Washington Commanders draft history
This is a list of the Washington Commanders selections in the NFL Draft. The team was founded as the Boston Braves in 1932, named after the local baseball franchise. The team changed their name to the Redskins in 1933 and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937. The Redskins name was retired in 2020, with the team taking on the temporarily branding of the Washington Football Team before fully rebranding to the Commanders in 2022. Every year during April, each NFL franchise seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as the  NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting, which is more commonly known as the NFL Draft. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on. The two exceptions to this order are made for teams that appeared in the previous Super Bowl; the Super Bowl champion always picks 32nd, and the Super Bowl loser always picks 31st. Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon  for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades. The Boston Redskins were one of the nine original franchises that participated in the 1936 NFL Draft, which was the first official draft of the National Football League. The first player ever selected in the draft, Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger, chose not to play professional football. Riley Smith, taken second overall by Washington, is the first drafted player to play in the NFL. The franchise also holds  the distinction of being the only team to draft the same player in two different drafts, Cal Rossi. Key. 1950s. 1950 AAFC Dispersal Draft. The dispersal draft gave NFL teams the league rights to the players from teams in the dissolved All-America Football Conference. 1980s. 1984 Supplemental Draft. The supplemental draft gave NFL teams the league rights to the players who had been eligible to be drafted but were not because they were under contract with teams in the United States Football League or the Canadian Football League. 2000s. 2009 Supplemental Draft. For their selection in the Supplemental Draft , the Redskins forfeited its sixth round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. 2010s. 2018 Supplemental Draft. For their selection in the Supplemental Draft, the Washington Football Team forfeited its sixth round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.