What to do about Terry McLaurin, part 3
August 20, 2025
The only real news in awhile regarding Washington’s ongoing battle with star receiver Terry McLaurin is that Washington returned him to the active roster from the Physically Unable to Perform list late last week. McLaurin was on the PUP list as a result of a what seems likely to be fake or at least greatly exaggerated ankle injury, in what has been widely assumed to be a “hold-in”. One could take this move as a sign that the parties are getting close to a deal – that’s certainly the optimist fan’s point of view – but I think it’s more probable that this is a pressure tactic by the team. Washington may be forcing him to either hold out for real, on the record, or get back to work by refusing to go continue to go along with the ankle injury story (er….the probable lie). It could be either one, but I’d bet on the latter.
I’ve written a couple of recent columns about this situation. In the first one, from May 27 (click here to read), I went through many of the relevant existing wide receiver contracts around the NFL and speculated that his market value was in the range of 4 years, $130M – $135M, which is approximately $32M – $33M in average annual value, with $55M – $60M guaranteed at signing and around $100M becoming guaranteed over the life of the contract. In my second column (click here to read), from earlier this month, I actually planned out a full 4 year contract and a 3 year contract based on my original estimates.
It appears from media reports that the demands of McLaurin and his team are in the range of what I predicted. Washington clearly is not there and may never get there. Many members of the local media have reported that $28M in average annual value might be the compromise point. That’s easy to say, but as I’ve pointed out and described in excruciating detail many times over the years, including in my last McLaurin column, it’s actually quite a bit more complicated than that.
In terms of what could happen to McLaurin if he continues to formally hold out, he had a $500K workout bonus this season that is presumably already gone since he held out from mandatory minicamp. His base salary this season in $15.5M. That’s paid out weekly over the course of the 18 week season, so if he holds out, he’d lose an additional $861,111.11 per week. McLaurin also has $250K in incentives. I don’t know what the incentive is for, so while it may be at risk, it isn’t clear. He also has a $2.8M roster bonus, but that apparently vested on the fifth day of the league year[1], so that isn’t at risk. However, his contract also contains another per game roster bonus of a total of $850K, meaning $50K per game, so that’s also at risk. The bottom line is that if McLaurin refuses to play in the regular season, he’d lose more than $900K each week, and maybe more. That’s quite a bit of money to lose over this situation.
Former agent turned CBS Sports columnist (who has been a guest on The Hog Sty) recently posed an interesting possible solution to this dilemma (click here to read). In this column, Corry proposed the use of salary escalators and de-escalators. How this works, in simple terms, is that certain criteria are placed in the contract wherein McLaurin’s base salary for the year could go either up or down depending on his statistical production. Corry goes on to say that this type of arrangement is rare and that he never agreed to a de-escalator during his time as an agent. I agree with him that this is unlikely, mainly because McLaurin and his team thusfar haven’t shown much willingness to compromise, and this would be a pretty massive one.
This situation has the risk of soon becoming theater of the absurd and a major distraction if it goes on past this week. McLaurin can’t, or at least shouldn’t, just walk into week one not having practiced at all. Washington’s management needs to bring this to a close one way or the other.
This entire matter has gone on way too long, and personally, I’m done with the guy. At this point, I think Adam Peters should make his best offer and tell McLaurin to either take it, or otherwise they’ll pick up negotiations after the season. Washington would have leverage in that scenario, because if McLaurin keeps up the holdout / hold-in / whatever you want to call it far enough into the regular season, he’d be at risk of both not getting credit for a good year and extending his existing contract into next season.
To get an accrued season, a player must be on either the active roster, the injured reserve list, or the PUP list for a minimum of six games, which could include the postseason.[2] So, yes, McLaurin could continue this charade for awhile into the regular season. D-Day would be the week 13 home matchup against the Broncos. Either way, though, if McLaurin refuses to play during the regular season – since Washington took him off the PUP list – he’d start to lose game checks.
I continue to believe that my original contract estimate above, based on an average annual value of $32M – $33M is probably fair, but it’s obvious at this point that the team either doesn’t agree or doesn’t want to pay him that amount into his early 30s. McLaurin hasn’t really showed any signs of slowing down yet, but that could happen quickly in the next few years, particularly for a wide receiver.
Washington seems to not hold that view, though. There are plenty of ways to design contracts that protects the team in the later years. The four year contract I designed in my last column gave the team outs after both years two and three. The problem may be that McLaurin and his agent don’t want to agree to something like that. Regardless, with the season about to start, the team should be done with going back and forth after this week, for the sake of the team as a whole.
The other thing for everyone to remember here is that Washington has the right to franchise tag McLaurin for the next two years. A hypothetical 2026 tag would put his one-year contract value at around $28M. The cost of a second tag in 2027 would rise quite a bit; however, it would only be for one year and after that, he would be about to turn 33 years old and Washington could just let him go. He likely wouldn’t get another huge contract at that age.
I don’t think a trade is very likely right now, because Washington isn’t going to get a big haul for him in exchange, despite what the fans would want. I’m not going to go into a long diatribe about it here, but just know that the team is probably looking at something like a third round pick at most, but more likely somewhere in the range of multiple mid-round picks. Not to mention, Washington does actually need McLaurin – Deebo Samuel is a name and sounds good as his replacement, but don’t forget that his last three seasons have been pretty average. In addition, while Washington has a few receivers with potential, they are for the most part young and unproven. A trade, particularly one that lacks top draft picks, wouldn’t be to the team’s advantage in a year in which they are trying to build on their biggest success in a generation with a quarterback still on a rookie deal.
So, that’s what I’ve come to now. It’s time to play hardball with McLaurin. Will that work? At this point, I’m not even going to guess.
Does anyone have a prediction as to how this situation is going to be resolved? Let me know in the comment section.
[1] https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/29112/terry-mclaurin
[2] https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2023/5/26/23737239/explaining-how-the-nfl-works-part-1-accrued-seasons-credited-vested-veteran-nflpa-steelers