Laremy Tunsil‘s contract has been reworked early in the campaign. The Commanders restructured their new left tackle’s contract on Thursday, per Spotrac. 
$18MM of compensation which was scheduled to be paid out as a base salary has been converted into a signing bonus. As a result, the Commanders have created $14.4MM in cap space for the 2025 season. Three void years were added to Tunsil’s pact, which is set to expire after the 2026 campaign.
None of the five-time Pro Bowler’s base pay for that year ($21.35MM) is guaranteed, even after today’s restructure. Tunsil’s level of play on his third career team over the coming months will thus be critical in determining his future. Washington acquired the 31-year-old via trade this offseason in an effort to bring about improvements up front during quarterback Jayden Daniels‘ second season.
Tunsil has started each of his 126 appearances in the NFL, and that will continue tonight against the Packers. The former Dolphin and Texan is expected to deliver high-end play on the blindside for 2025, and doing so would allow for 2024 left tackle Brandon Coleman to sustain his new spot at left guard. The Commanders’ top pick in this year’s draft – Josh Conerly Jr. – is currently handling right tackle duties but the Oregon product is seen as an option for the LT gig in the future.
Moving on from Tunsil next offseason would pave the way for Conerly to take on the left tackle role for 2026 and beyond. Such a decision has not been made any more difficult since today’s move did not add any new (real) years to Tunsil’s pact or include any future guarantees. Meanwhile, the Commanders entered Thursday fourth in the NFL in cap space, and they will move up to second with roughly $45.2MM in available funds once this Tunsil restructure is taken into account.
This is odd. What are they freeing up the money for? Who’s still available?
You never know when you might have to grease a game official or two 🙂
unused cap space gets rolled over now, so they will have that amount added to their available space next year. At the expense of some modest dead money hits from Tunsil if he isn’t retained beyond this year because of the conversion to signing bonus, if I understand it correctly. it’s all a bit convoluted.
Nice sports bra.
Y’all can have Tunsil. I never saw so many offsides penalties on one player as he collected in Houston. Fouled up many a drive for Stroud and company. I think DeMeco got fed up with it.
Pro Football Reference says he had a whopping 12 false starts last year.
Ouch. You’re not kidding either. Tunsil led the league last year in penalties (all positions, normally it’s a race between offensive linemen and DB’s) with 19 penalties, 215 yards lost and 11 stalled drives. All-Pro in every possible way, especially penalties.
I already didn’t like that trade.