It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
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Interestingly, outside of one pending free agent, the safety position may be one of the most ‘settled’ on the Commanders roster, though it’s dominated by young players, special teamers, and backups. At a position group where it’s usual to enter a season with between 4 and 6 players, Washington currently has 6 guys under contract. The one big question mark right now is whether or not Jeremy Chinn will be back.
2024 roster
Quan Martin, the 2nd-year player who had spent most of his rookie season as a slot corner, was half of the starting safety tandem, starting 16 regular season games and all 3 playoff games.
Martin has a lot of versatility in the defensive backfield, and looks like one of the few Ron Rivera draft picks that has a long-term future in Washington.
Jeremy Chinn, who was the other half of the Commanders’ starting safety duo, joined the team as a veteran free agent in March last year on a one-year deal that seemed intended to give Chinn the opportunity to build his value for another – more lucrative – run at free agency in 2025. Chinn played well and seemed to be popular with coaches, teammates and fans. We should find out this week whether he and the Commanders will continue the relationship with a multi-year extension or whether he will move on, forcing the Commanders to find a quality replacement for him. My guess is that he will be back.
Jeremy Reaves has been a study in perseverance. He was a Washington free agent a year ago, coming off a significant injury. I was both surprised and pleased when Adam Peters inked this long-time Washington player to a 2-year deal. Reaves plays special teams almost exclusively; in fact, per Pro Football Reference, he has played only 4 regular season snaps on defense in the past two years.
Percy Butler is in the final year of his rookie contract after being drafted in the 4th round in 2022. After playing 836 defensive snaps in 2023, Butler managed just 399 in 2024. He started 13 games in ‘23 but only 5 in ‘24. This drop in playtime was not due to a drop in play quality by Butler, but by the changing makeup of the Commanders defense. Butler also played close to 300 special teams snaps for Larry Izzo last season. Butler plays a key role in the unit.
Tyler Owens is an undrafted free agent who beat the odds by making the 53-man roster last season as a rookie. Despite having impressed in camp and preseason, Owens did not play a defensive snap as a rookie, though he had an important role on special teams, active for 12 games in which he played 74% of the special teams snaps. He should continue his role in his 2nd year in the NFL.
Dominique Hampton was drafted in the 5th round last April. Prior to the start of the ‘24 regular season, I wrote this about Hampton in an article:
Great athleticism, size and length. Not sure if he’ll play safety, linebacker or both. I look forward to seeing the rookie on the field in the regular season.
Basically, that is exactly what I would write today. Despite a lot of excitement surrounding Hampton’s selection by the Commanders, he appeared in only one game in 2024 and that was to play just 6 special teams snaps.
Darrick Forrest is an impending free agent. If you go back a couple of years, Forrest seemed to have a promising future as a special teams player and quality backup safety or even potential starter. Last year he seemed to be out-played by Percy Butler. At this point, with his career sliding backwards in Washington, it seems inevitable that he will sign with a different team this month.
Ben Nikkel is a practice squad safety who has signed a future contract to return in 2025.
2025 Estimated cap space and free agency options
The NFL announced last week that the league-wide salary cap will be $279.2m. Following the trade for Deebo Samuel, which Over the Cap is treating as a $17.46m cap charge for Washington in 2025, the Commanders have an estimated Effective Cap Space of about $58.65m.
NOTE: Yesterday, Washington announced the re-signing of kicker Zane Gonzalez, and there were multiple confirmed reports that All Pro LB Bobby Wagner had been re-signed as well.
Both contracts were reported to be one-year deals — Gonzalez for an estimated $1.2m and Wagner for a reported $8m guaranteed plus incentives. Neither has (yet) been added to the Over the Cap database and so neither is included in these figures.
It seems probable that the two signings will reduce Commanders estimated cap space by just over $9m.
The breakdown looks like this:
- Current estimated available cap space (46 players): $64.45m
- Less: Cap space required to sign draft picks: $8.32m
- Add back: Rule of 51 offsets/other adjustments: $2.52m
- 2025 Effective Cap Space: $58.65m
- Less: allowance for injury replacement during season: $5.65m
- 2025 Cap space available for signing/re-signing veteran free agents: $53m
(If you reduce the available space for the extensions for Wagner & Gonzalez, roughly an estimated $44m would remain for free agency at the moment. The expected release of Jonathan Allen would free up more than $16m.)
The only significant question at the safety position seems to be whether Chinn will be extended before March 12th. If not, then Adam Peters will need to have a plan to replace Chinn, just as he replaced Kam Curl a year ago.
It is possible that the Commanders look to add a more natural free safety with the idea of Quan Martin being used more flexibly in the defensive scheme — perhaps replacing pending free agent Noah Igbinoghene at slot corner. If so, the team seems more likely to acquire that player in the draft than free agency since Martin proved himself a capable free safety last year.
Between Butler, Owens and Hampton, the team has 3 promising young players to develop, so, once the issue of Chinn’s free agency is decided, the safety position should be a relatively low priority for Adam Peters.
For a full list of upcoming free agents, CLICK HERE
The list can be sorted by team or position.
Of course, some — maybe even most — of the most talented of these players will re-sign with their current teams, but Washington should be a popular destination for free agents looking for an opportunity to get to the playoffs with a dynamic quarterback. Washington should offer more appeal to high-quality free agents than at any other time in this century.
Options in the NFL Draft
Below is a list of college safeties who will be entering the NFL via the draft in April, ranked by CBS Sports.
The overall rank in the left column can provide some general guidance about which round each player is expected to be drafted in, though such rankings are highly subjective and likely to change substantially between now and the end of April.
Washington holds the following draft picks (per Tankathon):
POLL QUESTION