It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
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One position group (of many) that is filled with question marks heading into 2025 is wide receivers. In fact, only two receivers from the ‘24 roster — Terry McLaurin and Luke McCaffrey — are currently under contract for 2025 (and McLaurin is entering the final year of his current contract, which has a 2026 void year for salary cap purposes).
In 2024, the Commanders made do with a rotating cast of receivers playing opposite Terry McLaurin as Noah Brown, Jamison Crowder, Olamide Zaccheaus and Dyami Brown each stepped up for one or more games to add significant yards and touchdowns to the team’s efforts and box scores. One possible takeaway from the success the team enjoyed is that this kind of “#2 receiver by committee” is a workable (and salary cap friendly) plan. Not everyone would agree, however, with many fans dreaming of the possibilities of putting a top-tier veteran receiver like Tee Higgins opposite Terry. One discussion that hasn’t gotten a lot of pixels or air time so far this offseason is the thought of looking for that bookend receiver in the draft.
It would appear that Adam Peters and Dan Quinn have numerous options when it comes to removing the skin from this particular cat.
2024 roster
Terry McLaurin is now a crusty 30-year-old 6-year veteran who just got married. For a 3rd round pick who was drafted for his special teams skills, Scary Terry has put together a remarkable career — and he isn’t done yet.
McLaurin is in the final year of his contract (which has a 2026 void year for salary cap purposes). I haven’t yet seen a Washington fan who wants to move on from Terry, who is among the most popular players to have worn the burgundy & gold in the last quarter century. It seems inevitable that Adam Peters will extend McLaurin, who is the very definition of what Commanders football should mean.
Luke McCaffrey is the only other receiver from the 2024 Commanders roster who remains under contract for 2025 (though three receivers — Kazmeir Allen, Mike Strachan and Chris Moore — have signed future contracts). Fans will be hoping that McCaffrey will be able to take ‘the next step’ in his development in his second season in the NFL, advancing on his rookie production of 18 catches for 168 yards.
Noah Brown, Jamison Crowder, Olamide Zaccheaus, Dyami Brown and KJ Osborn are all impending free agents. I don’t expect Osborn to be re-signed, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see one or all of the other four brought back for training camp. If I were handicapping the odds, I’d rank them: (1) N Brown, (2) OZ, (3) Crowder, (4) D Brown.
2025 Estimated cap space and free agency options
The NFL announced last week that the league-wide salary cap will end up between $277.5m and $281.5m, which was a bit more upside than Over the Cap had previously been counting on. This increased OTC’s estimated salary cap space for every team in the NFL, including, of course, the Commanders.
After OTC split the difference between the high & low estimates from the NFL and adjusted its expected league-wide salary cap number for 2025 to $279.5m, Washington’s available cap space estimates all increased:
With the Combine starting this week, the NFL should be notifying teams of the final league-wide cap number any day now, but for the moment, we’ll work with the available estimates.
The breakdown looks like this:
- Current estimated available cap space (46 players): $82.21m
- Less: Cap space required to sign draft picks: $9.25m
- Add back: Rule of 51 offsets: $2.52m
- 2025 Effective Cap Space: $75.48m
- Less: allowance for injury replacement during season: $5.48m
- 2025 Cap space available for signing/re-signing veteran free agents: $70m
The Commanders are likely to bring a total of 10-12 receivers to training camp. With only 5 under contract at the moment, there’s plenty of room on the roster to load up with competitors for the coming season.
As discussed above, they could take a home-run swing at a player like Tee Higgins, or they could run it back with the same 4 key players that helped them win 12-games & a pair of playoff games last season. Most likely, the front office will bring in some new faces without signing a new WR to a contract worth $30m+ per year.
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 receivers 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):
