OPINION:
It must have really hurt Terry McLaurin to hold out like he did.
Not that anyone should shed tears for the 29-year-old Washington Commanders receiver. He stands to be at least $96 million richer with the end of the contract battle between him and Commanders management less than two weeks before the season opens Sept. 7 against the New York Giants at Northwest Stadium.
And this wasn’t McLaurin’s first holdout, though the previous one wasn’t as dramatic as this one. He missed some OTAs and minicamp before signing a three-year $71 million extension in July 2022.
But back then, he was holding out from an insane asylum, the most dysfunctional franchise in the NFL, a team that had just changed its name for the second time since he was drafted in 2019.
He had already played with nine quarterbacks since his rookie year and was about to play this season with a washed-up Carson Wentz.
Deep down, he couldn’t have been thrilled, and he told you as much in his now infamous July 15 disrespect declaration at Eastern Motors after a commercial shoot, when he made it clear that he believed he was a symbol of pride during those dark days for a franchise engulfed in shame.
“When things were adverse when there was a lot of chaos going on, I held firm, I held strong,” McLaurin told reporters. “I held my head high and I was a leader.”
This time, though, it was a real holdout, missing nearly four weeks of training camp before his holdout became a hold-in, with a trade request in between. This time, he was missing something special — quarterback Jayden Daniels, the sun around which all Commanders planets revolve. There was McLaurin, all alone out in cold, dark space.
Daniels’ Commanders are what McLaurin has been waiting for, an organization led by leaders with a room full of teammates who could all hold their heads up high.
He told me that in the Washington locker room after the Commanders’ 40-7 win over Carolina last season, speaking about the new standards and expectations under coach Dan Quinn.
“I think everybody has to buy into that,” McLaurin said. “We’ve got a group that has. When you don’t have the ball, you’re playing hard without it, you’re trying to find blocks down the field, you’re chasing after the ball in case there is a fumble. Being happy for one another and cheering each other on, that is part of our standard. It is a way of life we are trying to implement each and every week, no matter who the opponent is. We know if we play our style of ball, we will have a chance to win the game.”
To have gone into this season in the final year of his contract with no commitment beyond would have been the sort of personal test McLaurin thought he had left behind when Quinn and general manager Adam Peters arrived. He would have had little choice, save for actually missing regular-season games in an extended holdout, but it would have been a cloud hanging over the locker room until resolved.
He had few options, but the leverage the team had didn’t appear to be worth celebrating. They were facing going into the season with Daniels’ best offensive weapon playing with a chip on his shoulder — and not the kind of chip that motivates.
Daniels has thrown 25 touchdowns in his NFL career. McLaurin has caught 13 of them. He is a two-time Pro Bowler and was named second-team All-Pro last year, when he caught 82 passes for 1,096 yards, his fifth-straight 1,000-yard-plus season.
Preseason football may be an illusion, but there were no illusions that there were any replacements for McLaurin on the roster. Washington in the offseason traded for 49ers receiver/running back Deebo Samuel, who can be a powerful offensive weapon when healthy — which of late had not been often in San Francisco.
But McLaurin hasn’t missed a regular-season game in the last four seasons. His age was often raised as a hurdle in negotiations — Tyreek Hill is the only receiver over 30 who is making more than $30 million a year.
“People making it seem like I need to start getting fitted for a walker and a cane,” McLaurin said in July. “My game is going to mature in a great way.”
I believe it will. I’m not sure many receivers could have excelled like McLaurin did in those chaotic Washington years, catching passes from washed-up and backup quarterbacks. He had something special that drove him, and I believe it is age-resistant.
McLaurin is back in the orbit of the Jayden Daniels solar system
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