{"id":202790,"date":"2025-07-13T01:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T01:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/202790\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T01:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T01:41:12","slug":"extension-candidate-terry-mclaurin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/202790\/","title":{"rendered":"Extension Candidate: Terry McLaurin"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been no shortage of noise coming out of the District of Columbia \u2014 technically 25 miles or so west of DC \u2014 concerning the extension negotiations for veteran wide receiver Terry McLaurin<\/a>. It should be a no-brainer: a second-team All-Pro heading into a contract year with a $25.5MM cap hit while he\u2019s catching balls from a quarterback on a rookie deal? Up to this point in the offseason, though, the two parties have been unable to make progress towards a new deal. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It started early in the offseason, with the team acknowledging that an extension for McLaurin was something it was interested in<\/a>. McLaurin showed the team how serious he was about receiving new terms when he held out of Organized Team Activities<\/a> and mandatory minicamp<\/a>, racking up over $104K in fines. Reportedly, the Commanders were taken aback<\/a> at the difficulties they were having reaching agreeable terms with their star receiver, and as it became clear that the two sides were very far apart<\/a> on an agreement, McLaurin voiced his frustrations<\/a> with the procedures.<\/p>\n

But why has this been such a struggle? Does the team not want to lower McLaurin\u2019s cap hit and make sure he\u2019s around for all of the years Jayden Daniels<\/a> plays on a rookie deal? It seems multiple factors are proving challenging when negotiations are taking place as performance and status say one thing, while age and potential for decline say another.<\/p>\n

To start, McLaurin just completed his best season to date. While he didn\u2019t put up a career high in receiving yards (1,096), his 13 touchdowns catches were more than half of his five-year career touchdown-total coming into the season (25). He also did it all in the fewest targets since his rookie year, showing improved efficiency with his new quarterback.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the other thing to consider when looking at McLaurin\u2019s career production. After falling 81 yards short of 1,000 receiving yards in his 14-game rookie campaign, McLaurin has been a 1,000-yard receiver in every season since. While that\u2019s impressive on its own, consider that he put up consistent production while catching passes off the arms of players like Case Keenum<\/a>, Dwayne Haskins<\/a>, Alex Smith<\/a>, Kyle Allen<\/a>, Taylor Heinicke<\/a>, Carson Wentz<\/a>, and Sam Howell<\/a>. He\u2019s a modern-day Andre Johnson in that regard. Now that you\u2019ve paired him with a talented, young passer, he puts up an All-Pro season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So, what does his production say he should be making on a new deal? First, let\u2019s set the floor. Cincinnati\u2019s Tee Higgins<\/a> set the new mark for WR2s this year, surpassing Jaylen Waddle<\/a> as the league\u2019s highest-paid WR2<\/a> with an average annual value of $28.75MM. As a high-performing WR1, McLaurin should at least be making more than the highest-paid WR2. After that, the comparisons become difficult to make. The top-earning receivers market has drastically jumped in recent years with Ja\u2019Marr Chase<\/a> (AAV of $40.25MM), Justin Jefferson<\/a> ($35MM), and CeeDee Lamb<\/a> ($34MM) leading the pack.<\/p>\n

Age becomes a factor, as well, though. Coming in as a 24-year-old rookie, McLaurin is set to turn 30 this season. Tyreek Hill<\/a> was 30 years old when he signed his most recent contract ($30MM) that gave him a $54MM signing bonus. Older receivers like 29-year-old Calvin Ridley<\/a> ($23MM), 32-year-old Davante Adams<\/a> ($22MM), 29-year-old Chris Godwin<\/a> ($22MM), 31-year-old Stefon Diggs<\/a> ($21.17MM), and 30-year-old Mike Evans<\/a> ($20.5MM) hurt McLaurin\u2019s case. D.K. Metcalf<\/a> ($33MM), though two years younger that McLaurin, may have helped McLaurin\u2019s case a bit with his recent four-year, $132MM extension<\/a> in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

The last point of comparison may come from his status as an All-Pro. Chase and Jefferson were both first-teamers, along with Amon-Ra St. Brown<\/a> ($32MM), while joining McLaurin as second-team All-Pros were Lamb and A.J. Brown<\/a> ($32MM). With the lowest AAV of those five coming in at $32MM, one would expect that to be a target for McLaurin, as well. To McLaurin\u2019s credit, he doesn\u2019t seem intent upon resetting the market at the position. Reasonably, he is just looking to enter the echelon of pass catchers making $30MM or more.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, there\u2019s so many directions in which this deal can go. We\u2019ve focused mainly on AAV, but term length, guarantees, and fee structure can all play huge roles in negotiating that AAV up or down. McLaurin could settle for a two-year commitment in order to try and get up to $33MM or $34MM. The Commanders could try to backload base salary, while supplementing the low-salaried early years with a substantial signing bonus. There\u2019s no shortage of predictions for how this contract may end up looking, and that\u2019s one of the reasons why there\u2019s been so little progress and so much frustration.<\/p>\n

Despite the frustrations, the two sides have been in constant communication and are expected to come to terms at some point. The oft-injured Deebo Samuel<\/a> can be strong while on the field, but behind him and McLaurin, the receiving corps depth is either old or unproven. Look to McLaurin\u2019s participation in training camp, and depending on what we see, we may look for an extension in the days leading up to the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been no shortage of noise coming out of the District of Columbia \u2014 technically 25 miles or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,40422,7,6,4442,7186,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-202790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-commanders","9":"tag-extension-candidate","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pfr-originals","13":"tag-terry-mclaurin","14":"tag-washington","15":"tag-washington-commanders","16":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114843384815770288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}