{"id":629686,"date":"2026-04-25T09:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629686\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T09:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:16:09","slug":"2026-nfl-draft-experts-grade-commanders-pick-of-wr-antonio-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629686\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft: Experts grade Commanders’ pick of WR Antonio Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Commanders<\/a> found quarterback Jayden Daniels<\/a> some offensive help on Friday, selecting Clemson wide receiver Antonio Williams<\/a> with the No. 71 overall pick<\/a> in the 2026 NFL Draft. After using its first-round pick on Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles<\/a>, Washington needed to take advantage of the deep wide receiver class to land a player who could help in 2026.<\/p>\n

Williams can be that guy. He projects as a slot receiver for the Commanders<\/a>, but general manager Adam Peters believes he’s more than that. Washington believes Williams can help outside or in the slot. He did both at Clemson.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

We loved the Commanders’ choice of Williams and graded it an A.<\/p>\n

What did others think? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n

Williams is a bit undersized at 187 pounds but ran a 4.41 40-yard dash. At Clemson, Williams was both a returner and a receiver. In 2024, he earned first-team All-ACC honors with 75 receptions for 904 yards and 11 touchdowns. Last year, he played only 10 games due to various injuries, totaling 55 catches for 604 yards. He was also limited to five games as a sophomore. If he can stay healthy, he\u2019s a talent with upside.<\/p>\n

How he fits with the Commanders:\u00a0Washington desperately needed someone to play opposite Terry McLaurin<\/a>. Before selecting Williams, the Commanders were looking at Luke McCaffrey<\/a> and Treylon Burks<\/a> as the other primary wideouts. Williams gives new offensive coordinator David Blough<\/a> another high-level option.<\/p>\n

This could be a sneaky pick for early returns. Williams might be a slot-only option in a league that’s de-emphasizing that role, but he can get open and take on a sizable workload in an offense that offers few threats outside of Terry McLaurin.<\/p>\n

The Commanders needed a wide receiver in the worst way, and Williams was great value at this stage \u2014 he should complement Terry McLaurin very nicely. Williams was a first-team All-ACC performer in 2024 before his production slipped in 2025, mirroring his team\u2019s performance. But his talent is obvious.<\/p>\n

The Commanders needed certainty at WR, and they get it here. He’s a smaller, separation-based receiver, but projects to be a reliable target for\u00a0Jayden Daniels.<\/p>\n

Williams is an NFL-ready route-runner whose reliability is his calling card. While he was a slot receiver only at Clemson, he showed the ability to be more versatile than that in the NFL.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Grading Commanders’ Antonio Williams pick in 2026 NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Commanders found quarterback Jayden Daniels some offensive help on Friday, selecting Clemson wide receiver Antonio Williams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[17076,133477,64,63,3372,211903,2363,33950,593,133467,85,1251,39788,1272,50435],"class_list":["post-629686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-antonio-williams","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-clemson","tag-david-blough","tag-jayden-daniels","tag-luke-mccaffrey","tag-nfl","tag-sonny-styles","tag-sports","tag-terry-mclaurin","tag-treylon-burks","tag-washington-commanders","tag-wide-receiver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}