Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters was clear about how much he wanted Oregon offensive tackle Josh Conerly Jr. in the 2025 NFL draft. Despite having options on the table to trade back and add to Washington’s five picks, Peters stood pat on Thursday, selecting Conerly with the No. 29 overall pick.
Peters said teams wanted to trade with Washington and move back into the first round, but he stayed put and chose to continue building a wall in front of franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels. The move was widely praised around the NFL.
So, did other teams really want to trade with Washington?
Yes, according to NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans were trying to move back into the bottom of the first round to draft Conerly.
The Browns and Houston Texans, the teams with the first two picks in the second round, were in discussions on trades with the teams at the bottom of the first round Thursday night—and the belief is their mutual target was Oregon OT Josh Conerly Jr. Obviously, any hope of that dissipated when Conerly was taken 29th by the Washington Commanders, but it does inform you on the chance that either team targets the position tonight.
That tells you how much the Commanders liked Conerly. Washington needed more picks, but was not willing to let Conerly go, only to add a few more picks. The Commanders loved the player and were not about to lose him.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: 2 NFL teams were interested in Commanders OT Josh Conerly Jr.