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Antonio Williams Poised to Transform Commanders' Offense in 2026 Season
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- Antonio Williams Poised to Transform Commanders' Offense in 2026 Season
For a brief moment, the Washington Commanders legitimately believed that they had solved their offensive issues after years of walking around lost in the wilderness. A franchise that hadn't finished Top 10 in both yards gained and points scored since 2012 did both in 2024, ranking fifth in points and seventh in yards behind the amazing feats of Jayden Daniels , who put together one of the most impressive rookie quarterback seasons in NFL history .
Then, just as soon as it came together, it all fell apart. The 2025 Commanders ranked 22nd in points and yards , and dropped from sixth to 23rd in Offensive DVOA . The injuries that cost Daniels 10 games in his second season were the primary culprit, but it didn't help backups Marcus Mariota and Josh Johnson that the receiver corps was held together with chewing gum and bailing wire. Star receiver Terry McLaurin suited up for just 10 games due to his own maladies, and the team's two primary targets in 2025 — receiver Deebo Samuel and tight end Zach Ertz — are currently free agents and not with the team.
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Assuming McLaurin returns to health as the obvious WR1, there are far more questions than answers behind him. Treylon Burks , Luke McCaffrey , Dyami Brown , and Van Jefferson ? That's not a cadre of receivers that will scare a lot of defenses, and while free agent tight end acquisition Chig Okonkwo can make plays, someone else is going to need to grab the baton here.
Which is why the team selected Clemson's Antonio Williams with the 71st overall pick in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft . Williams is coming off a 2025 season in which he caught 55 passes on 72 targets for 604 yards and four touchdowns, but if you want to see what he's really capable of, go back to the 2024 season, where he caught 75 passes on 100 targets for 908 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Commanders general manager Adam Peters was about as happy regarding the Williams pick as you'll ever hear from a GM. Peters was gushing after the selection was made, and it's clear that the intent is for Williams to be a major part of the passing game.
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"Really, really, really impressed by Antonio," Peters said. "We had him in on a 30 visit and really liked him. You know, [Assistant General Manager] Lance Newmark and I went out there during the season and got a chance to talk to [Clemson head coach] Dabo [Swinney] and [Clemson wide receivers coach] Tyler Grisham out there. They spoke extremely highly of him. Dustin Regan, our area scout, really swears by him. [We] had a great talk with him before we made the pick. And so, really a top-notch young man, super hard worker, consistent, the same guy every day. High, high FBI [football intelligence/instincts], can multi-align, understands the game, understands zone, understands man, understands how to win, and he's super-competitive.
"He's super-tough. Played through broken ribs in 2024. Fought through a hamstring injury this year, which really limited his production, but played through the whole thing. So, this guy's a tough kid and you go back and watch his 2024 film, you really get to see what a special talent he is. I'd describe him as just a great athlete. Great athlete, really fast and he's fast in a lot of different ways. He's fast at the 40 time. The GPS is really, really high on him. End game. And then the old scout's eye, you see him, he plays fast, and he plays at a high level.
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"He's an NFL route-runner. He can win versus press. He can beat man coverage, and so we really like the versatility of him as well. He can play inside. He played a lot inside this year. He played outside last year, and that's really the thing that differentiated him from a lot of guys is winning outside and winning against really good players outside, especially in 2024. So, NFL route runner there's just a lot of really, really good things about him and just an all around great package. So thrilled to have him, thrilled to add him to the wide receiver room."
Peters' facts check out. Williams lined up outside on just 7% of his snaps in 2025, but that's down from 44% in 2024, and back then, the five-foot-11, 187-pound Williams showed a real knack for the contested catch. He did so more through adept separation in short spaces than just Godzillaing cornerbacks at the top of the route, but you know what they say — it doesn't matter how you get there, just that you get there. It also helps that his drops plummeted from eight in the 2024 season to one last year.
Clearly, this is a guy who works on his game.
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"I would say I'm just a smooth operator out there on the field, whether that's running a route, making somebody miss, making an acrobatic catch," Williams said after he was drafted. "I play real smooth out there, and just have a lot of confidence in myself and what I can do."
The tape inspires that kind of confidence, and the Commanders may have gotten themselves a real steal in the third round. Now, it's all about making it work at the NFL level.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Jun 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
