Editor’s note: HH analyst Mark Tyler uses input from Commanders analyst Grant Mitchell, who offers quality content you can find on Twitter (@FullCommandShow) and on YouTube (@FullCommandShow)
I’ve always said that you can’t grade a draft class for at least two full seasons. With Adam Peters’ 2024 draft class, we now have two full seasons and six games to evaluate.
With that said, the grading of the 2024 class us now pretty fair game…
I saw this tweet from my friend Grant Mitchell from the Full Command
Show and it got the old gears a turning…
There is a LOT of RED on this 2024 list! I reached out to Grant to get a more detailed take on his colors. Unlike Grant, I cannot yet fairly give my grades for the 2025 or 2026 draft classes, so I kept this article about the 2024 class.
Grant’s Color Code:
Green: Objectively good draft pick
Yellow: Average — leaning slightly in good/bad direction or unproven
Red: Bad pick
- Jayden Daniels (RD1 – pick 2)
- Jer’Zhan Newton (RD2- pick 36)
- Mike Sandristil (RD2 – pick 50)
- Ben Sinnott (RD2 – pick 53)
- Brandon Coleman (RD3 – pick 67)
- Luke McCaffrey (RD3 – pick 100)
- Jordan Magee (RD5 – pick 139)
- Dominique Hampton (RD5 – pick 161)
- Javontae Jean-Baptiste (RD7 – pick 222)
I like to color-code using the Scot McCloughan system. This article I wrote in 2022 outlines that color-code (with some of my own added).
You all remember the great Scot McCloughan, right? We learned some good thing, and some not so good things, from his tenure in Washington.
One thing I took from Scot, that I still follow today, is his color coding system for players (which I have added to). Below is a excerpt from a 2016 interview with Bleacher Report where he describes his team-building mentality and his color scheme:
You don’t always need the biggest, fastest, strongest guys. You need football players who understand that it’s a team philosophy and, you know what, we’re fighting together.
Blues are like perennial Pro Bowl players. Reds are like really good football players.
So, if you’re lucky, you have four or five blues, and hopefully one of those is your quarterback. If you have another 30 who are reds, starters, solid backups, core special teams guys, then you have a chance. That’s how you build your roster. That’s how you build a team. That comes from this and this (points to his head and heart). It’s not about speed guys and the ESPN guy, the prettiest guy running around making plays. It’s a football player. You get enough football players, they’re going to fight together.
Taking the McCloughan approach, and adding a few colors of my own, I have color coded our current roster, done intentionally before free agency and the draft, to see where we currently sit per the McCloughan/Tyler way.
Tyler’s Take
Key
Blue – Pro Bowl Player
Red – Quality Starter
Orange – Average Starter
Yellow – Backup
Purple – Incomplete/No longer on team
- Jayden Daniels (RD1 – pick 2) – RED (potential to become BLUE)
- Jer’Zhan Newton (RD2- pick 36) – YELLOW
- Mike Sandristil (RD2 – pick 50) – YELLOW
- Ben Sinnott (RD2 – pick 53) – YELLOW
- Brandon Coleman (RD3 – pick 67) – YELLOW
- Luke McCaffrey (RD3 – pick 100) – YELLOW
- Jordan Magee (RD5 – pick 139) – YELLOW
- Dominique Hampton (RD5 – pick 161) – PURPLE
- Javontae Jean-Baptiste (RD7 – pick 222) – YELLOW
Out of nine draft picks, six being in the top 100, I have just one RED. Everyone else, with the exception of Dominique Hampton (who was cut) is what I’d call a backup (even though Coleman is currently a starter). Coleman is the one player from 2024 that you can argue could be considered an ORANGE, but even if he was listed as one, that shade would be a VERY LIGHT shade of ORANGE.
Mitchell and Tyler’s comparison
Grant and I discussed our grading systems a bit and I thought it would be interesting to see where we agreed; and maybe where we differed.
- Jayden Daniels: Both Grant and I agree that Jayden was a really good pick and one with high expectations. Grant feels he’s there, while I still believe he’s knocking on the doorstep.
- Jer’Zhan Newton: Both Grant and I agree that Newton was a bad pick and the colors show that. When a player taken with the 36th overall pick can’t even be a quality starter, that pretty much sums it up.
- Mike Sainristil: Mikey was awful in 2025 and that has carried over to his benching in 2026. Grant and I both agree — he’s not even average.
- Ben Sinnott: Grant lists him as average, where I have him in my categorization as a “backup.” There is probably not a lot of disparity here between our grades, but I tend to be a bit harsher given he was drafted with the 53rd overall pick in the draft.
- Brandon Coleman: Grant mentioned to me how poorly Coleman is at pass blocking (which I agree with), but he’s great in run blocking. I do not use the word “great” and Brandon Coleman in the same sentence, so we differ a bit here. I do think we’d both agree that he’s FAR from a RED, and in an ideal situation, probably a quality backup.
- Luke McCaffrey: Grant has Luke as a bad draft pick, and seeing how Adam Peters used a top 100 draft pick on him, I would have to agree. I colored him YELLOW, which is a backup, but that shade may lean more towards lemonade YELLOW versus what you see in the sky on a bight, summer day.
- Jordan Magee: I think Grant and I are both in alignment here that Magee is no more than a backup and that’s okay, because every team needs these types of players with fifth round draft picks. Unfortunately, Magee can’t seem to stay healthy.
- Dominique Hampton: Hampton was released by the team. Not much more to say here.
- Javontae Jean-Baptiste: Nothing special to see here. Jean-Baptiste is a situational backup.
Grant: C-
Would be a D, but they found the franchise QB.
Mark: C-
When you have six top 100 draft picks and come out with just one quality starter (a player who was essentially gift-wrapped for you), that’s not a good look.
