The Washington Commanders don’t seem like they have very much to rely on at wide receiver right now.
NFL All-Pro Terry McLaurin hasn’t taken the field in the preseason due to a contract dispute. Deebo Samuel seems like the same one-trick pony as he was with the San Francisco 49ers.
Beyond those 2, it’s a wasteland of guys who may or may not be a decent WR3 option. Not what you want for a Super Bowl contender.
What would be really nice right now is a big bodied, durable wide receiver to take on some of those duties. Someone like 6-foot-2, 205-pound Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley, who torched the Commanders to the tune of 5 receptions for 73 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 31-17 preseason win on August 18.
The problem? The Commanders had Tinsley on their roster the last 2 seasons.
“Tinsley’s performance on Monday came in the city where his NFL career started,” CBS Sports NFL reporter John Breech wrote. “The receiver originally signed with the Commanders as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State in 2023. After two seasons in Washington, the receiver ended up leaving the Commanders to sign with the Bengals in February. The roster in Cincinnati is stacked at receiver, so there was never any guarantee that he would make the roster, but after Monday’s performance, it seems like a safe bet that Tinsley will be sticking around in 2025.”
ESPN color commentator Troy Aikman lamented how bad it was for the Commanders to not have depth at wide receiver and get embarrassed by someone they could have kept around.
“If you’re Washington watching this guy, you’re saying, ‘Boy, we could sure use (Tinsley) right now,’ ” Aikman said during the Monday Night Football broadcast. “With the whole Terry McLaurin situation, that’s tough.”
Burrow Openly Campaigns For Tinsley On Roster
The Bengals already have the NFL’s best wide receiver in Ja’Marr Chase, who is coming off a Triple Crown win in 2024 and signed a 4-year, $161 million contract extension on March 17 that included $112 million in guaranteed money.
Cincinnati also has wide receiver Tee Higgins, who signed a 4-year, $115 million contract extension on March 17. All of that came just a few years after quarterback Joe Burrow signed a 5-year, $275 million contract extension in September 2023.
That doesn’t leave a lot of money to spend on anyone else, so getting a contribution from someone like Tinsley on a 1-year, $960,000 contract is worth its weight in gold.
“(Tinsley) has been making plays all camp,” Burrow told ESPN’s Lisa Salters during an in-game interview. “Hopefully, he’s secured a spot for us. … He’s a smart guy, knows all the positions. When you have a guy you can trust like that, it’s very valuable.”
Tinsley Only Played 2 Games in 2 Seasons
Tinsley went undrafted in 2023 after an unspectacular college career that saw him play for 3 different schools; Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College, Western Kentucky and Penn State, where he only had 51 receptions for 577 yards and 5 touchdowns in his final season.
In his first 2 NFL seasons, Tinsley barely had a chance to show what he could do — he only played in 2 regular season games in that time.
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