to get a bird in hand.

Still, chances are, given how methodical Peters is, we will probably have to wait and see on Monday if we've made any claims.

I'm sure they are trying everything.

Teams have already started making cuts.

I don't think Peters being methodical is going to stop them from being aggressive if there is somebody they could trade for. However, what they are looking for is hard to find. They are looking for a player who could start at Center in NFL games in 2 weeks.

Not a lot of those guys are available, for a trade at this point. Maybe one or two...