2026 Offseason Preview: Washington
After a lost season, the Washington Commanders head into a transition year
statbutler.com will be compiling offseason previews for all 32 teams in the lead up to free agency. Feel free to share any of the text/visuals below with attribution. All underlying contract data was collected by overthecap.com.
Recent Team History
A year removed from a trip to the NFC Championship, Washington could not recapture the magic that put them on the cusp of a Super Bowl. Injuries played a major role, but the defense took a step back from a poor 2024 season even.
2025 Season
Jaden Daniels came off of a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2024 to a seemingly upgraded roster. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay healthy. Daniels had four different stints as the starter over the course of the 2025 season before being shut down for the season.
A New Coaching Staff
Washington moved on from both their offensive and defensive coordinators following the regular season. David Blough will be promoted to take over as offensive coordinator and Daronte Jones joins the staff from Minnesota to take over as defensive coordinator.
Returning Players
Note that all restructures below are assumed to be max restructures. This means that the team will use void years to prorate cash across up to five seasons, minimizing amount that will hit the current year’s salary cap.
For players who are not vested veterans, I’ve replaced information about the player’s active contract with a description of the team control remaining until the player can become an unrestricted free agent.
Laremy Tunsil was the Commanders big offseason addition. He delivered a strong season at left tackle, but aside from Sam Cosmi and Tyler Biadasz, the rest of the offensive line played poorly. Recently extended receiver Terry McLaurin missed seven games despite never missing a game in the previous four consecutive seasons. McLaurin did not record a 100-yard receiving game for the first time in his six year career. He had five such games in 2024.
On offense, it isn’t that hard to be optimistic about this team. Defense is another story. I’m not sure there is one returning defender who this team should feel confident about in 2026. It speaks to how close Washington’s front office believed they were when assembling their roster this past offseason.
Expiring Contracts
When looking at the long list of pending free agents for Washington, I’m struck by how many are older than 30. This is an exceptionally old team. For their own good in the long-run, I’m unsure if the Commanders should chase any of these players for a dollar more than they’re worth before free agency.
Projected Cuts
I could imagine Washington taking a more or less aggressive line on cap casualties based on where they see this season heading. If I were to guess, I’d say Daron Payne will be released. Payne is a few years removed from his best seasons and is now finally into a year with no guarantees remaining on his deal signed in 2023. I feel more confident that Washington will walk away from former New Orleans star Marshon Lattimore. Lattimore hasn’t been a good player since Washington acquired him at he 2024 trade deadline. They should get off of this deal and get younger in the secondary. The last cut I’m projecting is Nick Allegretti. Allegretti served primarily as a backup and earned $2.5m in 2025. His 2026 earnings are set to be $6m. This is just not a suitable number for a backup. Maybe they renegotiate, but if not he’ll be a free agent.
The Salary Cap
In the image below, each blue bordered rectangle is equivalent to the cap hit of a single player. Within that rectangle, there are more rectangles that break down the player’s cap hit. Areas colored green can be pushed entirely into a future cap years via max restructure. Areas with vertical bars are “locked in” and the team cannot open them up by releasing the player. They represent either fully guaranteed cash that hasn’t been earned yet or remaining proration from cash earned in previous league years.
As it stands, Washington has more cap space than they can use. This is partially a function of signing shorter contracts with older players.
The Commanders’ team building approach hasn’t been a total dud. They have a very clean cap situation, which to be fair, is not necessarily where you want to be when your young QB could be hitting his prime. As is always the case, this is downstream of whiffing repeatedly in the draft. Washington has no practical limit to what they can spend this offseason. If they like a player and the timeline and price make sense, they can go for it.
Draft Capital
As a result of the Tunsil trade, Washington is missing their own picks in the 2nd & 4th rounds. They own an extra 6th from trading Brian Robinson to San Francisco. On my trade based pick value model, I have their set of picks as the 17th most valuable. Their first pick will be 7th overall.