The New York Giants have watched the NFL hand out some wonky contracts over the years, but the Washington Commanders just took the cake for the worst free-agent signing in the NFC East. After essentially pushing Jonathan Allen out the door in a cost-saving move, the Commanders turned around and handed Javon Kinlaw a three-year, $45 million deal.
Allen was due to make $15.5 million in 2025, essentially the same amount Washington just handed Kinlaw, a downgrade in every sense of the word.
The Commanders let go of a two-time Pro Bowler in Allen presumably to save money. And then they gave all those savings ($30 million guaranteed) to Kinlaw. This isn’t Monopoly money. This is real-life money. Confirmed, not Monopoly.
This is one of the worst contracts in league history, and that's not an exaggeration. If there’s a method to this madness, it’s hard to see it from the outside.
Commanders’ bizarre Kinlaw deal raises serious questions
On paper, Kinlaw’s 2024 season with the New York Jets should have put him on the discount rack. He was bad in run defense, struggled to make impact plays, and finished with a 50.8 PFF run-defense grade. He wasn’t much better against the pass, tallying just 4.5 sacks (9.5 in five years). His overall grade was a 53.4, which ranked 127th out of 219 eligible guys. Uh what?
What exactly did Washington see here? Maybe Adam Peters, who was part of the 49ers’ front office that drafted Kinlaw in 2020, believes he can unlock something that San Francisco and New York couldn’t.
Maybe they just panicked after cutting Allen and needed a warm body to fill the void. Either way, $15 million per year for Kinlaw is an all-time overpay. Like of all-time.
What makes this worse is that better options were available. The draft is loaded with defensive tackles, and if Washington really wanted a veteran presence, there were cheaper, more productive players still on the market. Instead, they committed serious money to a player whose best-case scenario is “maybe he won’t be terrible.”
The Commanders are coming off a 12-5 season and NFC Championship Game appearance and clearly see themselves as contenders. But throwing $45 million at Kinlaw instead of using that money on a proven impact player? Sometimes all reasoning goes out the window—this is just one of those times. At least it's the Commanders this time and not the Giants.