Commanders confident Terry McLaurin will excel with better QB play

By Ralph Vacchiano
FOX Sports NFC East writer

Ron Rivera is very aware of Terry McLaurin's value. He made sure that re-signing the receiver was the Washington Commanders' top offseason priority. In fact, Rivera is the one who got the three-year, $69.6 million contract extension done.

The Washington coach has seen how McLaurin can transform the Commanders' offense. He recognizes what the 26-year-old’s dynamic playmaking can do for new quarterback Carson Wentz. He knows that McLaurin is one of the NFL's most dangerous receivers.

Even though it sometimes seems like no one else does.

Ask anyone around the NFL to list the league's best wideouts, and it often takes a while for McLaurin's name to come up. Even among his peers, he's often forgotten. The NFL's annual Top 100 list, as voted on by players, included 19 receivers last year, but not McLaurin. There are eight receivers on the list so far this year, including two rookies from last season, yet McLaurin won't be on it, even with 20 spots (and probably another five or six receivers) still to go.

The lack of respect could be maddening for a player at a position with its share of big egos. But for the 6-foot, 210-pound McLaurin, it all just seems to be more fuel. 

"I think it's easy to hear the good things about yourself," McLaurin said at the start of training camp this summer. "I think it's easy to hear what you do well, your strengths. And I take pride in the strengths in my game.

"But when my career started to take an upward trajectory is when I started focusing on my weaknesses and trying to make them strengths."

The weaknesses in McLaurin's game are hard to find, and it's clear that his hard work has paid off ever since he was an unheralded third-round pick out of Ohio State in 2019 — the 12th receiver taken in that draft, by the way. He had an excellent rookie season (58 catches, 919 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games) followed by a spectacular second year (87-1,118-4 in 15 games). Last year was a small step back, according to the numbers, but his production was still excellent (77-1,053-5 in 17 games).

Maybe those don't look like elite receiver numbers. But consider the circumstances McLaurin has been stuck in while playing the first three years of his career in Washington, perhaps the league's most dysfunctional franchise. He's played for three different head coaches (Jay Gruden, Bill Callahan and Rivera). He's had to learn offenses under two offensive coordinators (Kevin O'Connell, Scott Turner). 

And worst of all, he has caught passes from eight different quarterbacks, many of whom fall under the category of "mediocre at best." The list includes, among others, Case Keenum, Colt McCoy, Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke and Garrett Gilbert, whose start last season was just his second in a nine-year NFL career that he has spent bouncing around with nine different teams.

Not surprisingly, last season — a campaign in which Heinicke started 15 games — only 62.7% of the passes thrown to McLaurin were considered catchable, according to Pro Football Focus. That was the lowest percentage of any receiver with at least 100 targets in the entire league.

That's crazy, and it's as good an explanation as any for why the Commanders (who are even on their third team name since McLaurin entered the league) are 17-32 during his career. It's no wonder why quite a few people around the NFL believe McLaurin could be an All-Pro if he played almost anywhere else.

But McLaurin chose to stay in Washington because he believes in Rivera and the direction the Commanders are headed, especially now that they possibly have stability at quarterback with the offseason trade for Wentz. Yes, Wentz comes with plenty of baggage, but even in a tumultuous season in Indianapolis last year, he completed 62.4% of his passes for 3,563 yards with 27 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.

He gives Washington something several previous starting quarterbacks really couldn't: a legitimate NFL starter.

And for a receiver like McLaurin, that could make all the difference in the world.

"My rookie year we played Philly," McLaurin said. "I remember watching [Wentz] play and the way he threw a deep ball. I was almost enamored by it, you know? And his toughness in the pocket. I don't think a lot of people give him enough credit."

The Commanders clearly do. They believe that with Wentz, they now have enough offensive weapons to keep up with the Dallas Cowboys (the highest-scoring team in football last season) and the potent Philadelphia Eagles (12th in scoring overall). The Commanders have an underrated running back in Antonio Gibson, and they believe rookie third-rounder Brian Robinson could give them a strong 1-2 punch on the ground. Tight end Logan Thomas is back at practice and way ahead of schedule in his return from a torn ACL and MCL last December, and his presence could provide them with another dangerous weapon.

If veteran receiver Curtis Samuel bounces back from his injury-riddled season and lives up to the three-year, $34.5 million contract he signed last year, and first-round receiver Jahan Dotson is the player the Commanders think he is, that'll go a long way towards freeing McLaurin up from constant double-teams.

The key to their offensive success, though, is most definitely McLaurin. That's why the Commanders rejected any trade offers they received during his brief spring contract holdout. In this explosive, pass-happy offensive era, teams simply can't thrive without an elite receiver. It's why the price for the best ones soared during the wild offseason. As big as his deal was when he signed it in early July, McLaurin is still just the ninth-highest-paid receiver in the league.

Of course, that doesn't seem to matter to him, just like it didn't seem to matter much that his peers left him off the Top 100 list — again.

"I don't know who else was on the list, but I would think Terry would be a top-100 player in this league," said Turner, his current offensive coordinator. "If I was doing the list, I'd have him ranked there."

The Commanders' hope is that after this season, with a new quarterback and some stability in the franchise, everyone will see that's exactly where McLaurin belongs.

Chase Young injury update

Chase Young was officially placed on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Play list by the Commanders on Tuesday, meaning he will miss at least the first four games of the NFL season. 

The move was expected, since he's been out all training camp and is still recovering from the torn ACL and MCL he suffered last November. Rivera had previously said he expected Young to miss the start of the regular season. And though the team hasn't specified his timeline to return, Young is not expected back until closer to midseason.

The Commanders also placed backup C Tyler Larsen (Achilles) on Reserve/PUP and cut veteran T Rashod Hill and WR Kelvin Harmon, a former sixth-round pick (2019). And they placed LB Nate Gerry on injured reserve.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and the Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that he spent 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. A Long Island, N.Y., native and graduate of Syracuse University, he can be found on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.