Terry McLaurin is back at the facility after his contract holdout. Everyone associated with the Washington Commanders was thrilled to welcome him, but any hope around a new deal being agreed upon evaporated almost as quickly as it arrived.
McLaurin is back for the fans. He's back for his teammates. He's back to avoid getting fined $50,000 per day. He's not back to mend fences or get involved too much in negotiations.
That's for his representatives and general manager Adam Peters to figure out. McLaurin has a price in mind. So does Washington's front office leader, and Adam Schefter from ESPN claimed that the two sides were nowhere near some middle ground right now.
Adam Schefter thinks Terry McLaurin wants more than $33 million per year on Commanders extension
Schefter stated during his latest appearance on the Pat McAfee Show that the floor is probably the $33 million per year D.K. Metcalf received from the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, the senior insider also thought McLaurin could be asking for a lot more.
"It's been vast. So it's up to the two sides to find a way to bridge their differences. But I would say that D.K. Metcalf was in the same draft class as Terry McLaurin. He got about 33 million dollars a year. I wouldn't think Terry wants to take less than that, and I think he wants considerably more than that. Now, what it comes in at, we'll wind up seeing. Washington... They're not there right now. They love and value Terry McLaurin, but they love and value him at a different price. These two sides right now seem apart on a deal. They don't seem close today, and I don't know how they're going to get that resolved and figured out."Adam Schefter
This doesn't exactly fill Washington's fan base with much optimism. But, in all honesty, it's been the brutal truth since talks over a new deal began.
Peters is reluctant to meet McLaurin's demands. He's almost 30 years old, and production often regresses on third NFL contracts. Although he's shown no signs of slowing down and remains among the most durable wideouts around, things are not matching up from a business sense currently.
There is still time to work things out, and they typically do the closer we get to the regular season. McLaurin is on the physically unable to perform list with an ankle complication, so he's not practicing. And the former third-round pick out of Ohio State is unlikely to be on the field in any capacity until some more long-term financial security arrives.
Based on this, coupled with other confidence-sapping reports, fans could be waiting a little while longer just yet.