Why should Terry McLaurin want to sign an extension with Washington?

There’s no denying the Washington Football Team has a legion of foundational pieces to build around.

From Terry McLaurin, Jonathan Allen, Chase Young, Kendall Fuller, Montez Sweat, Kam Curl, Sam Cosmi and (hopefully) Antonio Gibson and Daron Payne, the future in Ashburn has a chance to be incredibly bright.

You could even throw Landon Collins into the mix if he’s willing to restructure his contract and remain a hybrid linebacker/safety.

For the sake of time, though, let’s keep the conversation focused on the first player we listed above: Terry McLaurin, the face of the franchise, a fan favorite and the team’s most gifted receiver in a LONG time.

It’s fair to say that extending McLaurin is at the top of every fan’s offseason wishlist, right? He’s an ascending talent at the position with a top-five ceiling, sets the tone on a weekly basis with his physicality, is a leader in the locker room and becomes more lovable every time he address the media.

There’s a reason FedEx Field is decked out in No. 17 jerseys during home games. However, has anyone stopped to consider why McLaurin should want to sign an extension with Washington?

Why should Terry McLaurin want to sign a long-term extension with the Washington Football Team?

We can’t be the only ones who are thinking this, right? If we had any say in the matter, McLaurin would be locked up for the next three or four years yesterday. Heck, we’d sign him to a 5-7-year contract if it came down to it.

However, with the QB situation still unresolved, could you really blame him if he was having second thoughts about his future with the franchise? Maybe loyalty will trump all the other deciding factors, but let’s face the facts.

The first of which is that McLaurin will never realize his full potential until the team finds a quarterback who can accentuate his superstar ability. This season has proven Taylor Heinicke isn’t that guy.

How many times has McLaurin cooked his defender only to have to halt his momentum and make a contested catch because the ball was underthrown? Heinicke has also sailed numerous passes over McLaurin’s head.

This isn’t just a Heinicke problem, either. Since he was drafted in 2019, McLaurin has never had stability (or consistency) under center. He’s only played 44 career games, but has caught passes from 11 different QBs during that span.

Can you say for certain that Washington will fix this in the offseason? The free agent market is bereft of elite talents and there’s no sure thing in the upcoming draft pool. Short of striking a blockbuster trade for one of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson or Derek Carr, McLaurin seems poised to suffer through another year of subpar QB play.

At that point, McLaurin will be entering his age-28 season in 2023. Why should he sign up for that?

It’s bad enough that the quarterback need is glaring, but McLaurin also doesn’t have a reliable sidekick at the wide receiver position to take the pressure off. Curtis Samuel and Dyami Brown were supposed to be those guys, but they’ve combined to tally 15 catches for 114 yards and zero touchdowns entering Sunday night.

Take a look around the NFL. Almost every star wide receiver has a viable, if not elite, No. 2 option to take some attention away.

Adam Thielen has Justin Jefferson and vice versa. DeAndre Hopkins has AJ Green, Christian Kirk and Rondale Moore. We all know about Dallas’ WR corps. Tyreek Hill has Travis Kelce, Kennan Allen has Mike Williams, Mike Evans has Chris Godwin, who has Antonio Brown, DK Metcalf has Tyler Lockett, Cooper Kupp has Odell Beckham Jr. and Robert Woods before his season-ending injury.

Davante Adams is really the only exception in that discussion, but the fact he’s catching passes from Rodgers cancels it out.

You see what we’re saying? Other than the unwavering support of fans, what does McLaurin have going for him in Washington? Not much.

McLaurin is too talented to have just four 100-yard games on his 2021 resume. He’s too talented to be averaging 32.8 receiving yards over the last five games and he’s too talented to only have 66 catches through 14 games.

Over the last five games, McLaurin has been invisible. He has just 18 targets and 164 receiving yards during that span, which included being held without a catch for the first time in his career vs the Cowboys in Week 14.

We could continue, but you get the point.

We want to vomit just thinking about this, but unless McLaurin doesn’t care about his legacy, can you really make a football-based argument for him signing a long-term extension with Washington?

If so, we’re all ears.