How the Ohio State Buckeyes can help the Commanders in the draft

INDIANAPOLIS — When the Washington Commanders travel to Columbus, Ohio, later this month for Ohio State’s pro day, they’ll get a chance to witness multiple players they could take with the seventh overall pick. In fact, all four players projected as possible top-10 selections could make sense for Washington.

The Commanders’ list of needs is long, but it includes edge rusher, receiver, linebacker and defensive back. Ohio State has a player at each spot who could tempt them.

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“It’s unusual to have that type of talent,” Washington coach Dan Quinn said at the NFL combine where teams met with players last week. “You leave those meetings saying, ‘Man, there’s one.’ And you go to another meeting and you say, ‘OK, there’s another one.'”

Edge rusher Arvell Reese, linebacker Sonny Styles, safety Caleb Downs and receiver Carnell Tate are the players who could be taken high. And if the Commanders trade back, as one team source pointed out, defensive tackle Kayden McDonald could be added to the list as well.

That will make Ohio State’s pro day on March 25 an important one for Washington.

“It makes it easier to see all of them at once,” general manager Adam Peters said. “There’s a lot of guys on that defense that are really good.”

Clearly, players from other schools will be in the mix as well; much will depend on what Washington does in free agency. But the Commanders need to provide new defensive coordinator Daronte Jones with more talent. Their defense finished 27th in scoring and last in yards in 2025.

Here’s how each Buckeye would fill a need:

The edge: Arvell Reese

The Commanders will be aggressive pursuing edge rushers in free agency, so their need for this position could diminish by the time the draft occurs. There’s also doubt that Reese will fall beyond the top five in the draft.

Washington also will return Dorance Armstrong, who was having his best season before tearing his ACL in the first quarter of a Week 7 game at Dallas. In the first six games, he posted 5.5 sacks — three shy of his career high with a 21.4% pass rush win rate, also a personal best.

But, if they don’t fill that need and if Reese somehow falls, then he would make sense for the Commanders.

“The versatility of him being an on-the-ball and off-the-ball player, that’s a big deal,” Quinn said. “I could see a team blitzing him until he develops a real pass-rush arsenal. I know first-hand what that looks like with a player.”

The player to whom Quinn is referring is Micah Parsons, who Quinn coached for three years in Dallas.

“Micah didn’t have a lot of [edge] pass rushes but you knew if we could get him on a back, it was lights out,” Quinn said. “What we’ll find from [Reese] is that he’s going to be one hell of a blitzer because of the physicality, the toughness, the quickness.”

The linebacker: Sonny Styles

Peters has made it clear: They want to add more speed and length in the front seven in particular. Styles would meet that criteria. He measured 6-foot-5, 244 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds. He entered Ohio State as a safety but started at linebacker the past two seasons and did not miss a tackle in the first 13 games in 2025. That’s a desirable trait for a team that missed quite a few tackles last year.

Washington probably will need another linebacker as veteran Bobby Wagner is not guaranteed to return. And if he does, it probably would not be for the same every-down role that he’s had the past two years.

Quinn equated Styles to a quarterback (he said the same about Downs).

“For him to shift to a position and already have command of it, you can see where it’s going,” Quinn said. “Sonny is getting to where it’s going to be [elite] as a signal caller but it’s the length, the squareness of playing linebacker, it’s the tackling ability. We didn’t see a lot of Sonny blitzing [because of] Arvell so where is that going to go? His floor is high, but his ceiling is still high. Caleb’s floor is already way up there.”

The safety: Caleb Downs

The Commanders want to improve their secondary play, adding more versatility. Jones’ scheme will rely in part on the defensive backs ability to disguise coverages, which taps into a player’s smarts and ability to play more than one spot.

Downs started for three years in college — one at Alabama and two at Ohio State. Analysts peg him as someone who could drop into deep coverage, play in the box or possibly even cover in the slot, and they laud his instincts. Multiple analysts and teams have compared his game to that of Cardinals safety Budda Baker, a second-round pick in 2017 who has made four All-Pro teams and eight Pro Bowls.

The question surrounding Downs remains whether to draft a safety in the top 10. ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid has called him one of the two best players in the draft along with Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love.

“The football instincts and the football knowledge you’ve read about are absolutely spot on,” Quinn said. “It’s as high a level of intellect from a college safety. … When you have that type and it shows up on tape you have the makings of an incredible player. … With this one, you put on the tape and you say, ‘Whoa.’ Then you meet the player and it’s the same, ‘Whoa.'”

The receiver: Carnell Tate

Receiver is another position in which they’ll be aggressive in free agency, so they could lessen the need for Tate before the draft begins. But if they fail to land a receiver, they could opt for Tate — depending on if they have filled enough defensive holes in free agency.

But if they drafted Tate, he would provide what the Commanders need: a big threat opposite fellow Buckeye Terry McLaurin. They’d prefer to find a true No. 2 receiver — unlike last season when they had Deebo Samuel, anticipating him less as a No. 2 than as a versatile offensive piece.

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Tate caught 51 passes for 875 yards — 17.2 yards per catch — and nine touchdowns last season. If Washington drafted him, it could also give quarterback Jayden Daniels a young target with which to grow. McLaurin is scheduled to count $34 million vs. the cap next season, which could make him a candidate to be cut or to have his contract restructured.

In three seasons at Ohio State, Tate caught 121 passes for 1,872 yards and 14 touchdowns, establishing himself as a big-play target. Tate is 6-2¾ and 192 pounds, tall for a receiver. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds, which could cause him to fall out of the top 10.

Tate did meet with Washington and said he hopes to visit the Commanders before the draft. Quinn had not yet watched Tate’s film and did not meet with him at the combine until later. Reid wrote of Tate that his “skill set should make him an immediate impact player in the NFL.”

“My game brings it all to the table,” Tate said. “I got the contested catch. I got that route running and I also bring the run game — a lot of receivers don’t do that.” Or, to sum it up, “If you want a game-changer you got one right here.”