One step forward ...
As camp opens, the Commanders aren't off to the most promising start in trying to continue their progression.
Associated Press photo of Commanders GM Adam Peters (right) and coach Dan Quinn
One of the surprising statistics about the 2024 Washington Commanders’ breakout season was the number of penalties they incurred.
The Commanders were flagged 111 times for 960 yards during the regular season, the franchise’s highest total in each category since 2018. And that doesn’t include Frankie Luvu’s repeated leaps over the line of scrimmage in a vain attempt to stop Philadelphia’s “Tush Push” in the NFC championship game.
Clearly, the Commanders were able to overcome many of those infractions. And the numbers may have reflected a more aggressive attitude under first-year head coach Dan Quinn that produced more successful plays than negative ones.
But as a franchise that suffered nearly decades of dysfunction can attest, missteps can haunt a team. And as the Commanders attempt to take the next logical step forward this fall, they need to try to avoid self-inflicted wounds.
That verdict will be rendered in the months ahead, but there already are a few red flags (not yellow ones). The first obvious one is Terry McLaurin’s holdout as training camp opened this week.
It’s been a while since this franchise has had a player good enough to hold out, or the financial restraint to avoid overpaying based on name rather than skill or organizational fit. In the salary cap era, every good team — and even some mediocre ones, like the division rival Cowboys — has to walk a fine line between keeping its stars happy and finding enough money to pay the unsung role players who contribute to title runs.
General manager Adam Peters must have swallowed hard when he saw Pittsburgh’s DK Metcalf and the Jets’ Garrett Wilson sign deals worth over $32 million per season. That’s significantly more than the $23.5 million McLaurin is scheduled to earn this fall in the final year of his current contract.
Coming off the best season of his career (13 regular-season touchdown catches, plus three more in the playoffs), McLaurin can make a strong case that he deserves more. He’s also been a stand-up guy since he arrived as a third-round pick in 2019 and brought maturity and class to a team that desperately needed it while Dan Snyder owned it.
He will turn 30 before the Commanders’ second game this fall, and aside from Jerry Rice, the productivity of receivers in their fourth decades is spotty. As the Commanders know, a bad megacontract can hamstring a franchise.
It’s easy (and fun!) to spend other people’s money, but McLaurin seems worth the risk. A three-year deal worth about $105 million with an optional fourth season sounds like a reasonable compromise that already should have been signed. If McLaurin’s holdout drags on, it deprives Jayden Daniels of his favorite target during practice — and may send a signal that the team isn’t completely committed to winning.
Peters tried to refute that sentiment with a busy off-season that included trades to bring in Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil to protect Daniels’ blind side and Deebo Samuel to give him another target. Last week, the Commanders signed former All-Pro Von Miller to try to upgrade a mediocre pass rush.
If those acquisitions work out — and Daniels improves on his breathtaking rookie season — the Commanders could narrow the gap on their division rivals in Philadelphia, who sit atop the NFL hierarchy.
But it will require the key newcomers to stay healthy and fit in.
Tunsil, 30, looks like a solid bet to become Washington’s best left tackle since the former regime foolishly traded Trent Williams. But Samuel — who, like McLaurin is also 29 and highly paid — is coming off his worst statistical season since 2020, which convinced the 49ers to nearly give him away. Miller, 36, hasn’t played more than 13 games in a season since 2019 and hasn’t had double-digit sacks since 2018.
Last season, newcomers like Luvu, Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz and Tyler Biadasz fit in seamlessly, making Peters and Quinn look like geniuses. Not every acquisition is so serendipitous, though.
Last fall, Peters got aggressive at the trade deadline an acquired cornerback Marshon Lattimore, whose hamstring injury made him an ineffective shell of his former Pro Bowl self. If healthy, he’ll improve the Commanders’ suspect secondary. But he should serve as a cautionary tale that when you roll the dice on big-money players, you can’t afford many misses.
The closest example for the Commanders may be the Houston Texans, who also drafted a quarterback No. 2 overall (CJ Stroud in 2023) and improved from 3-13-1 to 10-7. The Texans hoped to take the next step last fall, but stalled and finished 10-7 again, winning the league’s weakest division. Since then, they traded Tunsil to Washington and seem to be no closer to surpassing Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore in the loaded AFC.
Washington has enjoyed back-to-back winning seasons just once since 1997 (9-7 in 2015, 8-7-1 in 2016), so while 10-7 would indicate rare consistency, it might seem like a step backward for a franchise with higher expectations. To do better, the Commanders will need good luck, good health — and few self-inflicted wounds.