Terry McLaurin made it clear on Tuesday that while he wants to remain with the Washington Commanders for the remainder of his career, he is disappointed and frustrated with ongoing contract talks. McLaurin is entering the final year of the three-year extension he signed in 2022.
“I’ve been pretty frustrated, I’m not gonna lie,” McLaurin told reporters Tuesday after an appearance at Easterns Automotive Group. “Everything that has transpired to this point has been pretty disappointing and frustrating.”
McLaurin was asked if he had considered playing elsewhere, to which he acknowledged that he had not.
“I want to be here. I want to make that abundantly clear,” he said. However, McLaurin acknowledged that it “takes two to tango.”
The most troubling aspect of McLaurin’s comments yesterday was when he revealed that neither he nor his representation had spoken with the team in a month.
“Well, I think there has to be some active discussions, you know,” McLaurin said when JP Finlay of 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C. asked him what needed to happen next. “We haven’t talked in over a month, and obviously, with camp around the corner, it is becoming a little bit of crunch time. Obviously, you want to be in a position where we’re building to what we did last year.”
McLaurin then went on to say things were going great this offseason before he skipped Phase 3 of the offseason program and the team’s minicamp.
Why haven’t the two sides talked in a month? That’s concerning. Fortunately, all it takes is one call to ramp things up. And with training camp approaching — it begins next week — the Commanders may want to wrap things up. While Garrett Wilson’s extension with the Jets is different, it should give Washington a baseline. DK Metcalf’s extension with the Steelers still figures to be the benchmark for McLaurin.
So, yes, the two sides not talking when things were slow is a problem, but it could be a cooling-off period, too. There is no hard deadline to make a deal, but the Commanders do not want this situation to linger into the season. Washington is in a tough position. It makes good business sense not to pay McLaurin near the top of the market into his 30s, but you can’t lowball your team’s most productive and popular player—a player who does everything right and never complains.
We still believe that a deal will be finalized soon.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Terry McLaurin said something concerning about talks with Commanders