The Washington Commanders have a surefire WR1 option with Terry McLaurin, who had the best season of his career in 2024 catching passes from rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels as McLaurin not only set a franchise single-season record with 13 touchdowns he also earned NFL All-Pro honors for the first time in his career.
Beyond McLaurin, however, it’s been a by-committee approach to WR2, with veteran tight end Zach Ertz being forced to pick up most of the slack. Even with that configuration, the Commanders went 12-5 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
Moving forward, the Commanders might not want to leave so much to chance when it comes to their passing game.
With almost $100 million in salary cap space, the temptation will be to take big swings in free agency for a high-profile wide receiver like Tee Higgins — the better move would be for the Commanders to go after a player like Buffalo Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper.
Cooper, who will be 31 years old in June, is in the final season of a 5-year, $100 million contract extension he signed with the Dallas Cowboys in March 2020 and Spotrac has his projected market value at a 2-year, $28.4 million contract.
That might be a bit of a reach for a player on his third team in 4 seasons, but Cooper does have 3 seasons over 1,000 receiving yards in the last 4 years and the Commanders might want to try to get in early and set the market with a 1-year offer between $10 million to $15 million.