Washington Commanders Wide Receiver Terry McLaurin has long been a fan favorite of Indianapolis football fans, with his football journey beginning with the Cathedral Fighting Irish. In 2013 he was named Indiana’s Mr. Football after a dominant senior year which culminated in a sensational state championship-winning performance in Lucas Oil Stadium (9 touches, 170 total yards, and 3 Touchdowns), earning him a scholarship with Ohio State.
☘️ #ThrowbackThursday to the 2013 State Championship. The ☘️ defeated
ADWestfield 42-18 to secure the schools 11th and 1st 5A ! Led by Mr. Football Award winner Terry McLaurin @TheTerry_25, the ☘️ offense averaged 48 points/game in the playoff run. pic.twitter.com/SHWyySRa46
— Cathedral Football (@CathedralFBall) April 9, 2020
Five years later he returned to Lucas Oil to face Northwestern in the BIG10 Championship, where he once again put on a show in front of his hometown crowd, with 3 catches going for 78 yards and a pair of TDs. This performance in his final season with the Buckeyes helped him rise up draft boards leading up to the 2019 Draft, where many Colts fans were hoping to see him return home to aid a Receiver room that was in need of a number 2 alongside a soon-to-be 30 year old TY Hilton.
Unfortunately the Colts passed on the local star three times in the 2nd Round, the last of these picks taking McLaurin’s collegiate teammate Parris Campbell selected to be that potential number 2 Wideout (which in large part due to injuries, never happened). McLaurin went early in the 3rd Round to Washington, where he has remained for his entire career. He emerged as the top Wide Receiver on the team ever since his rookie year with 919 yards and 7 TDs, and has racked up at least 1,000 receiving yards and 4-13 TDs in all 6 seasons since despite a different QB every season and not having quality QB play until 2024 with rookie Jayden Daniels.
While a time travelling DeLorean isn’t around to rewrite history (turns out plutonium is a lot harder to get now than it was in 1985), the Colts might have a chance to remedy that mistake after the fact with McLaurin requesting a trade on Thursday as contract negotiations sour with the Commanders. What does his current contract situation look like? What could the Colts offer to get McLaurin back in Naptown once more? Does a trade make sense?
McLaurin’s Contract Situation
Scary Terry is currently on the books for the Washington Commanders for:
- 2025: $25.5 million cap hit | $5.6 million dead cap hit | $19.9 million cap savings
- 2026: $5.6 million void year cap hit, Unrestricted Free Agent
In trading McLaurin at this point in the offseason, the Commanders would free up $19.9 million in cap space for 2025 but would still owe him $5.6 million in both 2025 and 2026.
At age 30 and with Wide Receiver contracts hitting new stratospheres, the Commanders have been hesitant to give McLaurin a big extension. He is currently the 18th highest paid Wide Receiver in the NFL per year ($22.788 million per year), with all 17 Wide Receivers ahead of him getting their current deals in the last 2 offseasons. 9 of these Wide Receivers have hit the $30 million a year threshold, which is likely what McLaurin aims to earn next. However only 1 such Wide Receiver received their deal at 30 years old, and that was Tyreek Hill. Whoever trades for McLaurin will have to be willing to pay him top dollar afterwards for several years into his 30s.
The Trade Package for McLaurin
What could the Colts offer the Commanders to tempt them to trade away their top weapon?
The Michael Pittman Jr Swap
The Indianapolis Colts don’t really need another Wide Receiver right now. Michael Pittman Jr. has held the WR1 role since 2021, averaging 992 yards a season in that four year span. Josh Downs has manned the slot as a shifty separator over the last 2 seasons and competed with Pittman for the top target target share last season. Alec Pierce is on the last year of his rookie deal and led the NFL in Yards per reception with 22.3 and led the the Colts in Receiving yards with 824, narrowly beating out Pittman (808) and Downs (803) in just 37 catches. They even have 2024 2nd Round Wide Receiver Adonai Mitchell 4th on the depth chart and subbing in at times, albeit with some consistency and chemistry issues as a rookie.
Michael Pittman Jr. speaks more about his decision to play through his back injury:
— Noah Compton (@nerlens_) January 6, 2025
“Everybody wants to be a dawg until it’s time to do dawg stuff. 56/28/99 deserve my best even when I don’t feel up to it. It’s a privilege to play in this league & I don’t take any game lightly.” https://t.co/hZ7hFNdcfp pic.twitter.com/k3iG8xbXHX
But the Colts could look to upgrade, and if there is a Wide Receiver that is a tradeable asset in this scenario, its swapping top targets with Pittman Jr. heading to Washington. Pittman is the 15th highest paid Wide Receiver in the NFL at $23.333 million per year and is coming off of the worst season of his career outside of his rookie year. This is predominantly due to a back injury that lingered during the beginning of the season, and this offseason has suffered a minor knee injury in June and a July groin injury earlier this week. Pittman Jr. has fought through each of these injuries and the latter two are relatively minor, but are still worth monitoring.
Pittman’s contract is very tradeable, with most of his guarantees already paid for in the first year of his 3 year extension.
- 2025: $23m Cap Hit | $5m Dead Cap Hit if traded | $18m Cap Savings
- 2026: $29m Cap Hit | | $5m Dead Cap Hit if traded | $24m Cap Savings
So much NFL talk about wide receiver contracts.
— Kevin Bowen (@KBowen1070) July 26, 2024
Michael Pittman Jr. shared his thoughts after signing a 3-year extension: pic.twitter.com/BHo3mX3GlP
In this swap the Colts would essentially pay $24.9 million in Pittman’s dead cap hit and McLaurin’s remaining cap post-trade in 2025. Then they would owe Pittman another $5 million on top of whatever McLaurin’s 1st year of his extension would cost in 2026. For 2025 at least this is a relatively minor impact as the Colts still have $19.4m in cap space for this year and this would just take away $1.9 million.
There could be some draft picks involved as well, but the swap alone is fairly even when considering:
- Michael Pittman Jr. has also had similar (albeit just a tick below) production as Terry McLaurin with similar poor QB play and lack of stability year to year under center.
- Michael Pittman Jr. is 2 years younger at age 28 and has 2 years remaining on his deal.
- Michael Pittman Jr. is slightly more affordable in 2025 and will save the Commanders money in 2026.
- Terry McLaurin being on the last year of his deal and 30 years old lowers his trade value a bit.
So the picks involved likely won’t involve in too much of draft capital shake up for either team, most likely involving Day 3 capital swapped.
There are other trade packages involving more premium draft capital (A Round 2 pick and several Round 3 to 4 picks), or other players who can free up a spot in the Wide Receiver Room (Alec Pierce with his similar role as a deep ball threat) or match salaries closely (DeForest Buckner, Quenton Nelson, or Jonathan Taylor). But none of these trades make much sense for a variety of reasons: too many resources at the Wide Receiver to just give up picks, Pierce’s 2025 cap hit being too small and giving the Colts very little flexibility for the rest of the season, the Colts not willing to create major holes elsewhere on the roster.
Does the Trade Make Sense?
Since 2021 Michael Pittman Jr has recorded:
- 365 Receptions
- 3.967 Receiving Yards
- 10.9 Receiving Yards Per Reception
- 17 Receiving Touchdowns
All in 65 games and with the QB carousel of Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Nick Foles, Sam Ehlinger, Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew II, and Joe Flacco throwing him the ball in that span.
Meanwhile Terry McLaurin recorded:
- 315 Receptions
- 4,342 Receiving Yards
- 13.8 Receiving Yards Per Reception
- 27 Receiving Touchdowns
All in 68 games and with QBs Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kyle Allen, Garrett Gilbert, Taylor Heinicke, Carson Wentz, Sam Howell, Jacoby Brissett, and Marcus Mariota before Jayden Daniels took the reins last season.
"Respectfully, just pay him."
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 27, 2025
—Commanders Ring-of-Fame WR Santana Moss on Terry McLaurin's contract situation pic.twitter.com/6rDoAhguRm
What does McLaurin bring more of to the table compared to Pittman?
- Speed: 4.35 40 Yard Dash vs Pittman’s 4.52, 1.54 10 Yard Split vs Pittman’s 1.61
- Route running separation: ranked 20th in Separation, Pittman ranked 45th in 2024
- Yards after the catch 4.6 vs Pittman’s 4.4 during their careers
- Hands: 4.8% vs 5.1% Drop rate, 57.3% vs 53.8% Contested Catch rate during their careers
McLaurin is an upgrade at Wide Receiver 1 for the Colts, albeit not a significant one in some areas.
Raw WR separation grade as well as grade at the catchpoint & after the catch pic.twitter.com/QRFsr63oZs
— Jrfortgang (@throwthedamball) January 7, 2025
Is this upgrade enough to justify $1.9 million in 2025 and $6-9 million in 2026 more cap space committed to Wide Receiver, as well as reducing the resources available to retain Alec Pierce after the 2025 season (and Braden Smith, Nick Cross, Samson Ebukam, and Kwity Paye amongst other 2025 Free Agents too) and Josh Downs after the 2026 season?
As much as fans would love for McLaurin to return back to Indianapolis and as good of a fit as he would be with Anthony Richardson’s skillset to punish defenses vertically, it is hard to envision this trade happening for the Colts with the resources already committed to the position. Forcing Richardson to suddenly gain chemistry with a new top Wide Receiver also has its drawbacks, especially as the process could take time and the season just on the horizon.
Most likely McLaurin will remain with the Washington Commanders and re-sign with the team like some other star players who request trades or hold out this time of the year, or he will hit Free Agency in the 2026 offseason.
Terry McLaurin will play for the __________ in 2025?
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) July 31, 2025
(odds via @DKSportsbook) pic.twitter.com/jG3dWob4eU
But a fan can dream...
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