Commanders pre-Draft depth chart and salary cap update: Washington currently has 73 players and 9 draft picks

The draft begins Thursday at 8pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time

With the countdown to the draft at much less than 100 hours (and ticking), it seems like a good time to take a look at the Washington Commanders roster in the form of a depth chart.

As things stand at the moment, the team has 73 players on the roster. There are 36 players on defense, 34 on offense, and 3 special teams specialists.

UPDATED DEPTH CHART

The numbers that appear beside some players’ names are 2024 cap hits per Over the Cap.

Please note that assigned positions and color coding are my own personal opinions. They do not necessarily represent the thinking of Washington’s coaches or front office, nor are they necessarily consistent with fan consensus. This chart represents my personal interpretation, and may not reflect the thoughts of other writers on Hogs Haven. Finally, when it comes to backup players, I don’t put much effort into making sure that they are on the right or left or behind the specific player that they backup. I mostly just try to fit everyone on the chart efficiently.

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I want to offer a few notes of explanation about the chart. For further explanations that have been given in previous iterations of the chart, feel free to CLICK HERE and look through prior articles.

Roster changes since the last roster update

• LS Tucker Addington was (finally) released
• Shaka Toney was released after being reinstated by the NFL
• RB Jeremy McNichols was signed
• QB Jeff Driskel was signed
• LB Mykal Walker was signed
• DL Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi was added to the roster via the International Player Pathway program

Long snapper
Tucker Addington was signed to replace Cameron Cheeseman late last season when Ron Rivera finally understood that Cheeseman had forgotten how to snap the ball. Addington played the final 3 games for the team and was under contract for 2024. He became redundant in March when the team signed former Harvard tight end and long snapper Tyler Ott to a 3-year contract. I have no idea why the front office waited until April to release Addington, but it’s now official.

Shaka Toney

The International Player Pathway program
The IPP has a relatively long history in the NFL now, and this year, the program was revised and expanded. At the time it was launched, only one division at a time could sign players through the IPP (e.g., all the teams in the NFC East were able to sign players in 2020), with a limit of one player per team. This year, 2024, 16 players joined NFL teams, including DL Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi, who signed with the Commanders.

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Since its inception, 37 international players have signed with NFL teams (allocated, drafted or signed as a free agent), with 18 IPP athletes currently on NFL rosters. Five players —Jordan Mailata, Jakob Johnson, Efe Obada, Sammis Reyes and David Bada — have been on the active rosters of the Philadelphia Eagles, Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders, since the program began in 2017.

After training camp, the group of 16 IPP athletes will be eligible to fill a 17th practice squad roster spot across any of the 32 teams — an additional spot reserved for an international player — following the rule change beginning with the 2024 season applicable to athletes outside of the United States and Canada.

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While the IPP player is eligible to make the regular roster (as David Bada did last season), if he is on the practice squad, he is the 17th player on the squad (normally only 16 players). During the offseason, teams with IPP players have an exemption that allows each to carry 91 players, with the IPP being the 91st guy. Washington, then, will be able to bring 91 players to OTAs, minicamp and training camp.

9 Draft picks

If Washington ends up drafting exactly 9 players this week, then, after adding the team’s 9 drafted rookies, the Commanders will have 82 players at the end of the 7th round . The full training camp roster, as mentioned, comprises 91 players.

UDFAs

As it stands now, the front office would be able to sign 9 undrafted college free agents, which is a pretty typical number for an NFL training camp. Like everything roster & cap related this time of year, this estimate is tentative and somewhat fluid — easily affected by changing circumstances (like draft trades) — but we’re starting to have a good idea of the composition of the training camp roster. That vision will come into sharp focus in the first week of May.

Estimated Salary Cap available

Over the Cap currently estimates that the Commanders have $43.46m in available cap space.

Rookie Pool estimate

As always, the team needs to reserve money for the draft class, which is currently expected to comprise 9 rookies. Since the team has signed over 20 free agents so far this offseason, the math changed slightly since I detailed it in an article in March.

The Commanders now need to reserve $7.55m for the draft class.

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Here’s the math:

The Round 1 pick will have a cap hit of $6.863m, but will push Jeff Driskel and his $985,000 cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for Rd 1 pick = $5,878,027

The #36 Round 2 pick will have a cap hit of $1.774m, but he will push Tariq Castro-Fields and his $985,000 cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for for #36 pick = $789,181.

The #40 Round 2 pick will have a cap hit of $1.687m, but he will push John Ridgeway and his $985,000 cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for for #36 pick = $702,930.

The #67 Round 3 pick will have a cap hit of $1.101m, but he will push Armani Rogers and his $990,834 cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for for #36 pick = $110,661.

The #78 Round 3 pick will have a cap hit of $1.064m, but he will push KJ Henry and his $1.004m cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for for #36 pick = $60,094.

The #100 Round 3 pick will have a cap hit of $1.017m, but he will push Christian Holmes and his $1.008m cap hit off the list. Net cap hit for for #36 pick = $9,041.

The lowest remaining salary on the top-51 is $1,011,112 (Chris Paul). The final 3 draft picks from rounds 5 and 7 all have cap hits of less than $1m in 2024, so these final 3 draft picks are not counted in the top-51 and have no impact at all on the offseason salary cap.

This means that the actual amount of available cap space that the Commanders need to reserve is $7,549,934 ($5,878,027 + $789,181 + $702,930 + $110,661 + $60,094 + $9,041).

The Commanders will need $7.55m to sign their 9 draft picks.

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• That adjustment (for drafted rookies) drops the available cap space from $43.46m to around $35.9m.
• Every NFL team needs a ‘contingency’ to allow the team to sign injury replacements in-season. In 2024, I estimate that the team needs to reserve about $6.5m, which would drop the money available for free agency to about $29.4m.

There will be many other adjustments to the estimated cap space going forward, which will include accounting for the entire 53-man roster and practice squad and other adjustments, but for now, if the team doesn’t acquire any more high-dollar veteran players, my best-guesstimation is that the team can be expected to roll over around $20-25m at the end of the season.

Any cap space that is rolled over will be added to the Commanders’ 2025 salary cap. Of course, as is true of most salary cap numbers, this is a highly conditional estimate that may be subject to dramatic changes between now and the end of the regular season.

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