A couple of months ago, Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters said he wants to make Terry McLaurin a Commander for a long time.
It needs to happen, but not under the context of the latest rumor surrounding the current contractual stalemate between McLaurin and the Commanders. And that's the context of McLaurin's new deal resting in the $36-$37 million per year range.
It's what Commanders insider Lake Lewis Jr. believes will happen, as he recently said as much on the most recent episode of the VTRN Sports Lynchburg podcast.
This kind of deal would hamper the Commanders' Super Bowl window that comes with Jayden Daniels' rookie deal
McLaurin means so much to the team and the community and he's undeniably the best receiver on the roster. He's coming off a career year, but he also turns 30 in September and as our own Kyle Crabbs recently pointed out, there are a lot of trends working against even the best receivers once they hit that age window.
A $36-$37 million per year deal would put McLaurin at least $1 million ahead of Justin Jefferson, making him the second-highest paid wide receiver in the NFL. That's already a bad look on the surface, as these deals are for what the player will do, not what they've done. And as much as I love McLaurin, I give him less than a 1% chance that he outperforms Jefferson over whatever the life of his potential extension comes out to be.
It would complicate the Commanders' current Super Bowl window, as a contract with this kind of price tag would begin to balloon after the second year of the deal. He already constitutes a $25.5 million cap hit in 2025 and $15.5 million of that is base salary. Meaning, the Commanders can't lower the hit without pushing money down the road, which isn't ideal when also factoring in the extension.
Or, the Commanders could front load the deal and complicate things even more, but that's highly unlikely.
Either way, this price tag will certainly make navigating other future decisions like a potential Deebo Samuel or Laremy Tunsil deal, along with guys like Daniels himself or even Mike Sainristil, who would be up for new deals in a couple of years.
McLaurin is as valuable as they come, but I'm not 100% sure he's worth this much. Either way, we'll know what the Commanders think sooner or later.
