It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
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With Marson Lattimore and Mike Sainristil, the Commanders have two big answers on a roster full of question marks. The questions that remain at this position revolve around Sainristil’s role (slot or wide), the third starter, and building depth.
2024 roster
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, 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.
2025 Estimated cap space and free agency options
The NFL announced this week that the league-wide salary cap will end up between $277.5m and $281.5m. This is a nice bump over the projected number OTC was previously using of $272.5 million, and they have now updated all of the numbers to reflect a $279.5 million salary cap. This will increase rookie contracts, restricted free agent tenders, and franchise/transition tenders for the year as well. 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. The final league-wide cap figure for 2025 will be finalized next week, so the current estimate could move up or down by $2m prior to the start of the new league year on March 12th.
What hasn’t changed is that, no matter which figure(s) you concentrate on, Washington is currently estimated to have the 3rd-most available cap space in the NFL.
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/other OTC adjustments: $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 have two corners — Alan George and Bobby Price — signed to future contracts, but neither is likely to be a significant factor in the 2025 roster.
Benjamin St-Juste has reached the end of his rookie contract, and I think most fans would be surprised to see him extended. The other cornerback who finished the ‘24 season on the Commanders roster, Michael Davis, did not really play well last year and should also be gone.
In short, the only two NFL-quality CBs on the roster are Lattimore and Sainristil. If Adam Peters doesn’t extend Noah Igbinoghene, then the team will need to find a third ‘starter’. Even if the team does keep the band together by re-signing Igbinoghene, it will be important to build quality depth via free agency and/or the draft.
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 CBs 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):
