With teams like the Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals having lots of fun with contract standoffs, the Washington Commanders apparently wanted to throw their hat in the disgruntled-players ring too.
On Thursday night, it was reported that Commanders’ wide receiver Terry McLaurin was requesting a trade out of town. McLaurin, who will be 30-years old in September, wants to be paid fair market value (like all of us). Outside of one year with Jayden Daniels, he’s had a royal you-know-what heap at quarterback since entering the NFL in 2019.
So, he’s super talented, but doesn’t have eye-popping numbers and he’s kind of old and the Commanders kind of don’t want to pay him. So, who could be a potential landing spot? ESPN’s Bill Barnwell thinks the Indianapolis Colts could be a great fit.
“The Indianapolis Colts don’t typically make major investments in players from outside the organization, but they did trade a first-round pick for defensive tackle DeForest Buckner in 2020,” Barnwell writes. “General manager Chris Ballard places a major emphasis on team culture and players being the right fit for their building, a bar McLaurin should be able to meet.
“And with Anthony Richardson entering his third season, the Colts need to do everything in their power to give their embattled quarterback the best chance of developing into a solid passer over the next six months.”
Colts have already shown willingness to be aggressive
Barnwell notes that the Colts do have three pretty good wide receivers already. They are nice – not thrilling, but nice – and are a somewhat deep group, but there aren’t any Justin Jeffersons in there.
“The Colts already have three starting wideouts in Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs and Alec Pierce, but that might be appealing to the Commanders as part of a potential trade,” Barnwell continues.
“Pierce isn’t as complete of a receiver as McLaurin, but we’ve seen teams pay premiums for speed with Dyami Brown and Tutu Atwell this offseason, and he could be part of the rotation that replaces McLaurin. It’s unlikely, but with the Colts going heavy into free agency for defenders Charvarius Ward and Cam Bynum this offseason, they are clearly comfortable being more aggressive importing talent than in previous years.”
Maybe one of those three receivers could be used as trade bait as the Commanders surely wouldn’t want to give Daniels less weapons in his second year, would they? Before you answer, remember Daniel Snyder is gone.
Terry McLaurin would add star power to the Colts WR group
McLaurin has reached 1,000 yards in every one of his six NFL seasons except his rookie year when he had 919. And, again, that was with the likes of Taylor Heinicke, Alex Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Carson Wentz, Sam Howell, Case Keenum, Colt McCoy, Dwayne Haskins and Garrett Gilbert. How many of their jerseys do Commanders’ fans own?
So, maybe a good quarterback would have given McLaurin an entirely different career arc. If you haven’t watched him, he absolutely passes the eyeball test. Last year was his first year with competent QB play and he caught 82 balls for 1,096 and 13 touchdowns.
McLaurin is now entering the final year of a three-year, $68.2 million extension, and he apparently got a whiff of what other wideouts are getting paid throughout the NFL. Now, if the money is important, maybe the Colts are the team that will give it to him. But, if he’s looking for talent that throws him the ball, he won’t like landing in Indy.
Of course, this is another one of those scenarios where a player wants more money and demands a trade, creating a situation where a team has to give up resources and give the guy the money he wants. That can be too much and it’s not likely the Commanders will accept what they did for Jahan Dotson last August.
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