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The 5 O’Clock Club – Schefter on McLaurin contract extension: “There is quite a gap between what both sides want”

July 1, 2025 by Hogs Haven


It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…

The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.


CLICK HERE to see the full 5 o’clock club archive


Terry McLaurin’s contract situation has been a topic of discussion since the end of the NFC Championship game in January. While there’s been very little actual reporting, there has been some rumor and tons of speculation that has revolved mostly around the value and length of the contract, and how those factors would compare to other NFL receivers.

This week, Adam Schefter spoke definitively enough on the Pat McAfee Show about Terry and the Commanders that it at least felt like a ‘report’ from a nationally known NFL “insider”.

Here’s what he had to say:

“There’s no update on the Terry McLaurin situation and that’s the problem..

There is quite a gap between what both sides want right now and they have not made any progress”@AdamSchefter #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/pBatkLA2cs

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 30, 2025

Schefter: “There is quite a gap between what both sides want right now and they have not made any progress.”

He discusses the fact that Mike Evans is on a $24m per year contract and implies that the Commanders might be relying on that figure in the negotiations, but Schefter doesn’t really offer any specifics beyond this hint about annual contract value.

Like nearly everyone else who has discussed the McLaurin contract publicly, Schefter seems short on specifics but very clear about one thing: he has a lot of confidence that the deal will get done.

Schefter: “I cannot envision the Commanders moving on from [McLaurin] no matter how disgruntled he may be. You can’t imagine that these two sides, as far apart as they are today, wouldn’t be able to somehow find a way to bridge their differences and figure out a solution. But, today, McLaurin and the Commanders are not close.”

Last month, I wasn’t pleased to hear Terry described as being “frustrated”. Schefter now uses the word “disgruntled” to describe McLaurin, which sounds worse.

His use of phrases like “quite a gap”, “as far apart as they are today”, and “not close” all feel like red flags on a deal that observers have mostly said should get signed by the time veterans report to Commanders training camp, which July 22, just three weeks away.

It all sounds rather grim, but then, media reports sounded pretty grim before he signed his last extension in July, 2022.

When he finally signed that deal and talked publicly about the process, he sounded like the process itself had taken a toll on him, but that he felt good about the final result:

Terry talked about the process of negotiation, saying that Ron Rivera had reached out to him to say how important it was to the team to reach an agreement. He said that Jon Allen and Logan Thomas, who have both been through the process of signing extensions, talked to him often and helped him maintain perspective. He praised his agent and thanked his family, friends and his girlfriend.

“Talking to my agent, to the conversations I’ve had with coach Rivera. It was very evident that they wanted me to be here and I wanted to be here.

“Obviously, this is a business. I’ve understood that since I got here. And that’s the tough part about it sometimes, is when now the business gets in the way of certain things. But at the end of the day, we got a deal done that worked for both sides. And I’m happy for the other guys in my peer group that are able to get what they deserve as well. But it was just about trying to come to an agreement that was best for myself and this organization. And I felt like we did that. So I’m just really excited about what’s to come.”

I have been very relaxed all year about the idea that the team would get Terry’s deal done prior to camp. He’s still under contract for 2025, but it’s obviously ideal for McLaurin to be happy and excited to be here, so the extension is an important piece of Washington’s offseason.

Schefter’s language in this appearance on the McAfee show is the first time I’ve personally felt a twitch of nervousness about the situation, though a deep breath or two and I feel better. I believe in Adam Peters and I believe in Terry McLaurin. This is likely Schefter simply doing a favor for Terry’s agent by ratcheting up the pressure to finalize a deal as the clock ticks down.

Schefter did mention the possibility that other teams might “come snooping around” to see if they could “pry [Terry] loose”. He seemed to immediately dismiss the possibility, as most others have. Outside of Jayden Daniels, McLaurin is probably the player most deeply associated with the franchise. The Commanders simply cannot screw this up without paying a heavy price with the fan base.

Robert Mays of the Athletic appears to think similarly:

.@TheAthleticNFL‘s Robert Mays (@robertmays) joined the show today and we made our way around the NFL discussing hot topics.@DougMcCrayNFL posed a question about Terry McLaurin, his contract, and how it pertains to Deebo Samuel.

Here is what Robert had to say… #RaiseHail |… pic.twitter.com/JKbxkEmmdV

— George Carmi (@Gcarmi21) June 30, 2025

“Somebody who’s been so central to the culture and has been somebody that does things the right way and is someone that everyone speaks so highly of — him having that much success the first time he’s been able to play with a decent quarterback — I am a little bit surprised [that the deal has taken so long].”

McLaurin is 30 years old. This contract is likely his last big bite at the NFL contract apple, so the stakes for Terry are enormous. He needs to get everything he can because the next time he has a chance to sign a contract in free agency — if he ever does — he will almost certainly be past his prime earning years and fielding less lucrative offers. He’ll never make more money as an NFL player than he will right now with this deal. He should be playing hardball, and it appears that he is.

Adam Peters is in a no-lose or no-win situation. If he gets McLaurin signed, Washington fans won’t care how much salary cap it took to keep him. Terry means too much to too many fans for a few million cap dollars to make a difference as long as Terry remains in Washington. The worst that happens to Peters is that he gets some later criticism if McLaurin doesn’t live up to the contract value. That’s the “no lose” part.

But if Peters can’t find the common ground with Terry’s agent and somehow loses McLaurin via trade or free agency, or if he ends up having to hold onto Terry in a Kirk Cousins-like semi-hostage situation by franchise tagging him, then that would be bad. Failure to get this extension done with Terry before the season starts (and, ideally, before training camp starts) would be very bad. That’s the “no win” scenario for AP.

I’m still optimistic that this will play out similarly to 2022. It’s important to Terry and it’s important to the team. They’ll work it out. This is a different front office from the one that was unable to sign Terry’s extension until July of 2022; the constant here is McLaurin’s agent, who is reputed to be a tough negotiator. My feeling is that he is the one driving the timing of the deal, but, as I said above, a few million dollars more on the contract value could be huge for McLaurin while being almost inconsequential for the Commandeers in the big picture. I think this deal gets signed at the 11th hour and everyone goes into the 2025 season happy and excited — again.

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