Terry McLaurin Executes Training Camp Holdout As He Waits On New Deal

After expressing his frustration last week on the lack of a contract extension, Washington Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin has officially drawn a line in the sand.

McLaurin was absent from Commanders’ conditioning testing on Tuesday which initiated the start of training camp. Washington responded by placing their best receiver on the reserve/did not report list on Wednesday.

Each day McLaurin doesn’t report to camp results in him losing $50,000. McLaurin stated last week that it’s very unlikely he’ll ever step back on the field again for the Commanders “without any progressive discussions” on his contract.

Commanders’ general manager Adam Peters has been much more optimistic about the contract negotiations with his top-flight receiver. “We’ve had some good conversations recently, and we’ll continue to,” Peters said on McLaurin. “We’ll do everything we can to get a deal done.”

McLaurin is entering the final year of his three-year $68 million that he previously signed in 2022. The Ohio State product led the team in catches (82), receiving yards (1096) and receiving touchdowns (13) in 2024, and he feels the receiver market today “conveys what guys of my caliber are deserving of.”

During this offseason, receivers such as Cincinnati Bengals Tee Higgins (four year, $115 million with $40.9 million guaranteed), Pittsburgh Steelers D.K. Metcalf (four years, $132 million with $60 million guaranteed) and New York Jets Garrett Wilson (four years, $130 million, $90 million guaranteed) have accumulated long-term deals with at least $40 millions in guaranteed money. Only McLaurin and Wilson have had at least three consecutive seasons of 1,000-yards receiving with McLaurin doing it for five consecutive years dating back to 2020.

“I feel I fit in that box because of how I’ve carried myself on and off the field,” McLaurin said. ” I don’t want to feel like you have to beg for someone to see your worth and value. Everything in previous regimes and now I’ve done everything asked of me.”

Unlike the other recently extended wideouts, McLaurin will be 30 during the first month of the regular season. While he understands that age may play a factor in the contract dispute, he feels that his lack of college reps and mostly injury free six-year NFL career proves that he has more good years ahead of him.

“”I’m not dismissing [age] completely,” McLaurin said. “There are data points to support that but how come it’s not OK to say this may be a different case and based on what he’s proven, showing no signs of deterioration, I feel that should be acknowledged as well.”

For Washington’s general manager, getting a deal done with his franchise cornerstone will solely come down to financial sensibility and how it aligns with honoring McLaurin’s impact to the team without negatively impacting the franchise’s long-term future.

“That’s always the tricky part of any negotiation is to figure all that out,” Peters said. “I don’t think I’ve been part of a negotiation where it’s linear and smooth; [it’s] understanding where they’re at and where we’re at. It’s the nuance of staying above board and negotiating in good faith as long as it fits in the construct of what we want to do and how we want to build it.”