Commanders refusing to give any fire for rumors with draft visit tactic

The Washington Commanders essentially hold all but one of the cards in the upcoming NFL Draft. The Chicago Bears get to pick Caleb Williams No. 1 overall, which is a bummer. Kliff Kingsbury would have relished the chance to work with Williams again. But, otherwise, the landscape of the first round will be determined by the choice Washington makes at No. 2.

Jayden Daniels has been picking up steam in the rumor mill, with ESPN's Adam Schefter going as far as to say Washington fans can purchase their Daniels jerseys ahead of time. Still, the J.J. McCarthy buzz won't quite die, and Drake Maye was the consensus QB2 for most of the season. We cannot write Daniels into the Commanders depth chart in permanent ink. Not yet, at least.

The Commanders are playing their cards close to the vest, too. New owner Josh Harris is eager to make his impact felt on the franchise. Meanwhile, Adam Peters is looking to start his GM tenure strong. Dan Quinn and Kliff Kingsbury are new, too. The Commanders are starting a fresh chapter and this decision could very well determine the success of that chapter.

Peters is (smartly) carrying over some techniques from his tenure as the San Francisco 49ers' assistant GM. One example is a rather unique approach to pre-draft meetings. Rather than hosting 30 visits with each individual prospect, the Commanders are expected to host around 20 prospects at once on Tuesday and Wednesday. Among that group will be Jayden Daniels, J.J. McCarthy, Drake Maye, and Michael Penix Jr.

"[The] idea is to see them interact with peers," writes Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.

Commanders to host four top QB prospects at once in NFL Draft meeting

It's an ingenious concept, honestly. Such a meeting has the chance to get awkward with each QB competing for the right to go No. 2 overall. It's hard to imagine the logistics of hosting so many prospects. How to the Commanders get individual conversations in? Are there group activities? Are they all taking the team bus to dinner, like a college road trip?

Clearly this is not a new approach, and it's hard to knock the Niners' success in terms of team-building. You can learn a lot about a person from how they interact with peers, especially those in direct competition with them. The Commanders are focusing on the power of observation in a group context, rather than cornering each prospect in an individual visit.

Maybe that's the best way to get honest feedback, to really see how a person is. A one-on-one interview can get rigid and rehearsed. By viewing prospects in a group, there's a chance to see a layer of personality that might otherwise be suppressed in an isolated setting.

It's out there, it's fresh, and frankly, I'm a fan. At least conceptually. It's impossible to know without being in the building, of course, but it's good to see the Commanders being run with a sense of purpose. The best GMs have an authorial voice — they operate by their own codes and shape the roster under a certain set of principles. Maybe Peters is the dude to bring the Commanders back to relevance.