Terry McLaurin’s contract situation with Commanders won’t have an easy resolution

ASHBURN, Va. — You want to know how Brandon Coleman, now the Washington Commanders’ starting right guard, is coming along with learning the pre-snap checks next to center Tyler Biadasz, right?

No? Something else?

Sorry. There was no word of a miracle, 11th-hour compromise between the Commanders and wide receiver Terry McLaurin Tuesday morning, at least by the time general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn held their pre-training camp news conference.

There was just the cold chill of a gulf that apparently remains between the star receiver and the only team he’s known since entering the league in 2019. And no sign, other than the cordial words Peters spoke of the soon-to-be 30-year-old, that this will be resolved soon, and certainly not when camp begins Wednesday.

Peters said Tuesday that he expected McLaurin to report. But McLaurin was not present for either the full team meeting or the afternoon conditioning test. So it begins.

“Without a doubt, I think everyone in this building values Terry very much,” Peters said. “And we knew that coming in (last year), and even more after spending a year with him. In terms of where we’re at, we’ve had conversations recently, and we’ll look to have some more conversations. And we’re going to do everything we can in order to get a deal done.”

Terry McLaurin, who is coming off a career year where he caught 13 touchdown receptions, has expressed frustration while seeking a new contract extension. (Amber Searls / Imagn Images)

Not what you want to hear. You want to hear, “Terry is one of our — perhaps, the best example of — what we value in a Commanders player. And we will always show what we think of the best of our players, who’ve proven year in and year out who and what they’re about, by making sure they’re paid commensurate to their worth, both on our team and throughout the league. So we moved a little, and Terry moved a little, to ensure he’s here for the start of camp, and that he’s near the top of the current market for players at his position.”

That would mean, having asked a person or two in the know, paying McLaurin a few dollars more than DK Metcalf, the now-Pittsburgh Steelers receiver who got a four-year extension for nearly $132 million this spring after being acquired from the Seattle Seahawks. Metcalf, more than two years younger than McLaurin, was in the same 2019 draft class. He was the last pick of the second round. McLaurin was taken No. 76 overall in the third round. (Also, too, in that receiver-rich draft were A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, Hollywood Brown, Mecole Hardman and N’Keal Harry, among others. More on many of them below.)

Let’s eliminate the top two receivers in the game, by everyone’s estimation: the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson. They’re in a solar system of two planets. Chase is the NFL’s top-paid receiver, with an average annual value (AAV) of $40.25 million on his four-year, $161 million deal. Jefferson is second, with an AAV of $35 million on his four-year, $140 million deal.

No one other than people with the surname “McLaurin” can argue that he should get more in AAV than Chase or Jefferson. If that’s the current position of him and/or his representation, they’re wrong. (I don’t think that’s their position.)

With his extension, Metcalf is now fourth in the NFL among receivers in AAV, at $32.99 million, just behind the Dallas Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb ($34 million). The New York Jets’ Garrett Wilson just leapfrogged into fifth place among receivers with his new four-year, $130 million extension — an AAV of $32.5 million. Brown, with an AAV of $32 million, is now sixth among receivers. Samuel’s current AAV of $23.85 million places him 15th among NFL receivers. And McLaurin is, currently, two spots below Samuel in AAV at $23.2 million.

Who’s better from that 2019 class? Well, judge for yourself.

These are most of the top receivers from that class and what they’ve done since coming into the league. (Stats from Pro Football Focus, Pro Football Reference, NFL Next Gen Stats and SumerSports):

If the McLaurin camp’s position is that he’s been better than Metcalf since 2019, the stats are close. (These aren’t all the relevant wide receiver stats. There are other advanced stats that anyone can say are more or less important. This is just a cross-section of numbers that do have some relevance to the position.) But even if we accept that pro-McLaurin argument, the Commanders can, and certainly have, counter-argue that Metcalf is more than two years younger, and that this extension should be about what McLaurin will do going forward, not what he’s done in the past. He’s already been paid for what he did before.

This is when McLaurin will counter-counter-argue that he hasn’t missed a game in four years. That he’s been almost invisible on the NFL’s fines and penalties lists over the years, while Metcalf has had a bunch of run-ins with opposing players — and, on occasion, a teammate. That there’s a reason Seattle was cool moving on from Metcalf, while McLaurin remains beloved in the D.C. area.

And the Commanders will counter-counter that no matter what Metcalf has or hasn’t done on the field, they shouldn’t have to react to one contract that, depending on your point of view, was a natural resetting of the wide receiver market or a big overpay by a team desperate to give 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers a credible target.

The needle to thread, then, is one that recognizes McLaurin’s past (his durability and reliability), present (he’s as respected as anyone in the Commanders newly renovated locker room) and his future (the culture reset is wonderful and much-needed, but Jayden Daniels needs to get with his WR1 for the next few weeks to get ready for the season). The Commanders have to pay him market value while also keeping their financial powder dry for the next 24 months of contract talks with left tackle Laremy Tunsil, cornerback Marshon Lattimore, linebacker Frankie Luvu and other core players.

“Yeah, that’s probably the tricky part of any negotiation, is figuring all that out and in terms of understanding the market, understanding our team, understanding our financial situation and all that,” Peters said. “I don’t think I’ve been a part of a negotiation where it’s been really linear and smooth. … But I think understanding where they’re at and understanding where we’re at and trying to close that gap and come into something is really kind of all the nuance of it. And staying really above board and negotiating in good faith, all those things come together, and that’s how you come to a deal.”

My position hasn’t changed since last week. The Commanders should pay McLaurin like a top-10 receiver, because he is a top-10 receiver. Not just in stats, but in what he means to the locker room and the city. That Metcalf’s deal throws a wrench into the discussions is what happens every year, at every position, in every team sport. The market is always reset. But, guess what? So is the salary cap! It never goes down. There will always be enough money to pay the guys who need to be paid what they’re worth and to show your players you take seriously what they do on the field. I promise you, Daniels is taking notes.

This is where some would say managing partner Josh Harris needs to swoop in and be the hero of the news conference, pay McLaurin what he wants and talk boldly afterward about “how we take care of our own,” or some such plaudits. But that would be the exact wrong thing to do. That’s what Dan Snyder would do. And nothing would fracture a locker room quicker than players knowing, as they knew under Snyder, that there were players whom the owner favored, and players he did not. That dynamic makes it very difficult for any player, no matter their talents or resume, to garner respect from their peers, with whom they sacrifice so much.

This will have to play out slowly, maybe angrily, for the next few days and weeks to get each side to agree. It’s still the prohibitive likelihood that McLaurin will be extended — if not to his ideal, to a place he can accept — at some point before the regular season.

It’s hard to imagine a 2025 Commanders roster without McLaurin on it. But the percentage of that happening is not zero. And that is where we can, now, leave the warm and fuzzy memories of 2024 and come to the clear-eyed realization that there could be, and almost certainly will be, some hard decisions to swallow about the future of this roster. Some good players — maybe very good ones — may not remain. When you’re building a championship contender, it is ever thus.

(Top photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)