What Kain Medrano brings to the Washington Commanders

Breaking down what the Commanders are getting from their 6th round pick

The Washington Commanders selected UCLA linebacker Kain Medrano with their sixth round pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. Medrano comes with an interesting background. He arrived at UCLA as a wide receiver before converting to defense. At 6-foot-3, 222 pounds, Medrano looks more like a big safety than a traditional linebacker, but that body type does very much fit the profile of safety/linebacker hybrids that Dan Quinn and Joe Whitt Jr. love. It’s almost the same frame as Jeremy Chinn, who the Commanders signed in 2024 but let walk in free agency this year.

While Medrano is listed as a linebacker, that frame comparison to Chinn should tell you more about what his role will likely be in Washington. As a linebacker, he’s undersized, but as a safety/big nickel/dime linebacker hybrid, his body type fits exactly what the Commanders are looking for. To go along with his frame, Medrano is an outstanding athlete. He ran a 4.46 40-yard dash, fastest of any linebacker at the combine and would have ranked seventh fastest among safeties. He also had great explosive and agility testing numbers, showing he’s a very well-rounded athlete.

What that means for the Commanders is that they have a very fluid athlete with plenty of upside in a role they like to use plenty within their system. In his press conference after being drafted, Medrano explained he has experience playing as a Will (weak side) linebacker and as a big nickel. I think it’s that big nickel role that intrigues me most about him. His huge upside is his coverage ability. Because of his fluidity for a guy of his size, Medrano is capable of covering a variety of different players in a variety of different schemes.

On this third and six play, Medrano lines up on the line of scrimmage as a potential blitzer inside. However, he’s actually just dropping into zone coverage as an underneath zone defender. As the ball is snapped, Medrano bails out into his zone and watches the quarterback intently for clues. He follows the quarterback’s eyes outside and shows off his athletic ability, covering ground quickly before jumping up and extending out a hand to tip the pass intended for a receiver much deeper down the field and further outside than Medrano’s position.

Medrano shows good instincts in zone coverage, feeling routes working behind him and sinking underneath them to squeeze throwing windows shut. But he’s also capable of playing man coverage too.

In that same game against Penn State, Medrano showed here he can play man coverage too. Penn State use two running backs on the field at the same time and motion one outside to the right. Medrano follows the back outside and covers him man to man. The back works up the field off the snap, closing the gap between himself and Medrano before breaking inside. Medrano sinks back slightly off the snap, but doesn’t give up too much ground. He sits on the route and as the back makes his cut inside, Medrano drives on it. He turns his head to the backfield to locate the ball and plays the ball in the air. He arrives at the catch point at the same time as the back and gets his hands up into the catch point to break up the pass.

Medrano’s athletic ability means he can be a flexible coverage piece for the Commanders defense. He can make up a lot of ground in a short period of time, enabling the defense to show some disguised looks and still trust him to get to his coverage assignment.

This play is a great example of Medrano’s athleticism in coverage. Prior to the snap, Medrano is lined up on the line of scrimmage in the A gap between the center and left guard. You’ll often see defenses do this on third downs and other obvious passing situations. Putting two linebackers in the A gaps provides a big blitz look for the offense that they have to sort out from a protection standpoint before they can be safe to snap the ball. However, despite this look, Medrano is only bluffing a blitz. Instead, he’s actually responsible for the running back out of the backfield.

The back runs a wheel route to the left side of the formation. Most linebackers would really struggle to get out from the A gap to the sideline in time to stay with a running back on a wheel route, but Medrano makes it look easy. He navigates through traffic smoothly and manages not only to stay with the running back, but actually get on top of the route to take it away completely. The quarterback immediately looked out to the running back as his primary read, but Medrano did a great job getting out there and forced the quarterback to look elsewhere for his throw.

Medrano also has good ball skills, much better ball skills than a typical linebacker. That likely comes from his time as a receiver before college.