All details in this article come from Over the Cap.
To see details of the first wave of players signed before 10 March, CLICK HERE
S Will Harris
If the Commanders want to get out of this contract after 2025, they will have paid Harris $4m for the season of play. Assuming this Jeremy Chinn replacement works out, he will earn just under $8m for two seasons. This is a pretty vanilla NFL contract.
Adam Peters moved pretty seamlessly from Cam Curl to Jeremy Chinn. Let’s hope the Commanders can move just as seamlessly from Chinn to Harris.
DT Eddie Goldman
In the first article on 2025 offseason contracts, I mentioned that any veteran with at least 4 accrued seasons can qualify for the Veteran Salary Benefit, which is a part of the CBA that seeks to protect older players from being cut from teams to be replaced by younger players.
Veteran Salary Benefit
Formerly known as the minimum salary benefit, the veteran salary benefit allows teams to offer a “Qualifying Contract” to any player with at least four credited seasons at a reduced salary cap hit. Under this provision, a qualifying contract is a one-year deal worth the minimum base salary applicable to a player with his number of credited seasons, plus $167,500 in additional compensation (i.e., signing bonus, roster bonus, incentive, etc.). These contracts are charged against the salary cap at the rate of a player with two credited seasons that league year (i.e., the same as Chris Rodriguez).
The contract for K Zane Gonzalez qualified under this benefit, and now Goldman does as well, counting just $1.03m against the cap despite being paid $1.25m. He has a minimum guarantee of $315K to make sure training camp is worth the effort, I guess.
P Tress Way
I was one of many who were surprised that Tress Way (a) only signed a one-year extension, and (b) took a pay cut from his last contract.
That mystery is now solved, though you’ll need to be a bit patient with my explanation, which is a bit long and not particularly simple to follow.
You’ll see that this looks fishy — Way has a base salary + bonuses that approach $3m in value, but his cap number is only $1.42m!!
You might be forgiven for thinking this was another Veteran Salary Benefit (VSB) like Gonzalez and Goldman, but it’s not. For one thing, Way’s compensation is too high, and for another, all veterans who qualify under the VSB in 2025 count $1.03m.
So, what’s going on?
Tress Way has a contract that is in compliance with a new benefit that was introduced with the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement called a 4-Year Qualifying Contract.
4-year qualifying contract (4YQC)
Who qualifies?
A player with four or more Credited Seasons whose contract with a Club has expired after four or more years of continuous, uninterrupted service with that Club (i.e., the player must have been under contract to that Club and on that Club’s 90-player roster for the immediately prior four or more consecutive League Years without interruption prior to the contract’s expiration).
What is the required contract structure?
The Player Contract that covers onlya single League Year and contains a Paragraph 5 Salary for up to $1.45 million [in 2025] more than the applicable minimum Active/Inactive List Salary.
How many 4YQCs can a team have?
In any League Year, a Club may sign a maximum oftwo 4-Year Qualifying Players to Four-Year Qualifying Contracts; provided, however, that the combined amount by which the players’ respective Paragraph 5 Salaries may exceed the players’ respective minimum Active/Inactive List salaries or, in the case of a split contract, the players’ respective minimum nonActive/Inactive List salaries, shall be limited to a total of $1.45 million [in 2025].
Because Tress Way has been with the Commanders for at least four continuous uninterrupted seasons (this is his 10th season in Washington) and the value of his contract is not more than $1.45m more than the vet minimum for a player with 11 accrued seasons, his cap number is just $1.42m for the 2025 season.
This answers a couple of questions:
Way’s extension is for only one year because that is a requirement of this benefit. He now costs roughly the same as a punter on a rookie contract from a cap standpoint, allowing teams like Washington to reward long-serving, relatively low-cost veterans. I suspect that we can expect the team to do this again next season (and for as long as Tress Way continues to be the valuable holder that he is).
Way took a slight haircut against his previous contract value to quality under the 4YQC. While the limit for ‘excess benefit’ this year was $1.45m, for the following two seasons it rises to $1.65m, which means that Way can be given a $200k raise next year and still quality under this provision of the CBA.
Jeremy McNichols
OTC does not have any contract details available for McNichols yet, but I strongly suspect that he will be on a Veteran Benefit contract (like Gonzalez and Golden) that will cost $1.03m against the cap.
QB Marcus Mariota and John Bates
OTC does not have details for either Mariota or Bates yet, however, it has been reported that Mariota is on a one-year $8m deal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some performance bonuses in the contract that bring the cap hit in a bit lower.
No credible source has yet reported a contract value for Bates’ 3-year deal.
CB Jonathan Jones and DE Deatrich Wise
Over the Cap does not yet have contract details for Jones, though Twitter reports say it is a one-year deal with a base of $5.5m and incentives worth $1m for a total value of $6.5m. Even with such a simple set of headline numbers, I am wary of Twitter reports on contracts, so I’ll be waiting for OTC to supply the details.
Likewise, the details for Wise are not yet available on OTC, though Twitter reports indicate a contract value of up to $5m, and the tweet credits Wise’s agent as the source. Whenever I see a contract value given with the words “up to”, I am immediately suspicious of the headline number since the wording indicates a contract laden with performance incentives. Look for Wise’s cap number to far less than $5m this season.
Part 1 - published on 10 March
LT Laremy Tunsil
Because the Commanders traded for Tunsil in the final years of his deal with the Texans, his contract as it stands is pretty straightforward. He has essentially a $21m base salary for each of the next two seasons, with the potential to earn another $400k in bonuses each year.
$10m of his 2025 salary is guaranteed.
If the contract is not extended, Tunsil will cost $21.35m in cap space each season.
Of course, Adam Peters may want to extend the contract of the 31-year-old Tunsil. If the goal is to lock in the contract at the lowest value possible, Peters could try to negotiate a deal this offseason. Of course, he may choose to take a look at the player in 2025 and risk having to pay him in a higher market a year from now.
WR Deebo Samuel
This is another contract that the Commanders will ‘inherit’ via trade.
The reason you see all those void years in the deal is that they were filled with pro-rated signing bonus before the trade; all of that turned into dead cap that was eaten by the Niners.
The original contract had a low base salary in 2025 with a roster bonus of ~$15m payable on March 22nd. Under that structure, the 2025 cap hit would have been low (around $5.2m) with dead cap loaded into the void years. Spotrac seems to be carrying the contract this way.
Over the Cap has written that they believe the Niners converted the option into base salary prior to the trade to give the structure shown above, which puts a $17.5m cap hit on Washington in a single season (2025).
Like Tunsil, Adam Peters could choose to extend Deebo immediately, next season, or not at all.
LB Bobby Wagner
This contract is simpler than it looks. Basically, Bobby Wagner will get $9m for one season of play. By loading $5m in as a roster bonus, Wagner gets the money sooner and it is effectively guaranteed. I can’t imagine a guy who needs a workout bonus to motivate him less than Bobby Wagner.
DT Javon Kinlaw
The item here that jumps off the page at me is the fully guaranteed 2026 salary. Kinlaw is locked in for 2 years on this deal (unless he plays like absolute dog poop in 2025). While the deal averages $15m per season, it will eat up only $7.5m this season, and the Commanders can exit the contract after 2026 having spent about $16.2m per season for two years.
I also note that the Commanders did not choose to add any void years to this contract to spread the cap hit as they did on their multi-year deals last season.
This runs through Kinlaw’s age 30 season, so if he plays to the team’s expectations, it should be a deal that helps maintain consistency on the DL as Washington likely pivots away from Daron Payne after 2025.
TE Zach Ertz
You can copy & paste my comments about the Bobby Wagner contract here, with lower numbers. His cap hit for the season will be $6.25m.
In his media session today, Ertz said that, at this point in his career, it’s not about the money. He apparently just loves playing in Washington.
K Zane Gonzalez
The “Veteran Salary Benefit” is a part of the CBA that seeks to protect older players from being cut from teams to be replaced by younger players.
Veteran Salary Benefit
Formerly known as the minimum salary benefit, the veteran salary benefit allows teams to offer a “Qualifying Contract” to any player with at least four credited seasons at a reduced salary cap hit. Under this provision, a qualifying contract is a one-year deal worth the minimum base salary applicable to a player with his number of credited seasons, plus $167,500 in additional compensation (i.e., signing bonus, roster bonus, incentive, etc.). These contracts are charged against the salary cap at the rate of a player with two credited seasons that league year (i.e., the same as Chris Rodriguez).
Gonzalez has 7 accrued seasons and qualifies under this provision, which is why his cap number is lower than his base salary.
RB Chris Rodriguez (ERFA)
The Commanders tendered Chris Rodriguez as an Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA) last week.
An exclusive rights free agent is a player with two or fewer accrued seasons and an expired contract.
To accrue a season, a player must have been on a team’s roster for six or more regular-season games during that year. However, the player does not need to be active for games to accrue a season. Players on injured reserve and the physically unable to perform list also get credit toward an accrued season.
Conversely, a player on a practice squad, non-football injury list, or the commissioner’s exempt list does not get credit for an accrued season if they are not on the roster for six or more games. Additionally, a player under contract must report to his team’s training camp on his mandatory reporting date to earn an accrued season.
How Do NFL Teams Retain Exclusive Rights Free Agents?
Keeping an ERFA is simple for NFL teams. All they have to do is extend a qualifying offer to the player, and he will be unable to negotiate with other teams.
Rodriguez was drafted by the Commanders, but he was cut and spent time on the practice squad, ending the ‘24 season without being under contract for 2025.
All Washington had to do was offer a contract at an amount set by the CBA, which they did ($1.03m) and Rodriguez has only two choices: accept the offer or sit out the 2025 season. While I haven’t seen a report that Rodriguez has signed the tender, he either has or he will.
Assuming he stays with Washington for the full 2025 season, Rodriguez will be a Restricted Free Agent (RFA) next offseason.