The 2025 season did not go according to plan for the Washington Commanders. Washington only managed to win five games just one year after making it to the NFC Championship. The Commanders have been one of the oldest teams in the NFL for a few years now. Perhaps an infusion of youth in the 2026 NFL Draft is just what they need.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. released a new mock draft on Wednesday. In it, he paired the Commanders with Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr.
“NFC East quarterbacks and offensive tackles aren’t going to be happy if Washington goes this way. Bain knows how to reach the quarterback, with 9.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss in 2025 (including a sack and 2.5 TFLs on Monday night against Indiana in the national title game),” Kiper wrote on Wednesday. “He has a great mix of power, speed and bend, and the Commanders could move him around on the defensive line to create mismatches.”
The Commanders desperately need to add some youth at edge rusher. As Kiper pointed out, the team’s leading sacker in 2025 was none other than Von Miller.
” Von Miller led the team with nine sacks this season, but he will turn 37 in March and isn’t under contract for 2026. This is a clear need for Washington after the defense allowed 6.0 yards per play, tied for third worst in the league,” Kiper concluded.
Washington ended the regular season with 42 sacks, the same number as Philadelphia. However, the advanced stats show that the Commanders lagged behind the rest of the league. It was evident on tape, too.
Bain was a team captain in 2025 for the Hurricanes and has drawn some incredibly optimistic pro comparisons. In fact, Blake Brockermeyer of CBS Sports compared Bain to Hall of Famer Dwight Freeney.
Bain does not have the prototypical length that NFL teams often want from edge rushers. But if the Commanders do not care about that, they should run the card in at seventh overall.
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