2025 Roster Preview – Defense
February 10, 2025
by Steve Thomas
This is part 2 of my annual review of the roster status for the Redskins Washington Football Team Commanders heading into the 2025 offseason. I like to do these columns first in the offseason before we jump into coverage of free agency and the draft, in order to set the stage for both the needs that Washington will need to fill as well as the potential salary cap implications. I did my review of the offense last week (click here to read). Therefore, today, we’re going to dive into the defense.
Summary
Since last week’s column, I updated The Hog Sty’s salary cap chart for the 2025 season.
Washington currently has 45 players under contract for 2025 and approximately $214M in cap space allocated to the roster for 2025, including the recently-signed futures contracts existing dead money that is left over from last season. A futures contract essentially means that the team has preserved the player’s rights and executed a minimum value, one year contract that in not in effect right now, but will take effect at the start of the 2025 league year in March. In the meantime, the players can continue to use the facilities in Ashburn.
Please note that the Rule of 51, which is an offseason rule which provides that only the top 51 contracts will count towards the salary cap during the offseason in order to allow teams to get to 90 players without breaching the cap, will apply this offseason.
The base salary cap is projected to be somewhere between $265M – $275M for the 2025 season, which will be an increase of $10M and $20M over the 2024 cap. Washington will also has approximately $20M in space that rolls over from 2024. This will likely put Washington’s total salary cap for 2025 at approximately between $285M – $295M.
This means that Washington should have in the neighborhood of $70M to $80M in total available cap space. However, the team will look to preserve somewhere around $10M in space in order to account for emergency signings. Also, some of that space will need to be applied to the draft picks. Last year, the combined rookie pool was approximately $9M under the Rule of 51. If we use that number as a rough estimate for 2025, then in practical reality, the team should be able to spend up to, roughly, approximately between $50M to $60M in free agency, if they are so inclined.
Defensive line
On the roster:
Jonathan Allen (2025)
Dorance Armstrong (2026)
Javontae Jean-Baptiste (2027)
Jer’Zhan Newton (2027)
Daron Payne (2026)
Norell Pollard (2026)
Andre Jones Jr. (2025)
Viliami Fehoko Jr. (2025)
Free agents:
Jayln Holmes
The two big-money players in this position group are Jonathan Allen, who will be in the last year of his contract and who has a $22.5M cap hit, and Daron Payne, who is under contract through 2026 and will have a $26.2M cap hit in 2025. As compared to his peak years ago, Allen was a shell of himself last season in terms of his impact on the defense. Payne was better than Allen, but it still seems like a stretch to say that he’s lived up to his contract. Beyond Allen and Payne, Dorance Armstrong is under contract through 2026 and has a $10M cap hit. Johnny Newton is in the second year of his four-year rookie contract and will have a cap hit of $2.2M in 2025. Jean-Baptiste is signed through 2027 but is on a minimum-cap hit deal. Pollard is on a minimum-value contract, and Jones and Fehoko are both on a futures deals. In total, Washington has more than $63M obligated to the defensive front four, with the bulk of that space obviously due to Allen and Payne.
The only free agent of note is Clelin Ferrell.
Considering that Washington’s front four was woefully lacking in run defense and that none of them were able to put regular pressure on the quarterback in the passing game, Washington needs to make some moves here. The easiest way to clear up some space is to either cut or trade Allen, which would be at a savings of almost $16.5M. Payne is realistically going to be on the roster next year – right now, today, he has a dead cap figure of more than $25M, which means that he cutting him before June 1 would result in a savings of less than $500K. He could be traded at a bigger savings, and also cut after June 1 at a bigger savings, but in no case would the numbers be even close to those of Allen. Also, importantly, Payne has another $4M of salary become guaranteed on the third day of the 2025 league year, which would make him impossible to cut pre-June 1 without the team actually taking a salary cap loss. Also, as I mentioned above, Payne was simply more effective than Allen this past year. I’d therefore look for Washington to make a move with Allen one way or the other, either via cut or trade, in order to facilitate a major acquisition at defensive end. Washington tried to bring in some mid-priced ends last offseason, and while both Armstrong and Ferrell had some moments, neither of them ultimately made the major impact that the team needed. Allen’s departure is the only realistic way to be able to bring in another player to this position group at a large cap hit. Myles Garrett anyone?
Linebackers
On the roster:
Frankie Luvu (2026)
Jordan Magee (2027)
Free agents:
This position group obviously needs significant work, most prominently because Bobby Wagner is a free agent. I expect the team to make an effort to re-sign him; whether that happens depends on how many offers he gets from other teams, since he had a very good season in DC. Fortunately, the star of the group, Luvu, will be back, and his $11.9M cap hit is at least somewhat modest considering that he earned Second-Team All-Pro honors. Magee is signed through 2027 at minimal cap space. The fact that Fowler is a free agent is another fairly big blow, as he led the team with 10.5 sacks last season. Washington will obviously need to make multiple moves here – specifically, Washington needs two starters – and with less than $14M currently obligated, they’ll have the cap room to do it. They could possibly spend a fairly significantly amount of cap space to do it.
Corners
On the roster:
Marshon Lattimore (2026)
Mike Sainristil (2027)
Allan George (2025)
Free agents:
Clearly, the 2025 corner group is a problem, even more so considering that the 2024 version underperformed in many respects. In particular, Lattimore, acquired via a high-profile trade last season, was a disappointment even taking his ongoing recovery from a hamstring injury into account. Lattimore has an $18M cap hit in 2025, with no dead cap, meaning that he’s very easy to either cut or trade. However, I suspect that Adam Peters and Dan Quinn will want to give him a chance to live up to the hype in 2025 rather than cutting him since they traded a net of two draft picks for him Sainristil was a revelation as a rookie and proved to have a bright future. Allan George was signed to a futures contract. In total, the team has a little under $21M in cap space from this position group in 2025.
It seems likely that both St-Juste and Davis will be allowed to leave in free agency. Igbinoghene showed promise at times this past season and was on a small contract worth less than $1.3M. Therefore, Washington may try to bring him back on an affordable deal. Even if that happens, though, they’ll also need to look for another mid-range starter. They probably won’t be able to go for another high-priced free agent because of Lattimore, so it’s possible that they could draft another corner with a fairly high pick.
Safeties
On the roster:
Percy Butler (2025)
Quan Martin (2026)
Jeremy Reaves (2025)
Dominque Hampton (2027)
Ben Nikkel (2025)
Tyler Owens (2026)
Free agents:
The biggest issue with the safety group is the fact that Jeremy Chinn is a free agent. Chinn was on a $4.1M contract this past season, but was their best safety and proved to be worth every penny. Martin is one of the few holdovers from the Ron Rivera draft classes – maybe the only one drafted in the top 3 rounds besides Samuel Cosmi – who’s shown promise, improved, and may have a future. That having been said, it was Chinn who was the top performer in this group, I expect Adam Peters to make an effort to bring him back. Reaves made the Pro Bowl as a special teamer in 2022, which is his primary function with the team. His cap hit in 2025 will be $3.4M. Percy Butler will have a cap hit of $3.2M. Despite his relatively high cap hit, Butler only started 5 games and generally didn’t live up to the contract. In total, the team has approximately $10.7M in cap space obligated towards the safety group in 2015. Therefore, it appears as though, realistically, Washington currently has one starter, i.e., Martin, and will probably need another one at a mid-range salary cap number unless the coaches believe that Butler is going to come around.