In the final week of the preseason, a few NFL teams were scrambling to get their ongoing contract debacles settled to leave the stress behind in preparation for the season opener. The Bengals and the Commanders were the top two teams getting their disgrtuntled players happy again, leaving the Patriots without two trade targets they had long been connected to.
Pass rusher Trey Hendrickson seemed like the most potential trade to be done, as he is considered an aging defender and the Patriots had the money to afford the kind of extension he was hoping to be awarded with.
The same could be said of Terry McLaurin, who finally got a three-year deal to keep him tied to the Commanders through the 2028 season. He had long made his demands known, as he hoped to become one of the highest-paid receivers in the league, and although he accomplished that, his contract details don't match what he had long been demanding all offseason.
That makes a trade to the Patriots look like a far better situation than he probably even considered.
The Patriots would have given Terry McLaurin a much more lucrative contract than the Commanders did
Over the past few months, it had been rumored that McLaurin wanted a contract similar to those of players who received extensions in recent years, such as A.J. Brown, meaning he sought over $30 million per season.
So, the assumption was that this was what he was offered by the Commanders, only to see, in the contract details, as broken down by NFL insider Ian Rapoport, that this was not what he received. He will instead make an average of $29 million a season, something the Patriots would've been more than happy to have paid had he not accepted a trade.
Full terms for Terry McLaurin:
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 27, 2025
-- 3-year extension worth $87M base value ($29M per year).
-- $44M fully guaranteed, converting to $50M in Apr '27 (his $19.15M for '25 wasn’t guaranteed).
-- $30M signing bonus.
-- Reachable incentives based on yards, catches, TDs, Pro Bowls &… https://t.co/ejq1eBQTYI
We know for a fact that Eliot Wolf was on board with offering more than $30 million a year based on the alleged offer to Brandon Aiyuk last season, which the receiver turned down.
It's fair to assume that McLaurin would have been offered more by the Patriots had he been available, even if he is older than Aiyuk. He's considerably more talented and consistent and would have instantly made their offense a juggernaut if traded.
That's what makes the entire situation far more interesting from McLaurin's point of view, but this seems to suggest that he never really wanted to leave Washington and was only seeking a more lucrative contract. To be fair, it makes sense since he's spent his entire career there, and they just went to the NFC Championship with a rookie quarterback, so why would he want to leave that?
Now, if they want to bulk up their current corps of players beyond Stefon Diggs, DeMario Douglas, and Kyle Williams, they'll have to look elsewhere for answers in the immediate future and next offseason.