Terry McLaurin<\/a> has been a staple on the Washington Commanders since the third-round rookie debuted in 2019. He has been the undisputed top wide receiver on the team and a leader on and off the field. When he\u2019s not playing, Washington\u2019s offense isn\u2019t the same.<\/p>\nTerry McLaurin was a \u201cspecial teams guy\u201d with speed when he was drafted by the team Jay Gruden was coaching at the time. Washington tried to hide their hidden gem during his rookie offseason program and training camp but, once the regular season started, the world started to learn who McLaurin was and what he could do. He racked up 919 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie, and that was his only sub-1,000 yard season until last year\u2019s injury-shortened season.<\/p>\n
Why Terry McLaurin is ranked No. 3<\/p>\n
The Washington Commanders wide-receivers room has been getting a lot of attention due to some players that aren\u2019t even on the roster, like Brandon Aiyuk and Stefon Diggs. That\u2019s because a lot of fans see Washington\u2019s WRs as Terry McLaurin and a bunch of WR 3\/4\/5\u2019s. McLaurin is clearly the top guy, and has been since his rookie season. When he\u2019s on the field, defenses have to pay attention to where he is and what he\u2019s about to do. When he\u2019s not on the field, finding an open receiver becomes a lot harder for Jayden Daniels.<\/p>\n
Terry McLaurin is the longest-tenured member of Washington\u2019s offense and has been a leader since joining the franchise is 2019. He has been the most productive wide receiver on the team and the Commanders continue to search for a solid WR2 to pair with him. McLaurin is expected to be moved around more in coordinator David Blough\u2019s offense, fixing a complaint that many fans had about his use under former OC Kliff Kingsbury.<\/p>\n
Terry McLaurin received his new contract last year after a hold-in where he didn\u2019t participate in training camp or the preseason. Then injuries cut his season short. He will be highly motivated, along with the rest of the team, to get the franchise back on track. David Blough has taken over the offense from Kliff Kingsbury, and has already said he\u2019d like to get Terry 10 targets a game. He\u2019s also expected to move McLaurin around the offense more, and the additions of TE Chig Okonkwo and rookie Antonio Williams should give the first-time OC a lot of options.<\/p>\n
McLaurin scored the most touchdowns of his career in 2024, his first season with Jayden Daniels as his his quarterback. They both dealt with injuries last season, but their connection has been solid this offseason, and they are expected to thrive together again in 2026. Daniels will also be dealing with a different offense and playing under center more, and using more playaction. McLaurin will continue to be his top target, and should have more freedom in this offense.<\/p>\n
Is Terry McLaurin the right fit at No. 3 in these Commanders roster rankings? Let us know in the comment below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s note: We\u2019ll count down the top 10 Commanders players on the 2026 roster regardless of position sporadically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,7,6,855,111,12035,2480],"class_list":["post-931715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-commanders","tag-commanders","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-washington","tag-washington-commanders","tag-washington-commanders-analysis","tag-washingtoncommanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116831909509680990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931715","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=931715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}