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Commanders Will Not Trade Jonathan Allen

October 29th, 2023 at 9:30pm CST by Rory Parks

The Commanders may be prepared to move at least one of their edge rushing duo of Montez Sweat and Chase Young, but another high-profile defender is not available. Per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, Washington will not be dealing DT Jonathan Allen, regardless of whether the club loses to the Eagles today and drops to 3-5.

According to Schefter, the Commanders received trade inquiries on Allen following their loss to the Giants last week. While these types of reports often suggest that a team will only move a player if it is “blown away” by an offer, Washington is reportedly unwilling to even discuss the two-time Pro Bowler.

Of course, Sweat and Young are in contract years, while Allen is under club control through 2025. And though Allen carries a salary cap charge that ranks in the top-10 among defensive players and will carry $20MM+ cap hits in each of the next two seasons, that is not terribly unreasonable for a high-end defensive tackle capable of pressuring opposing quarterbacks from the interior of the line.

Despite the fact that Pro Football Focus’ metrics have generally considered Allen to be an average defender against the run, PFF has awarded the Alabama product high marks for his pass-rushing acumen, which is supported by the 16.5 sacks and 47 QB hits he has compiled over the past two seasons. His durability — he has played in at least 15 games every season since 2018 — further enhances his value.

Allen is clearly viewed as a long-term cornerstone, but in addition to Sweat and Young, other platform-year players like QB Jacoby Brissett, RB Antonio Gibson, WR Curtis Samuel, and CB Kendall Fuller are all possible trade candidates, according to Schefter (the ESPN scribe also named LB Cody Barton as a player that could be on the move, but Barton was placed on IR yesterday).

Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com confirm that other clubs have inquired on Fuller, who had two pick-sixes last year and who has added two more interceptions and six passes defensed through seven games in 2023. Among qualified players, PFF presently considers Fuller the fourth-best corner this season and is especially bullish on his coverage ability.

Largest 2023 Cap Hits: Defense

July 12th, 2023 at 9:52am CST by Sam Robinson

While the NFL’s top 2023 cap hits go to players on offense, a number of pass rushers are tied to lofty figures as well. None check in higher than Giants defensive lineman Leonard Williams.

Williams and Chiefs D-tackle Chris Jones carry high contract-year cap hits, while the Steelers’ two front-seven cornerstones each are set to go into training camp with cap figures north of $20MM. As the salary cap climbed to $224.8MM this year, here are the top defensive cap figures as camps near:

  1. Leonard Williams, DL (Giants): $32.26MM
  2. T.J. Watt, OLB (Steelers): $29.37MM
  3. Myles Garrett, DE (Browns): $29.18MM
  4. Chris Jones, DT (Chiefs): $28.29MM
  5. Aaron Donald, DL (Rams): $26MM
  6. Arik Armstead, DT (49ers): $23.95MM
  7. Cameron Heyward, DL (Steelers): $22.26MM
  8. C.J. Mosley, LB (Jets): $21.48MM
  9. Jonathan Allen, DT (Commanders): $21.44MM
  10. Shaquil Barrett, OLB (Buccaneers): $21.25MM
  11. Grady Jarrett, DT (Falcons): $20.63MM
  12. Marlon Humphrey, CB (Ravens): $19.99MM
  13. Shaquille Leonard, LB (Colts): $19.79MM
  14. Kevin Byard, S (Titans): $19.62MM
  15. Adoree’ Jackson, CB (Giants): $19.08MM
  16. Harold Landry, OLB (Titans): $18.8MM
  17. Justin Simmons, S (Broncos): $18.15MM
  18. Jamal Adams, S (Seahawks): $18.11MM
  19. Matt Judon, DE (Patriots): $18.107MM
  20. Quandre Diggs, S (Seahawks): $18.1MM
  21. Nick Bosa, DE (49ers): $17.9MM
  22. DeForest Buckner, DT (Colts): $17.25MM
  23. Emmanuel Ogbah, DE (Dolphins): $17.19MM
  24. DeMarcus Lawrence, DE (Cowboys): $17.11MM
  25. Eddie Jackson, S (Bears): $17.1MM

The Chiefs are working toward a second extension agreement with Jones, who is in the final season of a four-year, $80MM contract. A new deal with the star inside pass rusher would free up cap space, and DeAndre Hopkins is believed to be monitoring this situation.

As for Williams, the Giants had wanted to adjust his deal to reduce his eye-opening cap number. As of mid-June, however, no extension appeared to be on the team’s radar. The previous Giants regime signed off on the 2021 Williams extension (three years, $63MM). The Giants are also uninterested — for the time being, at least — in extending Jackson, who was also a Dave Gettleman-era defensive addition.

Donald is in the second season of a three-year, $95MM deal. The Rams gave Donald a landmark raise last year, convincing the all-everything D-tackle to squash retirement talk. A no-trade clause exists in Donald’s contract, which pays out its guarantees this year. Mosley remains tied to the $17MM-per-year deal the Mike Maccagnan regime authorized with the Jets. That contract, which reset the off-ball linebacker market in 2019, still has two seasons remaining on it due to the deal tolling after Mosley’s 2020 COVID-19 opt-out call. The Jets restructured the deal last year.

Washington now has two D-tackles tied to deals of at least $18MM per year. While Daron Payne‘s pact is worth more ($22.5MM AAV), higher cap hits on that deal will come down the road. Three years remain on Allen’s 2021 agreement. At safety, no team is spending like the Seahawks. In addition to the big-ticket deals authorized for Adams and Diggs, Seattle gave ex-Giants starter Julian Love a two-year, $6MM accord in March.

New Titans GM Ran Carthon attempted to give Byard a pay cut. That request did not go over well, but the standout safety remains with the team and has not requested a trade. Tennessee re-signed Landry on a five-year, $87.5MM deal in 2022; the veteran edge rusher has yet to play on that deal due to the ACL tear he sustained just before last season.

The 49ers can bring Bosa’s number down via an extension, which has long been on the team’s docket. As San Francisco extended Deebo Samuel just after training camp began last year, Bosa received back-burner treatment due to the fifth-year option. The star defensive end’s price undoubtedly went up during the waiting period, with the former No. 2 overall pick earning Defensive Player of the Year acclaim in the fourth year of his rookie contract.

NFL COVID List Updates

December 18th, 2021 at 7:37pm CST by Zachary Links

We are trying our best here at Pro Football Rumors to keep up with all of the updates throughout the league concerning players on the reserve/COVID-19 list. A lot of teams had high hopes during today’s testing as they were trying to get players activated in time for Sunday’s slate of games.

Here are updates as of 8:30 PM ET, Sat 12/18:

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: DT Eddie Goldman
  • OC Bill Lazor, DC Sean Desai, STC Chris Tabor in COVID-19 protocols

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: DB P.J. Locke

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

  • Four Coaches in COVID-19 protocols

New York Giants

New York Jets

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team

WFT Designates DE Montez Sweat To Return

December 18th, 2021 at 10:14am CST by Ben Levine

WFT will have most of their defensive line when they take on the Eagles on Tuesday night. Washington Football Team announced that they’ve activated the following four players from the reserve/COVID-19 list:

Sweat, who is currently on injured reserve, was also designated for return, meaning his return to the field is imminent. Washington has been without Sweat since Week 8. The first-string defensive end had been recovering from a fractured jaw, and he intended to return to practice on Wednesday. A first-round Washington draftee, Sweat has registered four sacks this season and has 20 for his career. The Mississippi State product has forced two fumbles in each of his three seasons.

When fully healthy, Allen and Sweat should sit atop the depth chart. Smith-Williams and Toohill, who have both been forced into significant roles on the defensive line following injuries to Sweat and Chase Young, will be able to settle back into their backup/special teams roles.

We learned yesterday that the NFL was pushing Sunday’s WFT/Eagles game to Tuesday.

Contract Details: Chubb, Thomas, Allen, Wilson

August 1st, 2021 at 6:42pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Let’s catch up on the details of some of the big contracts recently signed around the NFL:

  • We heard last night that Browns running back Nick Chubb was signing a big three-year extension worth $36MM with $20MM guaranteed. We’ve got the full equation now, thanks to what a league source told Jason Fitzgerald of Overthecap.com. For starters, Chubb is getting a $12MM signing bonus. It also turns out that not *quite* $20MM is fully guaranteed. The actual guarantee is only $17.133MM. However, it’s almost effectively $20MM, since the other $2.87MM in guarantees vests in 2022 and it’s incredibly unlikely Chubb would be off the roster by then. Chubb will have low salaries and low cap hits in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, he’ll have a cap hit of $14.85MM. He’ll have a $10.85MM salary but only the $2.87MM of that will be guaranteed. In 2024, he’ll have a non-guaranteed salary of $11.775MM and a cap hit of $16.2MM for his final year.
  • Washington just made Logan Thomas the seventh highest-paid tight end in the game, and now we have new figures on his deal. His three-year, $24MM extension will give him a cap hit of $6.465MM in 2022, $8.75MM in 2023, and $8.315MM in 2024, John Keim of EPSN.com reports. The dead cap hits for those three years will be $7.465MM, $3.5MM, and $1.75MM respectively. In other words it won’t be too hard for the team to get out of the contract after 2022 if they wanted to. Thomas will receive a $300K roster bonus each season, and is due a $500K roster bonus on the fifth day of the 2024 league year, so that will be an important date in the final season of his new pact.
  • Thomas wasn’t the only player to get an extension from Washington this past week. The Football Team also gave defensive tackle Jonathan Allen a big four-year, $72MM deal. We didn’t previously know the full guaranteed amount, but it’s apparently $35.6MM. Allen’s cap hits for those four new seasons will be $9.5MM, $21.5MM, $21.5MM, and $23MM, Keim writes. As such, he won’t start really weighing down Washington’s books until 2023. He has a $14MM salary for that season which becomes guaranteed on the third day of that league year. His dead cap charges will be $26MM, $18MM, $12MM, $6MM for 2022-2025.
  • Zach Wilson and the Jets avoided potential disaster by agreeing to terms on his rookie deal right before training camp started, and now we have more context on the holdup. We knew there was an issue about potential signing bonus money deferment, and it turns out New York wanted the rookie quarterback to wait to get a significant amount of cash. The Jets “only opened negotiations last week,” and wanted Wilson to defer a whopping $6MM of his signing bonus to 2022, a source told Jeff Howe of The Athletic (Twitter link). After the team relented and agreed to pay the whole signing bonus upfront, Wilson hopped on a plane to New York. In return, the Jets did get some of the offset language they were seeking.

Washington, Jonathan Allen Agree To $72MM Extension

July 26th, 2021 at 2:28pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Washington shockingly won the NFC East last season thanks to the strength of their young defense, and now they’re locking up a key member of that defense. The team reached agreement on a four-year extension worth a whopping $72MM with defensive lineman Jonathan Allen, his agency Team IFA announced on Twitter.

Per his agents, the deal comes with a massive $30MM signing bonus. We heard in early June that the two sides had commenced extension talks, and things came together relatively quickly. The 2017 first-round pick was previously set to enter the final year of his rookie deal under the fifth-year option.

Allen became a starter immediately after getting drafted 17th overall, but was limited to five games as a rookie due to a Lisfranc injury. He bounced back in a big way in his sophomore season, starting all 16 games and racking up eight sacks. Since his rookie campaign, he’s missed only one game.

An interior lineman who can be a wrecking ball in the run game, Allen has also shown a good amount of pass-rushing upside. After notching eight sacks in 2018, he had another six the following year. He only had two this past season as he didn’t play quite as prominent a pass-rushing role, but he still had 14 quarterback hits.

The $18MM average annual salary for his new pact ranks him fifth in the league among interior defensive linemen, as Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post tweets.

Allen only turned 26 earlier this year, and is now signed through the 2025 season. With fellow youngsters Chase Young, Daron Payne, and Montez Sweat all still on their rookie deals, Washington’s defensive front has a very bright future.

Jonathan Allen, WFT Begin Extension Talks

June 9th, 2021 at 5:22pm CST by Sam Robinson

The oldest of Washington’s four first-round defensive linemen, Jonathan Allen is going into his fifth-year option season. Washington, however, will explore keeping the defensive tackle around for much longer.

Allen confirmed Wednesday he and the team have begun extension negotiations, per the Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala (on Twitter). The 2017 first-round pick said in May he wanted to stay in the nation’s capital long-term; he reiterated that hope Wednesday and would prefer to have a new deal by the start of training camp.

Since selecting Allen, Washington added Daron Payne (2018), Montez Sweat (’19) and Chase Young (’20) in Round 1. The team has invested tremendous draft capital on its defensive front, but Sweat and Young can be kept on their rookie deals well into the 2020s. With Ryan Kerrigan gone, Washington has an opening for a veteran-contract D-lineman.

Allen, 26, has bounced back well from an injury-marred rookie year. After a Lisfranc injury limited the Alabama product to just five games in 2017, he has missed just one contest over the past three seasons. Pro Football Focus rated Allen as a top-20 interior D-lineman last season. Between the 2018-19 campaigns, Allen totaled 14 sacks and 25 quarterback knockdowns. He will command a lucrative extension.

DeForest Buckner and Chris Jones did well to bridge the gap between Aaron Donald and the D-tackle field, salary-wise, last year. The Colts and Chiefs standout inside rushers, respectively, signed for $21MM and $20MM per year. This range would figure to be an Allen target, though it might be a bit too lofty for Washington’s tastes. The Grady Jarrett and Kenny Clark re-ups (for $17.5MM and $17MM on average, respectively) may be more relevant to the Washington-Allen negotiations.

Jonathan Allen Wants To Stay With WFT

May 11th, 2021 at 10:56pm CST by Rory Parks

Washington DT Jonathan Allen has been a part of the team’s dysfunctional Bruce Allen regime and a part of the new Ron Rivera era. Apparently, he likes what he has seen from Rivera and is excited about the direction the team is heading.

“[W]e’re moving in the right direction, from the front office to the players, and I love everything that we’re building here,” Allen said (via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post). In speaking about his long-term goals, he added, “[i]t’s always been my dream to play my career in one spot. … This is my home. This is where I want to stay.”

WFT presumably shares those sentiments. Allen, the No. 17 overall pick of the 2017 draft, has largely lived up to his billing. Although a Lisfranc injury limited him to five games in his rookie campaign, he missed only one contest over the subsequent three seasons. He notched just two sacks in 2020 after recording 14 sacks across the 2018-19 seasons, but his 14 QB hits last year actually represented an increase from the 10 he posted in 2019. Pro Football Focus also gave him a terrific 83.7 pass-rushing grade, and PFF considered him the 18th-best interior defender in the league out of 125 qualifiers.

Washington has invested significant draft capital in its defensive front over the past few years, and that strategy is paying off. The team yielded the second-fewest yards per game and the fourth-fewest points per game last year, and Allen was a key component of that success. He is scheduled to play out the 2021 campaign under the fifth-year option of his rookie contract, which will pay him a little more than $10MM.

At this point, we haven’t heard anything to suggest that negotiations on a long-term extension have taken place, though it’s likely that the club has at least discussed parameters with Allen’s camp. However, those talks could be tricky. The top of the 4-3 interior defender market includes AAVs of $20MM and above, and Allen may shoot for a deal in that range. But unlike those $20MM players, Allen has not yet earned a Pro Bowl bid, nor has he put together a double-digit sack campaign, so Washington would likely be looking for something closer to a $15MM/year deal.

Redskins Exercise Jonathan Allen’s Fifth-Year Option

April 27th, 2020 at 2:50pm CST by Zachary Links

It’s official. On Monday, the Redskins announced that they have exercised their fifth-year option on defensive lineman Jonathan Allen. 

[RELATED: Redskins Trade Trent Williams To 49ers]

NFL teams have until May 3rd to exercise, or decline, the 2021 option for first-round draft picks from the 2017 class. As shown in PFR’s tracker, several players are already ticketed for a fifth year. Some of them were easy calls, including Jets safety Jamal Adams and Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White. Others – like Browns tight end David Njoku – required a little bit of extra thought.

Allen was one of the easier calls. After much of his rookie year, Allen has notched 14 sacks across the last two seasons for the Redskins. The Alabama product will have some additional help this year, thanks to the addition of Chase Young, who had 17 sacks in his final year at Ohio State.

Because Allen was drafted outside of the Top 10 (No. 17 overall), the salary figure on his 2021 season is not yet known. For those inside of the Top 10, those figures will correspond to the transition tag amount at their respective positions. In the case of Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (No. 1 overall), he’ll earn upwards of $16MM.

Fifth-year options for players are guaranteed for injury only, but that will change starting next year thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement.

NFC East Rumors: Long, Redskins, Cowboys

September 13th, 2019 at 4:38pm CST by Sam Robinson

Let’s look at the latest from the NFC East, starting with how the Eagles attempt to fill the void Malik Jackson‘s injury created.

  • Jackson going down wounded one of the NFL’s top defensive lines, and it prompted Doug Pederson to address whether or not the Eagles and Chris Long had been in contact. The defensive end retired, in part because there would not be as much playing time to go around this season. But even with Jackson’s injury, Pederson said the Eagles were focused on adding a defensive tackle, Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. “We’re pretty deep at D-end right now so just the D-tackle spot,” Pederson said. The Eagles signed former Dolphins starter Akeem Spence to help on their interior. Jackson has worked as a 4-3 end, 4-3 tackle and 3-4 end but was a tackle in Philadelphia’s scheme.
  • The Redskins have declared Jonathan Allen out for their Week 2 game. He suffered an MCL sprain Sunday and is considered week-to-week, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). There is a chance Allen returns for Week 3 or Week 4, with ESPN.com’s John Keim classifying this as a grade 1 sprain (Twitter link). The third-year defensive end missed 11 games as a rookie but re-emerged with a 16-game 2018 season.
  • Moving to a third NFC East team’s defensive front, Taco Charlton has yet to reward the Cowboys for their first-round investment in him two years ago. Despite Robert Quinn being suspended, the Cowboys made Charlton a healthy scratch against the Giants. A trade would not surprise Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams, with the veteran Cowboys reporter noting the team may still be looking for a safety. The Cowboys are the only known team to contact the Dolphins on now-available Minkah Fitzpatrick.
  • Washington placed Derrius Guice on IR earlier Friday but will not make that move with Colt McCoy. The backup quarterback is progressing to the point a return in advance of Week 4 is realistic, Keim tweets. Dwayne Haskins served as Case Keenum‘s backup Sunday; a McCoy return may shift Washington’s first-round passer to a more developmental role. McCoy also figures to work as a mentor-type figure for the young quarterback.
  • Sterling Shepard remains in the Giants‘ concussion protocol and will miss Sunday’s game against the Bills. The Giants also have Cody Latimer listed as questionable. New York brought back T.J. Jones this week and is set to deploy its lowest-profile receiving corps since the midseason games Shepard and Odell Beckham Jr. missed in 2017.
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