Trade Deadline Recap and What it Means for Washington

By: Sam Myer 11/05/2025

The NFL trade deadline was Tuesday November 4th and it wound up to be an entertaining day across the league. Almost every fringe playoff team has made trades over the last few days, they’ve attempted to bolster their rosters to make a run. Unlike 2024, Washington was not amongst these teams as they were inactive on trade deadline day. After falling to 3-6 Sunday night, many expected Washington to be sellers at the deadline. The injuries have continuously piled up and their playoff chances have vanished, so attempting to garner more draft picks seemed the natural route. Unfortunately for Adam Peters, he wasn’t able to acquire the desired compensation for any Commanders players. Thus, Washington came out of the trade deadline completely empty.

This does not come as a big surprise considering the age of Washington’s roster and the plethora of injuries suffered by starting players. If any players were going to be moved at the deadline, it would’ve been one of their veterans. It’s likely that none of their vets were going to get a good enough return for next year’s draft. Washington is currently sitting at only 5 picks in the 2026 draft after trading for Laremy Tunsil and these picks weren’t going to be replaced by trading anyone on the 2025 roster.

Due to the lack of draft picks, Washington will likely need to build their future through free agency instead of the draft alone. Luckily, the Commanders should have plenty of cap space in 2026 to make a couple of marquee signings in free agency. Their current biggest needs are at edge rusher, cornerback, and safety. It can be expected that Washington will make aggressive efforts to sign high profile names at each of these positions in order to be better prepared for the 2026 season. Trey Hendrickson will likely be the main target for the Commanders front office along at edge rusher, but there are plenty of other options for them to pursue. Greg Newsome and Amik Robertson will likely be the main targets in the secondary and George Pickens will be the main target at wide receiver.

Washington’s future will be determined by their 1st and 3rd round picks in the 2026 draft and which impact players they acquire in free agency. While it feels like the sky is falling for the Commanders, the fanbase will need to wait a few more months for the roster progress they desire.