Analysis: McLaurin has one season remaining on the three-year, $68.2 million extension he signed in 2022, with $19 million to $20 million in real-money compensation for 2025. That might be enough to prevent a holdout, but the Commanders would rather lock him in for multiple years after McLaurin finished 2024 with career highs for touchdowns (13), catch rate (70.2 percent) and PPR points per game (15.9). Tough as it may be to avoid TD regression, McLaurin figures to remain highly efficient and may even get a slight boost to his target volume, entering his second season in an offense led by QB Jayden Daniels and OC Kliff Kingsbury. Offseason acquisition Deebo Samuel should mostly get touches/targets that went to Olamide Zaccheaus, Dyami Brown and Noah Brown last year, including many of the screens that were a frequent feature of Kingsbury's offense. McLaurin remains unchallenged as the team's top threat to catch deep and intermediate passes.

Analysis: McLaurin was predictably the focus of the strong Philadelphia secondary and was blanketed by Quinyon Mitchell for much of the game. That led to a subpar performance, though he did manage an impressive 36-yard touchdown catch and run midway through the second quarter to account for the majority of his production. Though his campaign ended on a sour note, McLaurin managed a career-best 13 touchdowns while also tallying his highest catch total (82) since 2020 across 17 regular-season games.