Zach Ertz dutifully responded to questions last week about why he re-signed with the Washington Commanders. As if the answers weren’t obvious.
The tight end was among the veterans added last season to help reset the organization’s competitive vibes and talent level after years of miserable outcomes. Improvement in those areas — and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels showing he might be him — would qualify as a success. The Commanders then blew past those modest goals with 12 regular-season wins and an NFC championship appearance.
Money can sway decisions, but Ertz banked enough salary over his 12-year career where financial thoughts weren’t running the show. The roster, coaching staff and front office were loaded with people who took pride in their work and understood a repeat performance, and hopes of a Super Bowl finish, required more.
“For the guys that are coming back, I think the messaging is very simple,” Ertz said on a video call with local reporters. “We can’t say we’re 12-5 and be complacent in how we approach the process. We have to get better as a football team.”
That’s how general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn entered the transactional part of the offseason. Washington acquired wide receiver Deebo Samuel and left tackle Laremy Tunsil in a pair of splashy trades that cost four draft picks, including a 2025 third- and 2026 second-rounder. Combined with last season’s trade deadline acquisition of cornerback Marshon Lattimore, the team that sincerely believes in building through the draft lost six selections from its war chest.
This divergent path from last year’s slower and self-described recalibration approach has led to “all in for the Super Bowl” talk, or at least the idea of Washington being extra aggressive after a surprising season.
Risk-reward debates followed, including the thought of pushing in more chips by trading for Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson. Cincinnati’s trade demands — a first-round pick at minimum — and potentially a lack of interest in moving the 2024 sacks leader in search of a new contract are the hold-ups in any deal, league sources tell The Athletic. The sources said Washington has explored a Hendrickson trade, but the level of interest following the move for Tunsil is unclear.
Overall, some public discussions lack the needed context. Trading picks deviated from previous expectations, but with justification. Sufficient help in free agency at areas of need wasn’t there.
The Commanders have been judicious. Rather than sit out or overspend in free agency, Washington’s decision-makers followed Ertz’s mindset: Get better. No complacency allowed.
They do not get high on their own supply by thinking that running the roster back from last season was enough, even if 33 of the 53 Week 1 players arrived on their watch. Of the Commanders’ 28 free agents this cycle, 19 were re-signed as of Sunday, but only two received multiyear deals: blocking tight end John Bates and special teams standout Nick Bellore. Only two returnees — Ertz and linebacker Bobby Wagner — are definitive starters. That’s the same number of starters exiting when including Jeremy Chinn, who signed with the Las Vegas Raiders, and the release of two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, now with the Minnesota Vikings.
Washington made its own luck during the franchise’s best campaign since 1991 — hello, Noah Brown “Hail Mary” catch — but numerous breaks went its way before the season-ending loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The last-place schedule lived down to the hype. Significant injuries largely pained other teams. The Commanders won five consecutive games, including the wild-card victory at Tampa Bay, on the final play from scrimmage. You don’t need a master’s degree from MIT to know the long odds of such an achievement.
“If a couple of those games didn’t go our way, we’re looking at a very different season,” Ertz said. “We can’t just say, ‘We were the second-best team in the NFC.’ We have to get better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Due to the previous regime’s draft misfires, Peters couldn’t rely on younger players being ready for more significant roles against a 2025 schedule with five games (Eagles twice) versus the four teams with at least 14 wins last season, and eight games against seven playoff teams overall. There will be no sneaking up, regardless of the opponent.
“We’re going to get everyone’s best shot,” Ertz said.
Of 33 selections from 2020 to 2023, nine remain with Washington, with five considered starters or rotation help. Front-line assistance at offensive tackle, edge defender and wide receiver/offensive playmaker would come from elsewhere.
Ideally, said help meant signing free agents and holding on to draft picks. The oldest team in last season’s playoffs needed an injection of youth beyond the previous year’s nine-player draft class. That Daniels, 24, has star potential for the next decade means building up the roster around him for future years of contending.
The fork-in-the-road scenario for Washington’s consideration added a twist. The rare two-year window with a star quarterback playing on a far cheaper rookie contract before becoming extension-eligible creates an aggressive roster-building opportunity.
“Draft picks are fun … but oftentimes they do take a few years to develop,” said the 34-year-old Ertz following the Samuel and Tunsil deals. “For a guy that wants to win now, just like everyone else in this building, sometimes (trades) are a little bit of a shortcut to get a proven commodity. There is no guessing or projection in that regard.”
Having the third-most salary-cap space entering March gave the Commanders financial runway for a quicker fix. This was good because Washington already shipped third- and fourth-round picks to New Orleans for Lattimore. The move addressed a significant cornerback issue for the then-7-2 Commanders and put a four-time Pro Bowler with a nagging hamstring injury and a contract running through 2026 on the roster.
Washington still had eight 2025 selections and its full allotment in 2026. The March 1 trade for Samuel, a player the San Francisco 49ers’ front office with Peters drafted in 2019, erased a fifth-round pick. Injuries and weight concerns factored into a down 2024 season, but a healthy Samuel is a physical run-after-the-catch force.
This is a trust-in-Peters move with minimal risk — the Commanders easily absorbed Samuel’s expiring contract with a $17.5 million price tag. They prudently got ahead of free agency’s unpredictability rather than face potential bidding wars within a thin market. Davante Adams was the only wideout arguably ranked over Samuel to switch teams.
Maybe the Lattimore and Samuel trades wouldn’t have happened had Washington followed its expectations in 2024. Moving multiple picks for Tunsil, one of the league’s premier left tackles, is logical even if coming off a playoff-less season. Helping the dazzling Daniels in any way possible is sensible and Washington’s best path to maintain or improve on last season’s success. Upgrading the left tackle position, managed last season by 2024 third-round pick Brandon Coleman, was an obvious starting point.
Coleman’s impressive size and athletic potential didn’t offset allowing 10 sacks and other quick pressures. “I hope they leave Coleman at LT,” texted an NFC general manager before free agency began. Peters and Quinn had other plans. Boosting the lagging ground game and raising the line’s potential by moving Coleman to a more comfortable right tackle role are two examples of helping last season’s fifth-highest-scoring offense beyond protecting Daniels’ blindside.
Here’s the real point about trading 2025 third- and seventh-round picks and a 2026 second — Washington and Houston also swapped fourths — for Tunsil: Where else would Peters find difference-making replacements?
According to league sources and other reports, the Commanders were interested in Ronnie Stanley. The Ravens agreed to re-sign their left tackle to an annual average salary of $20 million over three years before free agency opened. Tackle options cratered from there.
Is it better to overspend on questionable free-agent talent such as new Tennessee Titan Dan Moore — his four-year deal averaging $21 million per season is roughly Tunsil’s salary on his remaining two years — than trade picks for a significant upgrade at the second-most important position on offense? Feel better if Washington spent $238.5 million in free agency like New England entering its two-year window with potential franchise quarterback Drake Maye, despite coming off a four-win season?
Overreacting to Washington’s trades in either direction would misread what Peters and Quinn faced. Those deals and a surprising three-year, $45 million contract for free-agent defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw were the only ones involving eight-figure salaries.
The signings were mainly about maintaining internal chemistry and providing enough depth for Peters to attack the draft as desired. Finding a significant edge defender to provide a pass rush and assistance for the 30th-ranked run defense is the primary box left unchecked. Picks in the first two rounds make for a potential resolution. Otherwise, any defensive improvement exists on the margins until the scheme fit is seen. Determining how much Washington closed the gap with Philadelphia is therefore to be determined.
The Commanders now have All-Pro-level talent at four primary positions, with Samuel complementing 2024 All-Pro wide receiver Terry McLaurin. Hendrickson would complete the set. Perhaps Cincinnati’s new contract agreements with wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins accelerate its Hendrickson intentions.
Washington’s moves reduced its significant amount of effective salary-cap space, which now ranks 21st at $18.4 million, per Over the Cap. Patience has kept the Commanders in the Hendrickson mix if they’re interested. Trading away more picks would further remove them from a longer-term vision around Daniels.
Maintaining cash and cap space isn’t playing it safe. Expected extensions for Tunsil and McLaurin loom. They could also spend modestly on free-agent options, including edge rusher Za’Darius Smith and former Washington cornerback Kendall Fuller.
The Commanders’ front office has already shown that limiting its vision to a single doctrine is short-sighted. Roster-building is a nimble-minded person’s game, and Washington’s philosophy is situationally adaptable.
“It’s an exciting time to be a Commanders fan,” Ertz said, “because we’re doing everything we can to be the team we want to be.”
(Photo of Adam Peters: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
