Bobby Wagner re-signed for another season with Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders. The biggest beneficiary of the deal may come as a surprise.
Jordan Magee, entering his second season with the Commanders, was just granted a reprieve.
It’s possible that Magee didn’t need one. It has been very hard to judge the athletically gifted linebacker out of Temple. Adam Peters chose him in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft and the thought was he could spend a season under the mentorship of future Pro Football Hall of Famer Wagner before taking over a defensive second-level spot alongside Frankie Luvu.
Magee hurt his knee in the preseason and was sidelined for the first half of the year. When the rookie returned, he was relegated almost exclusively to special teams duties, accumulating just 15 defensive snaps.
Beyond giving the occasional injury update, Quinn rarely spoke about Magee. He did establish a regular role on special teams in the second half of the campaign. If you examined his production closely, you saw flashes of the speed and balance that made him so attractive to the Commanders.
It’s possible that Quinn, along with defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. and linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. are perfectly happy with the progress Magee made during his rookie season. Wagner and Luvu were so dominant and so durable that they rarely came off the field. However, it is worth noting that when Washington did opt to use another linebacker toward the end of the season, they usually chose veteran journeyman Mykal Walker over the rookie.
Walker has always been known as a solid coverage linebacker. Judging by his Pro Football Focus grade in 2024, he did not perform well in that area. Still, the coaches may have simply felt more comfortable with an experienced presence on the field during a push to the playoffs.
Outsiders have no idea where Magee stands heading into his second offseason. By re-signing Wagner, Washington is essentially just calling a do-over on his rookie campaign.
The plan that was in place last year can be restarted. Hopefully, Magee will remain healthy this time around. With a professional season under his belt, even one in which he rarely saw the field on defense, he figures to be much farther along in 2025.
Had the Commanders failed to extend Wagner, they almost certainly would have pursued his replacement in free agency. There are several intriguing young players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents this year. Big names like Nick Bolton and Dre Greenlaw might have been attractive. Ernest Jones IV or Christian Rozeboom would have been cheaper. There was some talk of a trade for the Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt.
Peters was not going to sit still if Wagner had walked. It is highly likely that whoever he acquired would have been a somewhat younger player looking for a multi-year deal.
Luvu is already ensconced at one linebacker spot. Had Washington signed someone like Jones or traded for Pratt, the new player would be expected to hold down the other linebacker spot for several years beyond 2025. That would have blocked the progress of Magee.
With Wagner back on a short-term deal, the door remains open for Magee to begin marshaling all that athleticism and earn a spot on the starting defense in 2026.
