A pair of notable Commanders are up for extensions, and it sounds like coach Ron Rivera wants to keep them around. In a conversation with Ben Standig of The Athletic, Rivera said he’s very interested in locking in wideout Terry McLaurin and defensive tackle Daron Payne for the foreseeable future.
“We have a tremendous amount of interest in making sure these guys are with us going forward,” Rivera said.
Despite being selected in the third round of the 2019 draft, it didn’t take McLaurin very long to make a name for himself. He finished that campaign with PFWA All-Rookie Team honors after compiling 919 receiving yards. The receiver kept it up during his sophomore and junior campaigns, combining for 164 receptions, 2,171 yards, and nine touchdowns between the 2020 and 2021 seasons (despite some inconsistent play from the quarterback position).
Payne had a bit more fanfare heading into the NFL after being selected with the 13th-overall pick in 2018. The 6-foor-3, 320-pound defensive lineman has started 58 of his 64 career games, including all 33 over the past two seasons. Payne finished the 2021 campaign with career-highs in tackles (61) and QB hits (15) to go along with 4.5 sacks.
Payne had his fifth-year option picked up last April, locking him in to a $8.529MM salary for 2022. McLaurin, meanwhile, is heading into the final year of his rookie contract and has a cap number of $3.04MM in 2022.
Both have earned their money! Pay the young men!
Agree. These two are priorities
Washington over-drafted on the D-line, thus they will soon be in a position to lose their other first round picks on the DL (Sweat and Young) as they have clearly been outplayed by Payne and Allen.
Sweat and especially Young were great in 2020, not as much last year and then of course Young got hurt. There’s surely more to the story though as the defense largely fell from a top 5 defense to a bottom tier defense with pretty much their entire squad returning and an additional 1st rounder in the middle. Davis did not have a good rookie season but that can’t explain all of it away.
Young has not been clearly outplayed by those guys. He was much better as a rookie than either of those guys were their first couple of years.
I think it would be smart to lock up McLaurin now before he gets an actual QB. He’s been very good but with a real QB he may put up numbers that establish him as a top of the market WR and will want to be paid as such. Schereff has been great, but he has a history of not staying healthy and I’m ok to see him go. Payne has been great and stayed on the field, so pay the man. We’ve got a few more seasons to decide on Young and Sweat.
McLaurin should definitely be locked up. Payne seems like one to let walk. He’s good, but not huge second contract good, especially with so many resources dedicated to the defensive line.