Hogs Haven
Let’s get a head start on the 2025 offseason planning
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:
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.
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...
