Let’s get a head start on the 2025 offseason planning
Nearly blank canvas
GM Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn return to a team with a roster that probably cannot yet be said to have a substantial ‘core’. The approach in 2024 was to replace most of the ‘23 roster with new players, primarily drawn from veteran free agency, and with a strong reliance on one-year contracts, creating a situation where the Commanders, last month, prior to signing future contracts with practice squad players, had the fewest players under contract in the NFL per Over the Cap.
Future contracts are signed in January and February each year with practice-squad quality players who are not on any team’s regular roster at the end of regular season play.
In the NFL, a future contract is an agreement between a team and a player that takes effect at the start of the next league year, typically in March. These contracts are often signed with players who have been on a team’s practice squad during the previous season or with free agents who are not currently under contract.
While the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) does not provide a specific definition for future contracts, it outlines the rules and procedures for player contracts, including the timing and conditions under which these contracts can be signed. Future contracts are typically signed after the conclusion of the regular season and before the start of the new league year. This timing allows teams to secure players for the upcoming season without exceeding the roster limits set by the CBA.
So far in 2025, the Commanders have signed 17 players, with 16 players signed to future contracts prior to yesterday, bringing the total number of contracted players to 46. Over the Cap lists only 43 players on the team’s roster because the salary cap website has not added Washington’s three most recent contracts: RB Michael Wiley, RT Bobby Hart and CB Bobby Price, whose signing was announced just yesterday:
The Commanders signed CB Bobby Price
— John Keim (@john_keim) February 10, 2025
Washington’s big 4 cap hits
At the moment, of Washington’s 46 players under contract, only ten have cap hits of $5m or more in the coming season, and only 4 players — Daron Payne, Terry McLaurin, Jonathan Allen, and Marshon Lattimore — are playing on contracts with cap hits in excess of $15m in 2025. Of these four, only Daron Payne has any guaranteed money left ($9m). McLaurin and Allen are each entering the final year of their respective contracts (Terry has a 2026 void year for salary cap purposes).
In short, Washington has no players locked into expensive deals beyond 2025, and it would be easy from a salary cap standpoint to release, trade, extend, or restructure any of the four most expensive players to open up more 2025 cap space.
State of the roster
When you scan the current 46-man offseason roster, it’s easy to see that perhaps 20 names belong to guys who are marginal NFL players that populate backup roles and practice squads spots. They are on short-term, low-dollar, non-guaranteed contracts that make them easily replaceable. In essence, the team has only about two dozen quality NFL players that would be likely to make any NFL roster.
Of course, Washington has a long list of impending free agents that can be re-signed — 30 of them, according to Over the Cap, including ERFA Chris Rodriguez Jr. Re-signing many of these players would make the offseason roster look much healthier.
The Commanders, in 2024, achieved a massive feat by reaching the NFC championship game where they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions. But that was accomplished by relying on the team’s rookie phenom quarterback, Jayden Daniels, to carry a non-championship roster to great heights through his own individual play.
I think the original Adam Peters/Dan Quinn plan was to use 2024 to align the organizational vision top to bottom, and then to use the ‘25 and ‘26 offseasons to construct a championship roster. Last year’s success has accelerated the timeline because JD5’s incredible play has thrown open the championship window.
To compete with and beat the Super Bowl champion Eagles, who reside in our division and who spanked us by a score of 55-23 in the championship game, Peters and Quinn may need to re-make the 2025 roster as extensively as they did the 2024 roster. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the only position on the team that is unquestionably filled at the moment is that of starting quarterback, though a few guys like Frankie Luvu and Terry McLaurin might be seen as similarly indispensable.
Salary cap, veteran players and veteran free agency
In a separate article published between the conference championship and the Super Bowl, I wrote that the Commanders are currently projected to have about $63m available to spend in veteran free agency (after making allowances for the cost of signing their 7 draft picks).
That figure could be increased by cutting, trading, extending or restructuring veteran contracts for players like McLaurin, Allen, Lattimore, Luvu, Wylie, Ekeler, Robinson, Butler, or Reaves.
Obviously, the re-signing of any impending free agents to contracts above $1m per year will cut into the $63m expected to be available at the start of the league year, but each re-signing will fill a roster spot and reduce the need to acquire additional players.
The draft
Per tankathon, Washington currently has 7 picks in April’s draft.
Adding these 7 picks to the current slate of 46 players would bring the total roster to 53 players, just above the offseason cutoff of 51 players.
Basically, the cost of signing Washington’s top 5 draft picks needs to be subtracted from the current estimate of available cap space to know how much is available for signing free agents before the season and as injury replacements during the season.
Over the Cap has done that calculation, and currently estimates the Effective Cap Space (cap space available after paying for the draft class and accounting for the top-51 contracts) to be around $68.9m.
The breakdown looks like this:
- Current estimated available cap space (43 players): $78.1m
- Cap space required to sign draft picks: $9.25m
- 2025 Effective Cap Space: $68.86m
- Less: allowance for injury replacement during season: $5.86m
- 2025 Cap space available for signing/re-signing veteran free agents: $63m
Let’s get a look at the roster, then talk about each position group one-by-one. Note that pending free agents are shown with a blank/white background in grey font. Only players who are currently under contract have any color designations.
The numbers that appear beside some players’ names are 2025 cap hits per Over the Cap. I have not included cap hits below $1.5m.
The Commanders currently have 20 defensive players, 25 offensive players and one special teams player (LS Tyler Ott).
Please note that assigned positions and color coding are my own personal opinions. They do not necessarily represent the thinking of Washington’s coaches or front office, nor are they necessarily consistent with fan consensus. This chart represents my personal interpretation, and may not reflect the thoughts of other writers on Hogs Haven. Finally, when it comes to backup players, I don’t put much effort into making sure that they are on the right or left or behind the specific player that they backup. I mostly just try to fit everyone on the chart efficiently.
Quarterback
Clearly, Washington has found its franchise quarterback in Jayden Daniels. The only questions here relate to backups — how many and how much.
Based on what Marcus Mariota did in 2024, it would seem ideal to be able to bring him back in ‘25, but he may have done enough to get a shot as a starter with another team. Of course, he may want to stick with Washington in hopes of earning a Super Bowl berth this season.
Sam Hartman’s strong relationship with Daniels may count for something or it may not.
Offensive Line
Left Tackle
Brandon Coleman had a spotty rookie campaign after struggling with injury throughout the preseason. Some have recommended moving him to guard and trying to upgrade Jayden Daniels’ blindside protection.
Left Guard
Nick Allegretti was okay in 2024, but it’s not hard to imagine that the Commanders can upgrade the position and relegate Allegretti to backup duty. Peters and Quinn may have other ideas.
Center
Tyler Biadasz was generally perceived to have been the most consistent of the five offensive linemen in 2024, and seems to be the only sure ‘lock’ to be starting again at the same position in Week 1 of the ‘25 season.
Right Guard
Sam Cosmi might be Washington’s best offensive lineman, but he was a bit inconsistent in 2024 and ended his season with a torn ACL in a January playoff game. It seems optimistic to expect him to play in 2025.
Right Tackle
The Andrew Wylie experiment, which was a failure in 2023, was less so in 2024. Still, to compete for a Lombardi Trophy, the Commanders probably need to upgrade this position.
Tight End
Most of the snaps and offensive production at the tight end position came from 34-yr-old Zach Ertz and backup/blocking TE John Bates, both of whom are set to enter free agency in March.
Rookie Ben Sinnott was largely invisible in the passing game, with just 5 receptions for 28 yards and a touchdown in 2024.
It will be interesting to see which players will return and which new faces may be added to this unit.
Wide Receiver
The only certainty here is that second-team All-Pro Terry McLaurin will be back in 2025 for the final year of his current contract.
The only other receiver from the ‘24 roster who is currently under contract is 2024 second-round pick Luke McCaffrey, who had a relatively quiet rookie season, with 18 catches for 168 yards.
It will be interesting to see if Peters and Quinn load up with new receivers in free agency and the draft or if they bring back some players from the ‘24 roster — Noah Brown, Dyami Brown, Olamide Zaccheaus, Jamison Crowder — each of whom contributed at different times during the season.
Running Back
Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler are both under contract for ‘25, and they seemed to make a good pair when both were healthy in 2024, though that was seldom enough. The non-QB running game was often ineffective, and to compete with the Super Bowl champion Eagles, Washington will likely need to upgrade its offensive line and add a more dynamic player to the running back room. Chris Rodriguez is an Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA), which basically means that the Commanders control his rights and can bring him back in 2025 on a cheap contract if they want to keep him on the roster.
Defensive Tackle
Not so long ago, the pairing of Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne was seen as the strength of Washington’s defense, but neither player has really lived up to their generous contracts of late (Payne has the team’s highest 2025 cap hit at $26.2m while Allen is third at $22.5m).
The high cap cost has caused a number of fans, including me, to wonder out loud if Adam Peters might try to move on from one or both players (cutting or trading Allen saves more than $16m while doing the same with Payne is essentially a break-even proposition) in an effort to get more bang for the buck at the DT position.
Rookie 2nd round draft pick Johnny Newton was okay but not spectacular in his rookie campaign. There seems to be a lot of opportunities to re-arrange the makeup of this unit to optimize the cost-production relationship for the coming season. Again, to compete with the Eagles, this is probably a key area of roster-building for the coming season and beyond.
DE/Edge
The Commander’s defense was largely unable to stop opposing run games in 2024, though they had a reasonably productive pass rush. Dorance Armstrong is the only headline player returning at the DE position. Dante Fowler produced double-digit sacks, but his production fell off sharply after Week 10. It’s hard to predict how Adams & Quinn will assess Fowler’s ‘24 season — the first time since 2019 that he has reached double-digits, and only the second time since 2017 that he has produced more than 6 sacks in a season.
It seems likely that the team may draft a top-tier college edge rusher in April, and there has been plenty of chatter about possibly trying to trade for Myles Garrett or signing another premier veteran pass rusher in free agency.
Linebacker
Frankie Luvu is generally referred to as a linebacker by Commanders fans, though he had many of his dominant plays in 2024 as a pass rusher and moved around the defense to a variety of positions.
A huge question mark is whether future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner will return to Washington for his 14th NFL season. Wagner was seen as a key leader on and off the field in Washington’s ‘recalibration’ year of 2024.
Cornerback
Three names jump off the page here:
Mikey Sainristil had an outstanding rookie season, and was probably snubbed by not being named as one of five finalists for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, especially when taking into account the circumstances under which he played. A natural slot corner, Sainristil was asked to play wide for most of the season when last year’s first-round pick Emmanuel Forbes proved not to be capable of doing the job.
Marshon Lattimore was acquired in a mid-season trade from the Saints, and didn’t really appear to be ‘as advertised’. Lattimore was injured more than he was healthy; when he was on the field, he drew more than his share of interference penalties, and during the NFC championship game, he seemed to lose his composure, getting flagged for a key personal foul. Quinn and Peters will need to figure out if an offseason with the team will turn things around for Lattimore or if his non-guaranteed contract offers an opportunity to save cap space by cutting bait.
Noah Igbinoghene was signed last year as kind of a ‘last chance’ free agent. He stepped into Sainristil’s role as the top slot defender and played pretty well. He is a free agent in ‘25. It will be interesting to see if the powers that be re-arrange the Commanders secondary with Sainristil returning to the slot, or if they might want to run it back with Igbinoghene returning for another year.
My personal feeling is that the team has an opportunity to upgrade this unit (along with nearly every other position aside from QB), but that they could ‘get by’ with the same 3-man crew and some upgraded backups if cap space and draft picks don’t stretch far enough to upgrade the entire roster.
Safety
Jeremy Chinn signed for 2024 on a one-year contract. He played pretty well, and it will be interesting to see if the brass want to bring him back or if they move on to a younger or cheaper option.
Quan Martin, who played primarily as the slot defender in 2023, partnered with Chinn in 2024. The 3rd-year player clearly has a role with the team, but it’s possible that the team could draft or sign a more natural free safety and re-define Martin’s role yet again in 2025.
Special Teams
Tress Way is the longest-tenured player to have been on the roster continuously, and he offers a lot. He is a good punter, a valuable member of the locker room, an active member of the DMV community, and very popular with fans. Way is a pending free agent, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him replaced by a younger, cheaper player, but the fan base would likely grumble to see this popular former “MVP” of the team cut loose.
The long-snapper is Tyler Ott. He did have a few worm-burners during the regular season, but his job seems pretty safe, especially if the world’s best holder, Tress Way, is extended.
Both kickers who were under contract with the team at the end of the ‘24 season were on one-year deals. I don’t expect to see Zane Gonzalez back. It wouldn’t shock me if Austin Seibert, who finished the year on IR, were to return in ‘25, but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the team bring in a completely different kicker (or two) to compete in training camp.