What contracts were signed by Commanders free agents this offseason?
All details in this article come from Over the Cap.
Commanders cap situation
All salary cap information is always an estimate based on evolving data. I routinely rely on Over the Cap for cap data. It is important to understand that available cap space is a constantly moving target that is potentially affected by each new player signed, bonuses earned, and contract restructures.
At the moment, having accounted for all 74 players that the Commanders currently have under contract for the 2025 season, OTC estimates that Washington has available cap space of $26.33m.
OTC also projects Effective Cap Space (the amount available after draft picks are signed) at $24.02m.
There should be little concern about next year, as OTC currently estimates that the Commanders will have $99.6m in available cap space for the 2026 league year. Of course, that is only for 28 players. By the time we get to free agency next March, the Commanders will likely have 35 or more players under contract for 2026, and far less than $99m, but Adam Peters should have plenty of salary cap space to work his magic again a year hence.
Below, you will find contract details for 28 veteran players signed, extended, or acquired by trade this offseason.
QB Marcus Mariota
Basically, Mariota got exactly what we were told he would get — a one year deal worth just a tick under $8m. He should get every penny of it.
TE John Bates
Tweets about this contract last week billed it as a 3-year, $21m deal.
It is, but the Commanders are actually committed to much less. With no guaranteed money in the final year of the contract, this looks a lot like a 2-year contract worth $12.5m, with an optional 3rd year valued at $8.5m.
Bates’ cash flows on this contract will be very uneven:
- $9m in 2025
- $3.5m in 2026
- $8.5m in 2027
The Commanders can cut or trade Bates after 2026 having paid him $12.5m — an average of $6.25m per year for two years of play.
CB Jonathan Jones
Jones won’t be getting cut with $4.5m guaranteed, but it is curious to see $1.5m workout bonus, which is huge. When Washington relies on workout bonuses at all, they typically range between $100k-$250k. I’ve never seen one above $500k that I can recall.
I googled and found this snippet from June 2024: “Jones has been sporadically in attendance for OTAs.”
It looks like the Commanders believe in Jones enough to guarantee that he’ll get paid, and that they believe in the importance of their offseason program enough to financially incentivize him to attend.
DE Deatrich Wise
This is a pretty strong contract, with a $1m signing bonus and fully guaranteed salary, with upside for another $900,000 in roster and workout bonuses, indicating that the front office expects Wise to make the team. Total 2025 cap hit is projected at $3.16m.
WR Noah Brown
In 2024, the Commanders signed three receivers — Noah Brown, Olamide Zaccheaus, Jamison Crowder — to contracts of ~$1.26m each.
It appears that the Commanders definitely wanted Noah Brown back, as he more than doubled the value of his contract this year to $3m, with a signing bonus and salary guarantees adding up to $2.47m. They clearly have some concerns about his availability, with $680k, which is a relatively large amount, earnable as per-game roster bonuses.
For reference, the Bears signed Zaccheaus to a $1.5m contract with total guarantees of $750k while Jamison Crowder remains a free agent.
The “other” key receiver behind Terry McLaurin in 2024, Dyami Brown, signed a one-year deal with the Jaguars worth almost $10m that is 95% guaranteed.
EDGE Rusher Jacob Martin
The team is committed to just over $1m on this deal, with a $300k signing bonus and a $750k guarantee. With a cap hit of $2.4m, this is a thrifty contract with very little downside. $535k is earned in roster and workout bonuses.
CB Noah Igbinoghene
This is a pretty vanilla contract worth $1.5m in 2025 with a signing bonus of $100k and guaranteed salary of $400k, insuring that Igbinoghene will get at least $500,000 for showing up to camp. This contract is a slight bump up from the $1.29m and $250k guarantee he got in 2024.
LB Nick Bellore
As reported, the 36-year-old Bellore got a 2-year contract. With a $495k signing bonus and $1.255 guaranteed base salary for 2025, Bellore is guaranteed to receive at least $1.75m this season, with up to $1.95m possible with workout and game roster bonuses. He is scheduled for a small raise of $245k next season, but with no guaranteed money in 2026, this is basically a one-year contract with a team option for a second year at a known price.
DE Clelin Ferrell
Clelin Ferrell’s biggest NFL contract was his rookie deal with the Raiders that paid him $7.84m per season for 4 seasons. Last season, Clelin Ferrell earned $3.66m playing for the Washington Commanders. In 2025, he’s getting the minimum base salary of $1.17m for a player with 6 accrued seasons, with a $100k signing bonus and $680k upside in per-game roster bonuses (the same as Noah Brown), indicating that the team may have concerns about his health. Ferrell is set to make about half of what he earned in 2024 playing the same position for the same team, which is not a great indication of the direction his career is headed.
OT Foster Sarell
NFL contract structures don’t come any simpler than this. Vet minimum salary for a player with 3 accrued seasons; no bonuses or guaranteed money of any kind. This offers no incentive or security beyond a chance to try out for a roster spot. As a non-vested veteran (less than 4 accrued seasons), Sarell doesn’t even get the security of a guaranteed salary if he makes the Week 1 roster. This is the least secure contract an NFL player can have aside from being on the practice squad.
The next one on the list, for Kevon Seymour, has a similar structure, but because it meets specific criteria discussed below, it offers some specific cap relief to the Commanders.
Kevon Seymour
In the first article on 2025 offseason contracts, I mentioned that any veteran with at least 4 accrued seasons can qualify for the Veteran Salary Benefit, which is a part of the CBA that seeks to protect older players from being cut from teams to be replaced by younger players.
Veteran Salary Benefit
Formerly known as the minimum salary benefit, the veteran salary benefit allows teams to offer a “Qualifying Contract” to any player with at least four credited seasons at a reduced salary cap hit. Under this provision, a qualifying contract is a one-year deal worth the minimum base salary applicable to a player with his number of credited seasons, plus $167,500 in additional compensation (i.e., signing bonus, roster bonus, incentive, etc.). These contracts are charged against the salary cap at the rate of a player with two credited seasons that league year (i.e., the same as Chris Rodriguez).
The contracts for K Zane Gonzalez and Eddie Golman qualified under this benefit, and now Seymour does as well, counting just $1.03m against the cap despite being paid $1.17m.
WR KJ Osborn
This is another Veteran Benefit contract, but the cap hit is $25,000 higher than Seymour’s because of the workout bonus.
DT Sheldon Day
This is another Veteran Benefit contract, but the cap hit is $67,500 higher than Seymour’s because of the roster and workout bonuses.
OL Trent Scott
This is another Veteran Benefit contract, but the cap hit is $167,500 higher than Seymour’s because of the signing bonus of $100k + roster and workout bonuses.
OG/C Nate Herbig
This is another veteran benefit contract. It has the same TOTAL value as that of Trent Scott, but the two are not identical in the details. Because Trent Scott has 7 accrued seasons, his base salary is $1.255m (defined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement); since Herbig has just 6 accrued season, his base salary is $1.17m under the CBA. The values of the three bonuses are slightly different, though the total cap hit ends up the same for both Scott and Herbig. The other difference is that Herbig has a bigger dead cap hit (signing bonus + guarantee of $642,500) than Trent Scott ($415,500).
DE Jalyn Holmes
Holmes, like Herbig, is a 6-year veteran. The two contracts (Jalyn Holmes and Nate Herbig) are identical except for the amount of the guaranteed salary (Holmes = $350k; Herbig = $500k). These are two backups, one on the offensive line and the other on the defensive line, each on vet minimum with just enough guaranteed money to give them motivation to spend the next five months working hard to make the roster.
Jeremy McNichols
McNichols’ contract is exactly the same as that of Jalyn Holmes.
C/G Michael Deiter
This contract is identical to that of Jalyn Holmes and Jeremy McNichols (another Veteran Benefit contract; the base salary should say “$1.170m” the “$1.175m” looks like a data entry error). I have to say that I’m stunned by the fact that the Commanders not only paid a bonus of $142,500 but also guaranteed $350,000. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE COMMANDERS BROUGHT THIS GUY BACK AFTER HIS PERFORMANCE IN 2024.
A comment on Vet Benefit & Qualifying 4-yr Benfefit
As you’ll see, the Commanders have used these veteran benefit contracts very effectively to shave some money off of their 2025 cap dollars, which may be one of the many reasons why they have signed so many veteran depth players to one-year deals.
By my unofficial count, the Commanders signed 10 players to these Veteran Benefit Contracts this season (saving roughly $1.4m in cap space). In addition, they saved saved about $1.45m by using the Qualifying Four-Year benefit for Tress Way’s contract (described in Part 2 below). Together, these CBA-defined benefits saved the Commanders about $2.85m in 2025 cap space.
Part 2 – published on 12 March
S Will Harris
If the Commanders want to get out of this contract after 2025, they will have paid Harris $4m for the season of play. Assuming this Jeremy Chinn replacement works out, he will earn just under $8m for two seasons. This is a pretty vanilla NFL contract.
Adam Peters moved pretty seamlessly from Kam Curl to Jeremy Chinn. Let’s hope the Commanders can move just as seamlessly from Chinn to Harris.
DT Eddie Goldman
In the first article on 2025 offseason contracts, I mentioned that any veteran with at least 4 accrued seasons can qualify for the Veteran Salary Benefit, which is a part of the CBA that seeks to protect older players from being cut from teams to be replaced by younger players.
Veteran Salary Benefit
Formerly known as the minimum salary benefit, the veteran salary benefit allows teams to offer a “Qualifying Contract” to any player with at least four credited seasons at a reduced salary cap hit. Under this provision, a qualifying contract is a one-year deal worth the minimum base salary applicable to a player with his number of credited seasons, plus $167,500 in additional compensation (i.e., signing bonus, roster bonus, incentive, etc.). These contracts are charged against the salary cap at the rate of a player with two credited seasons that league year (i.e., the same as Chris Rodriguez).
The contract for K Zane Gonzalez qualified under this benefit, and now Goldman does as well, counting just $1.03m against the cap despite being paid $1.25m. He has a minimum guarantee of $315K to make sure training camp is worth the effort, I guess.
P Tress Way
I was one of many who were surprised that Tress Way (a) only signed a one-year extension, and (b) took a pay cut from his last contract.
That mystery is now solved, though you’ll need to be a bit patient with my explanation, which is a bit long and not particularly simple to follow.
You’ll see that this looks fishy — Way has a base salary + bonuses that approach $3m in value, but his cap number is only $1.42m!!
You might be forgiven for thinking this was another Veteran Salary Benefit (VSB) like Gonzalez and Goldman, but it’s not. One way to tell is that Way’s base salary is too high to qualify.
So, what’s going on?
Tress Way has a contract that is in compliance with a new benefit that was introduced with the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement called a 4-Year Qualifying Contract.
4-year qualifying contract (4YQC)
Who qualifies?
A player with four or more Credited Seasons whose contract with a Club has expired after four or more years of continuous, uninterrupted service with that Club (i.e., the player must have been under contract to that Club and on that Club’s 90-player roster for the immediately prior four or more consecutive League Years without interruption prior to the contract’s expiration).What is the required contract structure?
The Player Contract that covers only a single League Year and contains a Paragraph 5 Salary for up to $1.45 million [in 2025] more than the applicable minimum Active/Inactive List Salary.How many 4YQCs can a team have?
In any League Year, a Club may sign a maximum of two 4-Year Qualifying Players to Four-Year Qualifying Contracts; provided, however, that the combined amount by which the players’ respective Paragraph 5 Salaries may exceed the players’ respective minimum Active/Inactive List salaries or, in the case of a split contract, the players’ respective minimum nonActive/Inactive List salaries, shall be limited to a total of $1.45 million [in 2025].
Because Tress Way has been with the Commanders for at least four continuous uninterrupted seasons (this is his 10th season in Washington) and the value of his contract is not more than $1.45m more than the vet minimum for a player with 11 accrued seasons, his cap number is just $1.42m for the 2025 season.
This answers a couple of questions:
- Way’s extension is for only one year because that is a requirement of this benefit. He now costs roughly the same as a punter on a rookie contract from a cap standpoint, allowing teams like Washington to reward long-serving, relatively low-cost veterans. I suspect that we can expect the team to do this again next season (and for as long as Tress Way continues to be the valuable holder that he is).
- Way took a slight haircut against his previous contract value to quality under the 4YQC. While the limit for ‘excess benefit’ this year was $1.45m, for the following two seasons it rises to $1.65m, which means that Way can be given a $200k raise next year and still qualify under this provision of the CBA.
Part 1 – published on 10 March
LT Laremy Tunsil
Because the Commanders traded for Tunsil in the final years of his deal with the Texans, his contract as it stands is pretty straightforward. He has essentially a $21m base salary for each of the next two seasons, with the potential to earn another $400k in bonuses each year.
$10m of his 2025 salary is guaranteed.
If the contract is not extended, Tunsil will cost $21.35m in cap space each season.
Of course, Adam Peters may want to extend the contract of the 31-year-old Tunsil. If the goal is to lock in the contract at the lowest value possible, Peters could try to negotiate a deal this offseason. Of course, he may choose to take a look at the player in 2025 and risk having to pay him in a higher market a year from now.
WR Deebo Samuel
UPDATE:
A reworked deal for Deebo in DC: the Commanders are guaranteeing $17 million of Deebo Samuel’s previously non-guaranteed salary for this season, along with adding another $3 million worth of incentives, per sources. Samuel now will play this season on a one-year deal worth up to… pic.twitter.com/H5pfBs5gUf
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 19, 2025
ORIGINAL:
This is another contract that the Commanders will ‘inherit’ via trade.
The reason you see all those void years in the deal is that they were filled with pro-rated signing bonus before the trade; all of that turned into dead cap that was eaten by the Niners.
The original contract had a low base salary in 2025 with a roster bonus of ~$15m payable on March 22nd. Under that structure, the 2025 cap hit would have been low (around $5.2m) with dead cap loaded into the void years. Spotrac seems to be carrying the contract this way.
Over the Cap has written that they believe the Niners converted the option into base salary prior to the trade to give the structure shown above, which puts a $17.5m cap hit on Washington in a single season (2025).
Like Tunsil, Adam Peters could choose to extend Deebo immediately, next season, or not at all.
LB Bobby Wagner
This contract is simpler than it looks. Basically, Bobby Wagner will get $9m for one season of play. By loading $5m in as a roster bonus, Wagner gets the money sooner and it is effectively guaranteed. I can’t imagine a guy who needs a workout bonus to motivate him less than Bobby Wagner.
DT Javon Kinlaw
The item here that jumps off the page at me is the fully guaranteed 2026 salary. Kinlaw is locked in for 2 years on this deal (unless he plays like absolute dog poop in 2025). While the deal averages $15m per season, it will eat up only $7.5m this season, and the Commanders can exit the contract after 2026 having spent about $16.2m per season for two years.
I also note that the Commanders did not choose to add any void years to this contract to spread the cap hit as they did on their multi-year deals last season.
This runs through Kinlaw’s age 30 season, so if he plays to the team’s expectations, it should be a deal that helps maintain consistency on the DL as Washington likely pivots away from Daron Payne after 2025.
TE Zach Ertz
You can copy & paste my comments about the Bobby Wagner contract here, with lower numbers. His cap hit for the season will be $6.25m.
In his media session today, Ertz said that, at this point in his career, it’s not about the money. He apparently just loves playing in Washington.
K Zane Gonzalez
The “Veteran Salary Benefit” is a part of the CBA that seeks to protect older players from being cut from teams to be replaced by younger players.
Veteran Salary Benefit
Formerly known as the minimum salary benefit, the veteran salary benefit allows teams to offer a “Qualifying Contract” to any player with at least four credited seasons at a reduced salary cap hit. Under this provision, a qualifying contract is a one-year deal worth the minimum base salary applicable to a player with his number of credited seasons, plus $167,500 in additional compensation (i.e., signing bonus, roster bonus, incentive, etc.). These contracts are charged against the salary cap at the rate of a player with two credited seasons that league year (i.e., the same as Chris Rodriguez).
Gonzalez has 7 accrued seasons and qualifies under this provision, which is why his cap number is lower than his base salary.
RB Chris Rodriguez (ERFA)
The Commanders tendered Chris Rodriguez as an Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA) last week.
An exclusive rights free agent is a player with two or fewer accrued seasons and an expired contract.
To accrue a season, a player must have been on a team’s roster for six or more regular-season games during that year. However, the player does not need to be active for games to accrue a season. Players on injured reserve and the physically unable to perform list also get credit toward an accrued season.
Conversely, a player on a practice squad, non-football injury list, or the commissioner’s exempt list does not get credit for an accrued season if they are not on the roster for six or more games. Additionally, a player under contract must report to his team’s training camp on his mandatory reporting date to earn an accrued season.
How Do NFL Teams Retain Exclusive Rights Free Agents?
Keeping an ERFA is simple for NFL teams. All they have to do is extend a qualifying offer to the player, and he will be unable to negotiate with other teams.
Rodriguez was drafted by the Commanders, but he was cut and spent time on the practice squad, ending the ‘24 season without being under contract for 2025.
All Washington had to do was offer a contract at an amount set by the CBA, which they did ($1.03m) and Rodriguez has only two choices: accept the offer or sit out the 2025 season. While I haven’t seen a report that Rodriguez has signed the tender, he either has or he will.
Assuming he stays with Washington for the full 2025 season, Rodriguez will be a Restricted Free Agent (RFA) next offseason.