Adam Peters Reveals Why Athan Kaliakmanis Earned Spot on Commanders' 53-Man Roster

Once preseason was over, Washington had a legitimate decision to make in terms of whether they should keep two quarterbacks or three after spending the offseason program evaluating Athan Kaliakmanis and Sam Hartman. Keeping Kaliakmanis was more about not wanting to risk losing him to another quarterback-needy team. In reality, if the team needs another player to take snaps this season beyond Jayden Daniels or Marcus Mariota, they will likely be signed from outside of the initial 53-man roster. Commanders GM Adam Peters explained Monday that the decision was less about numbers and more about what Kaliakmanis brought to the field in the preseason.

#Commanders QB Athan Kaliakmanis (The Greek Rifle) All-22 vs the Lions

• 11 for 14 passing (79%)
• 162 pass yds
• 114.9 RTG
• 92.4 PFF grade #RaiseHail pic.twitter.com/j0tXnFAMNT
— brandon (@JayDanielsMVP) August 23, 2026

Washington already saw what Kaliakmanis offered physically from his college tape (video below). The team needed to see how those physical traits translated to the speed of the NFL game.

"Yeah, I mean, you do see teams keep two, some teams keep three, some keep four," Peters said. "So, I think a lot of it's a function of who you have in that room across the league. But Athan, we really just loved his arm talent, his moxie, his competitiveness. That's what we saw on tape, and those are a lot of things you saw on the preseason tape. And just the way he could extend plays and made some plays under pressure, also standing in the pocket, making big-time throws. He made a lot of really big-time throws in the preseason, and that was something that we were really pleased to see. And he's not afraid to rip it. A lot of times you see that in the preseason where guys get in the game, and they'll go straight to their checkdown because that's more comfortable and you get an easy completion, but he wasn't afraid to make mistakes. He wasn't afraid to rip it. And certainly it wasn't all perfect. There's a lot of different things that he's got a lot of room to grow in, a lot of different ways, but really liked his progress. And he's a guy we definitely want to work with in the future. Really, all four guys that we have are guys we really like and want to work with in the future. But Athan certainly earned that."

Washington is banking on Kaliakmanis as a developmental investment for the position behind Jayden Daniels once Marcus Mariota moves on. Peters acknowledged that Kaliakmanis still has areas to improve, but the organization wants to continue working with him. Washington's decision to use one of its 53 roster spots on a third quarterback says the traits Kaliakmanis showed this summer were valuable enough that the Commanders were unwilling to risk losing the chance to develop them further.

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