Commanders Clips
Kirk Cousins has spent 14 years in the NFL. He’s been to the playoffs three times. He has one postseason win.
And he nevertheless sits near the top of the list of all-time NFL earners.
Depending on the source, Cousins is either second behind Matthew Stafford or third behind Stafford and Tom Brady. Once the latest $20 million is added to the total Cousins pile, he’ll likely become the undisputed No. 2.
And $20 million is a key number. It’s the bookend to the figure that sparked Cousins’s climb.
In 2016, Washington applied the franchise tag to Cousins, at $20 million, after his four-year, fourth-round contract expired. But they offered him a long-term deal with an average annual value of $16 million.
It made the decision a no-brainer for Cousins. Take the $20 million, show up for everything, and focus on having the kind of season that would lay the foundation for a long-term deal.
In 2017, Washington tagged him again, at $24 million. (Some in the organization at the time lobbied for Colt McCoy at $3 million, arguing that Cousins wasn’t eight times better than McCoy.)
As of 2018, Washington wasn’t inclined to give Cousins a 44-percent increase (by rule) for a third tag. He became a free agent and the highest-paid player in NFL history after the Vikings boxed out the Jets.
His initial three-year deal in Minnesota became a six-year stay. When the Vikings insisted on a year-to-year arrangement as of 2024, Cousins opted for the multi-year financial security in Atlanta, which (as he quickly learned) didn’t mean multi-year job security.
Through it all, Cousins kept adding cash to the pile. He got $98.7 million for two years with the Falcons. His new deal with the Raiders puts him north of $330 million.
It’s obviously a temporary title. As the NFL’s money increases, the salary cap will rise and the market at the various positions will, too. Inevitably, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes will be No. 1 and No. 2.
For now, though, the biggest claim to fame for Kirk Cousins comes not from his exploits in the postseason, but from trips to the bank made in January and other months of the year.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
Commanders General Manager Adam Peters went into the offseason wanting to improve at defensive end. He did a better job than he thought he would.
The Commanders signed Odafe Oweh to a four-year, $100 million contract, and signed K’Lavon Chaisson to a one-year, $12 million contract. They project as the Commanders’ two starting defensive ends this season, and Peters wasn’t expecting to get them both.
“Just really something we needed to address, and we did,” Peters said. “I was actually pretty surprised we were able to get both of those guys.”
The Commanders also signed defensive end Charles Omenihu to a one-year, $4 million contract, picking up some depth behind the two new starters. Those contracts are a big investment, but Peters thinks the return will make the investment well worth it.
The Commanders signed defensive tackle D.J. Davidson, the team announced Tuesday.
Davidson, 26, spent his first four seasons with the Giants after they made him a fifth-round pick.
In 2025, Davidson played 256 defensive snaps and 139 on special teams in 15 games. He totaled nine tackles and a pass defensed.
Davidson missed the final two games of last season with a neck injury.
In his career, he has played 47 games with four starts, seeing action on 806 defensive snaps and 403 on special teams. He has recorded 49 tackles, 2.5 sacks, three quarterback hits and three passes defensed.
Future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner spent the past two seasons with the Commanders. He’s currently a free agent. The team’s head coach said the franchise hasn’t ruled out bringing Wagner back for a third year.
“We would never shut the door on him,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said Saturday, via John Keim of ESPN.
That said, the Commanders seem to be content with the players they have on the roster.
“We do feel like there’s some players that are about to take off at [his] position,” Quinn said.
Whatever Wagner does next, he’s a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer. He has earned first-team All-Pro honors six times, and All-Pro second-team honors five times.
In 2014, Wagner finished fifth in the NFL MVP voting.
After 10 straight years with the Seahawks, Wagner joined the Rams in 2022. He returned to Seattle in 2023 before signing with Washington for 2024.
Running back Chase Edmonds remains a free agent three weeks into the new league year. He is hopeful of finding work, but he is also exploring opportunities in broadcasting and acting.
“I still feel young, still feel great,” Edmonds told Kyle Odegard of The Sporting News. “I stay in shape, but at the same time, I’m not just going to be idle, praying for a call.”
Edmonds, 29, spent part of last season on the Commanders’ practice squad, but he has played only three games the past two seasons.
He missed the 2024 season on the Buccaneers’ injured reserve list after injuring his knee before the start of the season. Edmonds played only one offensive snap, without any touches, in 2025, while recording19 special teams snaps.
In his career, Edmonds has 608 touches for 3,131 yards and 17 touchdowns. Most of that came during his four years with the Cardinals.
Ahkello Witherspoon’s visit with the Commanders apparently went well.
Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, Witherspoon has agreed to sign with Washington after meeting with the club on Thursday.
Witherspoon, who just turned 31 this month, played for the Rams over the last three seasons. In 2025, he appeared in six games with two starts, registering two passes defended and an interception.
He previously spent four seasons with the 49ers and two years with the Steelers.
The move reunites Witherspoon with Commanders G.M. Adam Peters, as Peters was in San Francisco’s front office when Witherspoon was with the club.
A third-round pick in the 2017 draft, Witherspoon has played in 96 games with 64 starts. He’s registered 60 career passes defensed with 13 interceptions.
Linebacker Sonny Styles is one of the top prospects in this year’s draft class and he’s starting to make the rounds with teams that could make him a first-round pick next month.
During an appearance on Up & Adams, Styles said that he has already had a visit with the Jets. Styles says that he also has visits planned with the Cowboys, Commanders and Bengals in the near future.
The Jets have the second overall pick and have commonly been linked to Styles’s Ohio State teammate Arvell Reese in mock drafts. They also have the 16th overall pick and have an arsenal of early-round choices over the next two drafts, so they could move around the board in order to nab their preferred targets.
Dallas also has two picks — No. 12 and No. 20 — while the Commanders are at No. 7 and the Bengals are at No. 10.
Styles had 244 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, nine sacks, an interception, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery during his time with the Buckeyes. He also impressed during his workouts at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis last month to solidify his standing as a top prospect.
The American national flag football team has traditionally been made up of players who never played tackle football at a high level. Now there’s an exception: Robert Griffin III.
Griffin, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner and 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, was named today to the Team USA Football men’s flag national team.
The 36-year-old Griffin was among 24 players named to the team today. Those players will attend a training camp before 12 are chosen to travel to the International Federation of American Football Flag Football World Championship in Dusseldorf, Germany, in August.
NFL players found out the hard way that flag football is a lot different than tackle football when two teams with active NFL players on them got blown out by Team USA at the Fanatics Flag Football Classic. With flag football coming to the Olympics in 2028, several NFL players have said they want to play, but they’re going to need a lot of practice to get good enough at flag football to beat the players who have been playing it for years.
Griffin, who hasn’t played in the NFL since 2020, may have the time to commit to learning the skills and techniques of flag football, and that may give him a better chance than active NFL players who won’t make that kind of time commitment. But even Griffin would seem to be a long shot, as flag football is a different sport, and a sport that the tackle players struggled to play at a high level when given the opportunity.
The Commanders will be unveiling a new look next month.
The team shared on social media that they will be revealing new uniforms on April 15. They did not tease any details about what the uniforms will look like, but the return of a familiar look last season might provide some hint.
Washington debuted an alternate “Super Bowl era” look that brought back the look of the helmets and uniforms that the franchise wore while winning three titles under head coach Joe Gibbs.
The answer to whether that was a clue about the direction the franchise will be taking will come ahead of the draft when the Commanders fully reveal their new togs.
