{"id":799949,"date":"2026-03-08T07:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799949\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T07:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T07:21:25","slug":"4-time-pro-bowler-perfect-free-agency-addition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799949\/","title":{"rendered":"4-time Pro Bowler perfect free agency addition"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 7, 2026, 7:31 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

We’re now in March, which means it won’t be long until we start getting free agency updates.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of quality players available in free agency, and the Washington Commanders<\/a> are one team that will be interesting to watch. Per Over the Cap<\/a>, the Commanders<\/a> are expected to have around $80 million in effective cap space, which is good because the team has plenty of needs.<\/p>\n

Recently, the team at FOX Sports<\/a> identified one perfect free agency fit for each team. For the Commanders, Ralph Vacchiano identified edge rusher Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson would fill a massive need and is one of the best pass rushers available.<\/p>\n

Regarding this fit, Vacchiano offered the following:<\/p>\n

They have plenty of cap space and a glaring need for an elite pass rusher on a defense that might be completely rebuilt over the next few months. Hendrickson comes with risks. He\u2019s 31 and coming off core muscle surgery. But if he\u2019s healthy, he\u2019s only one year removed from back-to-back seasons of 17.5 sacks. He\u2019s the kind of game-wrecker they haven\u2019t had on defense in Washington in nearly a decade. And if they pair him with an edge they take with the No. 7 pick in the draft, consider their defense instantly transformed.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

As Vacchiano mentioned, the Commanders have a massive amount of cap space and a glaring need on the edge, so the fit makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

There are some concerns with Hendrickson since he’s 31 and coming off an injury, but there’s no denying he’s one of the best at his position when healthy. Hendrickson collected 17.5 sacks in both 2023 and 2024 and earned Pro Bowl bids in every season from 2021 to 2024.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Hendrickson played in just seven games but still made his presence felt. The veteran ended with 16 tackles and four sacks and earned a solid 82.9 Pro Football Focus grade<\/a>, which ranked 13th out of 115 qualified edge rushers.<\/p>\n

Spotrac projects Hendrickson<\/a> to get a massive two-year deal worth over $25 million annually. The Commanders could definitely afford that price, and if they’re serious about having an elite pass-rush, they should pay it.<\/p>\n

However, Hendrickson’s age could be a factor. The Commanders want to get younger and faster, and Hendrickson is on the wrong side of 30. There’s no denying he would make the team better in 2026, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 7, 2026, 7:31 a.m. ET We’re now in March, which means it won’t be long until we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2069],"tags":[95878,427,7,6,95993,95994,95882,96255,95888,101611,95895,95906,95883,95911,96006,95881,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-799949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-commanders","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sstssportsnflcommanders","13":"tag-sstsncommanders","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagfox-sports","16":"tag-tagnfl","17":"tag-tagnfl-free-agency-signing","18":"tag-tagnfl-hub","19":"tag-tagoverall-positive","20":"tag-tagsports-news","21":"tag-tagtrey-hendrickson","22":"tag-tagwashington-commanders","23":"tag-typestory","24":"tag-washington","25":"tag-washington-commanders","26":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116192351887053966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799949","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=799949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}