{"id":759131,"date":"2026-02-17T22:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/759131\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:35:30","slug":"3-players-commanders-must-let-walk-in-free-agency-during-nfl-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/759131\/","title":{"rendered":"3 players Commanders must let walk in free agency during NFL offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn tries to make<\/a> the right moves and save his job, the team is hoping to hit a first-round home run in the NFL Draft<\/a>. And here are three players the Commanders must let walk in free agency during the offseason.<\/p>\n

If the Commanders are going to be competitive in 2026, slow has to go. Speed has to be the new pathway. There wasn\u2019t much of that on the 2025 roster.<\/p>\n

And it starts with one of the team\u2019s oldest players.<\/p>\n

Commanders should not re-sign LB Von Miller<\/p>\n

Yes, he can still get to the quarterback. Miller easily led the Commanders with nine sacks. But this defense proved to be awful, and Miller\u2019s sacks never moved the needle.<\/p>\n

But when does Miller’s sack train get to the caboose? It has been running down the NFL tracks for 14 years. And Miller\u2019s nine sacks were a throwback. It was his highest total since 2021. It\u2019s hard to imagine he has much more left in the tank.<\/p>\n

Not that the Commanders shouldn\u2019t be appreciative of his efforts in a terrible 2025 season.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s one indictment of Miller’s free-agent status. He\u2019s listed among the top 100 free agents<\/a>, according to Fox Sports. But he is ranked No. 100. Just barely there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiller, 36, managed to lead Washington with nine sacks in 2025 while playing rotational snaps on an affordable $6 million deal,\u201d Greg Auman wrote. \u201cCan he do it again for Year 16? Of course, he can. He’s the NFL’s active career sack leader with 138.5, a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he’s playing for a fraction of what he cost a few years ago. He played in his heyday for Gary Kubiak in Denver, so could he finish his career with Klint in Las Vegas?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commanders don\u2019t need to keep Miller around. They brought him into the organization, expecting him to be a role-playing piece on a Super Bowl threat. Instead, the team melted to a 5-12 finish.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no reason to think the Commanders will be back in the Super Bowl mix in 2026. Unless they have a shockingly good draft, or pick up two or three free-agent home runs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s better to go young at the edge rusher position. And let Miller finish his career with another team.<\/p>\n

Commanders should let WR Deebo Samuel go<\/p>\n

This is another guy who performed admirably, but also another past-his-prime example. At age 30, Samuel isn\u2019t going to separate from defenders very well.<\/p>\n

He did stay relatively healthy, appearing in 16 games. And he caught 72 passes for 727 yards and five scores. But that 10.1 yards-per-reception average is just not impressive. It was the lowest of his NFL career.<\/p>\n

Samuel has clearly lost a step. And for a team looking to get faster, they don\u2019t need a mud bog at the WR2 position.<\/p>\n

He ranks at No. 40 in Auman\u2019s list. And he won\u2019t be as expensive this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s likely he’ll get less (than $17 million) this time around, closer to $12-14 million a year,\u201d Auman wrote.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the Commanders haven\u2019t been proactive<\/a> about trying to keep him, according to NBC Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamuel\u2019s contract has officially voided, leaving a $12.3 million cap hit on the Commanders\u2019 books for 2026,\u201d Michael David Smith wrote. \u201cHe\u2019ll become an unrestricted free agent on March 11.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commanders should not offer a contract to Deatrich Wise Jr.<\/p>\n

When he walked into the Commanders\u2019 organization, Wise was already on the downside of things at age 31. And he lasted all of two games.<\/p>\n

Factor into the equation that Wise has never been a big threat to rack up sacks, and it’s easy to let him walk this spring.<\/p>\n

Chalk this one up to a big whiff by general manager Adam Peters. Hopefully, Peters learned his lesson. You can\u2019t bring in a bunch of veterans and just hope tape and bandages keep them together.<\/p>\n

Do your homework, Peters. Find the young guys who can help your football team. Make the right choices in the draft. Get younger and faster in free agency.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t anything special about Wise when the Commanders signed him. So why not shoot for a similar level of player who still has fresh legs?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common sense. Hopefully, the Commanders will exercise it in 2026.<\/p>\n

However, even with these moves, the Commanders face a tall task to restructure a roster ruined by Peters in the 2025 offseason. It will be interesting to see if he can bounce back and put the Commanders back on the playoff map.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn tries to make the right moves and save his job, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[4141,427,18731,7,6,18732,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-759131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-adam-peters","9":"tag-commanders","10":"tag-editorials","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-editorials","14":"tag-washington","15":"tag-washington-commanders","16":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759131","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=759131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}