3 Bobby McCain replacements Commanders can sign in free agency

The Washington Commanders just announced their new name this week, but there’s not time to reflect on the selection. OK, there’s plenty of time, but there are other pertinent topics to address with free agency a little over a month away and the draft coming shortly thereafter.

With numerous starters and important rotation players set to hit free agency on the defensive side of the ball, the Commanders have a lot of business to attend to between now and the start of the new league year.

For the sake of time, let’s focus on the safety position.

With Landon Collins a potential cap casualty and Bobby McCain out of a contract, it’s very possible Washington looks to sign a safety in free agency. The word on the street is they’d like to re-sign McCain, but it takes two to tango and the 28-year-old’s intentions are currently unknown.

So, while Washington plays the waiting game, we figured it’d be a good idea to highlight a couple potential McCain replacements in free agency. You’ll notice Saints star Marcus Williams, the top guy on the market, didn’t make the list.

While we rate Williams as high as anyone, we highly doubt Washington will look to splurge between $14-16 million on a safety. It’s much more likely the front office zeroes in on most cost-effective options.

3 free agents safeties for the Washington Commanders

3. Justin Reid

A former third-round pick out of Stanford in 2018, Justin Reid’s pro career got off to an incredibly promising start.

Over his first three seasons, he established himself as one of the better safeties in the league, notching a 70.8 player grade from Pro Football Focus while accumulating five interceptions, 19 passes defended and 11 breakups.

However, things went downhill for Reid in 2021, which was easily the worst season of his career. His 51.8 player grade from PFF ranked 87th out of 94 qualified safeties and it all culminated in him getting benched in Week 12 for “disciplinary reasons.”

That’s a pretty big fall from grace, but don’t read too much into it. For starters, he was in an impossible situation in Houston. For a player, who’s ready to win meaningful games, you can imagine how much the Texans tanking took a toll on his mental state, which, in turn, spilled into his on-field play.

The bottom line is Reid has all the intangibles to be one of the best players at his position. He’ll need to rebound in 2022 and beyond to get back in that conversation, but a change of scenery and stable environment could expedite that process.

We don’t love that playing for a loser impacted his performance, but he surely didn’t expect the Texans to go from back-to-back AFC South champs in 2018 and 2019 to a team that’s won eight games in two years.

Coming off the worst season of his career, Reid can likely be had between $7-9 million per year, which is a steal given the trajectory he was on before 2021.