Several NFL teams are bound to make offers to the Washington Commanders for star wide receiver Terry McLaurin — and multiple likely already have — but none are going to put enough on the table to get a deal done.
That is the closing argument that Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic made on Monday, August 4, as part of a piece that collected trade proposals from multiple members of the publication’s pro football staff.
Across the board, the selection of authors from The Athletic suggested deals that included a draft asset of either third- or fourth-round value, or perhaps a player mixed in with a late Day-2 or early Day-3 pick. One deal pitched by Matt Barrows suggested a straight up swap with the San Francisco 49ers for wideout Brandon Aiyuk.
But none of those hypothetical offers swayed Jhabvala, and she contended the Commanders wouldn’t agree to them either considering the current state of their receivers room and how close Washington came to a Super Bowl appearance in January.
The Commanders will keep McLaurin. They can’t take away their star quarterback’s go-to receiver in a year when they’ve clearly gone all in to try to compete with the [Philadelphia] Eagles. They don’t have much depth at receiver; Deebo Samuel isn’t a true No. 2 in workload, let alone a No. 1, and the only other proven receiver on the roster is Noah Brown, who is quite good but has a lengthy injury history.
The Commanders also know they have much more leverage than McLaurin in his contract dispute. He’ll be 30 in September, which means he’ll be 31 in the first season of an extension. It also means that holding out regular-season games could be career-ending. So, a deal will get done. There’s still time.
Time Isn’t Necessarily the Problem in Negotiations Between Terry McLaurin, Commanders
GettyWide receiver Terry McLaurin of the Washington Commanders
Of course, there is still time for McLaurin and the front office to hammer out a deal.
But the two sides have had months of runway and weren’t particularly close to an agreement before McLaurin made his trade demand on July 31, which Adam Schefter of ESPN detailed on “The Pat McAfee Show” a few days prior.
“I would say that DK Metcalf was in the same draft class as Terry McLaurin. He got about $33 million a year. I wouldn’t think Terry wants to take less than that, and I think he wants considerably more,” Schefter said. “These two sides right now seem apart on a deal. They don’t seem close today, and I don’t know how they’re going to get that resolved.”
It is unclear how much the Commanders have offered McLaurin in terms of annual average salary, total years or bottom-line guarantees. All that is certain is the team hasn’t yet come close to what the star receiver is asking.
Terry McLaurin Is Elite NFL Wide Receiver by Numbers, Can Create Contract Leverage Through Risk in 2025
GettyWashington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin.
McLaurin is about to enter the final season of his three-year, $68.4 million deal.
He is coming off of a campaign in which he hauled in a career-high 13 touchdowns and hit 1,000-plus yards receiving for the fifth consecutive time. McLaurin has also missed just three games in his entire career and has a perfect attendance record on Sundays over the last four seasons.
Given his consistency and importance to the Commanders, it isn’t difficult to see McLaurin’s argument for a substantial raise over the less than $23 million annually he’s making now. And if McLaurin was a couple years younger, he might already have the deal he wants.
McLaurin is entering just his seventh NFL season in 2025, so he doesn’t necessarily have the same mileage as every player on the cusp of their 30th birthday. He can also drum up a bit of leverage for himself if he’s willing to play this year without any guaranteed money in 2026 and beyond.
The Commanders could conceivably franchise tag him in 2026, but that doesn’t make a ton of sense considering doing so would up his salary to approximately $35 million two seasons from now. If Washington isn’t willing to pay him that annually over a three-year contract, which they wouldn’t even fully guarantee, why do it for just one season?
And if the Commanders aren’t willing to franchise tag McLaurin next spring, and if the team can’t get a deal done with the wide receiver in the coming weeks, then Washington risks losing its best offensive playmaker (outside of QB Jayden Daniels) for nothing next March.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Commanders Predicted to Decline All Trades, Keep Terry McLaurin on Team-Friendly Deal appeared first on Heavy Sports.