3 biggest Commanders whiffs of free agency thus far

2. JuJu Smith-Schuster

No, we’re not saying the Commanders should’ve been canvassing the free agent landscape for a wide receiver. After Christian Kirk broke the market with his Jaguars contract, teams like Washington, who could justify simply drafting a receiver next month, likely thought better than to overpay for one right now.

Then, however, JuJu Smith-Schuster signed with Kansas City and our stance changed. While ESPN and NFL Network reported Smith-Schuster signed a one-year, $10.75 million contract with the Chiefs, that wasn’t all that accurate.

After a deep dive into the nitty gritty of the deal, though, Pro Football Talk discovered it’s actually a one-year, $3.25 million deal with $7.5 million (!) in incentives. Even more crazy? Just $2.49 million of that amount is fully guaranteed.

Here’s PFT’s breakdown:

"He gets a signing bonus of $1.455 million and a fully-guaranteed base salary of $1.035 million. The rest of the base package comes from a workout bonus ($250,000) and per-game roster bonuses ($30,000 per game, or up to $510,000)."

Smith-Schuster’s standing as an elite receiver is up for debate, but he’s as solid as they come in the slot. While his production has dropped since he notched 2,343 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns over his first two seasons, people forget he posted those numbers while playing alongside a true No. 1.

With Terry McLaurin assuming those duties for Washington, there’s reason to believe Smith-Schuster would have flourished in Ashburn. He’s also two years removed from logging 97 catches for 831 yards and nine TDs. Not bad for someone who was catching passes from a declining QB in Ben Roethlisberger.

We totally understand why the Commanders are seemingly out of the running for a receiver, but the terms of Smith-Schuster’s contract with the Chiefs have us questioning whether the front office did their due-diligence here.