We began a long journey together back on March 1st when we first heard about the Deebo Samuel trade. The roster building continued at a fast pace with another trade — this one for LT Laremy Tunsil. The Commanders were as active in free agency in 2025 as they had been in 2024 as Adam Peters tried to atone for the roster-building sins of Ron Rivera.
Despite having only 5 draft picks, Peters seemed to get maximum impact, with Washington’s 7th round pick being used on one of the most dynamic running backs
in college football, the 4th round pick being used on an under-rated speedster out of Virginia Tech, and the 2nd round pick being used on a player that the Commanders had considered selecting in the first round.
With all the exciting roster-building moves made this offseason, it seemed like a good idea to hold a contest to see who could do the best job of predicting the eventual roster status of 18 late-round draft picks, college undrafted free agents and veterans on the roster bubble.
This year’s contest included entries from 75 participants, down slightly from last year’s all-time high of 110, but the most competitive field yet, with only 10 points separating the winner from the 9th-best score!
The winner
The winner of the 2025 Roster Prediction Contest is Boogieman, who scored an impressive total of 90 points out of a possible 112, correctly predicting the status of 15 out of 18 players. His biggest ‘miss’ was on Ale Kaho, the undrafted rookie who made the 53-man roster.
Our 2nd place entrant, OffseasonOptimist, also got 15 correct — including Ale Kaho — but he had two bigger misses with WR KJ Osborn and TE Lawrence Cager, scoring 86 points.
Two entrants — dnk and Posse 2.0 — tied for 3rd place with 84 points each. They each had the same key ‘miss’, picking S Ben Nikkel to make the practice squad; who was signed to the Colts’ instead.
We had a further 4 entrants tied at 82 points and one entrant alone in 9th place with 80 points.
So, on behalf of all the readers and contributors here at Hogs Haven, I’d like to extend my congratulations to Boogieman for demonstrating his deep understanding of the bottom of the Commanders roster.
As has been true of each Roster Prediction Contest winner since the contest began in 2017, Boogieman will, in perpetuity, be entitled to proclaim himself “Roster Contest Champion, 2025” even though signature lines are a thing of the past.
Let it be known in every corner of the land, from this day forth, that Boogieman is the Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and 2025 Roster Prophet Extraordinaire of Hogs Haven!
The contest and results
Entrants had to predict one of three outcomes for each player:
- He made the team (the final 53-man roster)
- He was put onto the Commanders practice squad; or
- He was cut
Entrants earned points for correct predictions, but were penalized for incorrect predictions by losing points.
The winning entry was determined by looking at the status of the 18 players at 5pm EDT on Thursday, 4 September 2025.
Here’s what actually happened to the 18 players in question:
Congratulations to Boogieman on his win, and to the rest of the entrants on well-thought-out and high-scoring entries. The overall accuracy of the entries is a testament to a fan base who is extremely knowledgeable about the relative unknowns at the bottom of the Commanders roster in 2025. Truly arcane knowledge!
Here is the list of the top-scoring entrants
I want to thank everyone who participated. I hope everyone enjoyed the contest and will return next year when we will update the prize to be even bigger and better by changing the year to 2026!
Enjoy the regular season, and #RaiseHail!!!
