Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, reports that the Commandes are “99.9 percent likely” to use the franchise tag on DT Daron Payne.
Washington will have until March 7 to decide whether to use the tag on Payne, which will cost them $18,937,000 for next season. Should the Commanders tag Payne, they’ll have until July 15 to work out a contract extension.
Last month, GM Martin Mayhew confirmed they would like to re-sign Payne this offseason.
“It’d be difficult to move forward without him, obviously,” Mayhew said. “We have a plan, and we definitely wanna get him back.”
Payne, 25, is the former 13th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Alabama. He signed a four-year $14.418 million dollar rookie contract with the Washington Football Team that included an $8.566 million dollar signing bonus.
Washington exercised his fifth-year option for the 2022 season which is worth $8.53 million. He’s set to be an unrestricted free agent.
In 2022, Payne appeared in all 17 games and recorded 64 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks, one fumble recovery, five pass defenses, and one safety.
We have him included in our Top 100 – 2023 NFL Free Agents list.
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