Kingsbury wanted Peters to ‘take Oregon tackle.’ The Commanders did, drafting Conerly in 1st round
ASHBURN Va AP Kliff Kingsbury walked by Adam Peters office earlier this week and the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator dropped a piece of paper on his general manager s desk It read I stopped by Take Oregon tackle Thnx Kliff It worked Peters held up the note with a big grin after selecting Oregon offensive tackle Josh Conerly Jr late in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night I think it was a pretty good note to say the least Conerly commented Friday at his introductory news conference It just really felt good to know that the person that s going to be calling plays really had a really good belief in me before anything even started Peters reported the decision to take Conerly with the th pick had endorsement from the entire organization starting with West Coast scout Paul Skansi and down to Kingsbury and coach Dan Quinn Conerly a Seattle native who flew with several family members from the Pacific Northwest to northern Virginia is drawing even more motivation from Kingsbury s endorsement It obviously makes me feel really great that you have people that believe in you Conerly stated I feel like when you ve got people that believe in you you ll do whatever for them Whatever might mean moving from the left side where he started games for the Ducks as a junior last season earning first-team All-Big Ten and third-team AP All-America honors to right tackle or even guard He played a little right tackle in the Senior Bowl and that s not totally foreign to him and he s practiced at it Peters announced Whether it s left guard right guard right tackle I don t think it ll be center although I do think he could play center if we needed him to He ll apparently compete at those spots The starting left tackle job is taken after Washington acquired five-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil from Houston last month Tunsil is one of the players Conerly has watched and tried to emulate and they could bookend the all-important protection of franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels The outreach to Conerly from those guys has already begun I genuinely got a FaceTime from Laremy Tunsil on Thursday night and I missed it because of the celebrations right after Conerly explained But I also got to talk to Jayden Daniels like Friday afternoon and that was pretty cool It was nice to get to meet him Daniels and Conerly should get to know each other well as first-round picks a year apart Required what he thought he brings to the Commanders Conerly announced in part Someone that s going to make sure their quarterback stays upright and opens up lanes for anybody else If he comes through on that it will make Kingsbury look even smarter for his suggestion AP NFL https apnews com hub NFL Source
