Washington roster moves
March 10, 2025
by Steve Thomas
Washington made several major personnel moves this past week, cutting long-time starting defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and re-signing middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, tight end Zach Ertz, and kicker Zane Gonzalez. Today, we’ll take a look at the impact of these moves to both the team and the salary cap.
Salary cap
With Allen’s departure, Washington gets to eliminate his $22.35M cap hit, but takes on a $6M dead cap as a result this season, for a total savings of $16.35M.
Contract data is not yet available for either Wagner, Ertz, or Gonzalez, so we don’t know precisely what sort of cap space they will occupy. Wagner is rumored to have signed a 1 year, $9.5M contract, but (a) that hasn’t yet been confirmed, and (b) even if true, that doesn’t necessarily mean that his cap hit will be the full $9.5M.
Ertz’s contract is supposedly for one year, $6.25M, but as was the case for Wagner, this doesn’t necessarily mean that his cap hit will be that exact amount. However, for the sake of the hypothetical, we’ll go with $6.25M.
As to Gonzalez, his contract last year was valued at $1.125M. His contract details are also not available. However, for the sake of the argument, I’ll give him a small raise and estimate his cap hit at $1.5M.
With Allen’s departure, Washington has approximately $82M in free cap space this season. Using my estimates for Wagner, Ertz, and Gonzalez, that would add approximately $17.25M in cap hits, which would in turn bring Washington’s free cap space down to around $65M.
The defensive line group now occupies approximately 14.2% of the salary cap, which is now the second-most on the team behind the receiver group, which is at 15.5%.
Allen’s departure
Allen was the Redskins’ first round pick in 2017, 17th overall, and with his departure, Daron Payne, drafted in 2018, becomes the oldest draft pick remaining with the team. Payne and wide receiver Terry McLaurin are now the only two players with the team who were drafted by Washington before 2021.
In his 8 season Washington career, Allen played 109 games, including 108 starts, with 401 combined tackles, including 241 solo and 60 for loss, 118 quarterback hits, 42 sacks, and 1 touchdown, and was selected for the Pro Bowl in 2021 and 2022, which were also his best two seasons from a statistical perspective. There was a time when he was the heart of Washington’s defense, but certainly, his impact was severely limited over his last two seasons with the team. I can’t remember any impact plays from Allen last season. Washington drafted his replacement, Johnny Newton, in last year’s draft. I shortsightedly criticized Newton’s selection at the time, which in retrospect was not my proudest moment.
The fact of the matter is that Allen’s performance and production over the last two seasons simply did not merit such an enormous cap hit. Allen only played 8 games last season due to an injury in week 6. He did return in week 16, but only had 4 tackles in the final two regular season games and then 6 in the playoffs. In my view, even if Newton is a less effective overall player than Allen – something which remains to be seen – given the fact that Newton is on his rookie contract, if he even gets close to Allen’s production level, then he’ll be a much better value to the defensive front than Allen would have been.
All in all, this was a smart, quality move irrespective of the fact that Washington already had significant cap space. Well done, Adam Peters.
Bobby Wagner
Washington only had two linebackers, and precisely zero middle linebackers, on the roster prior to Wagner’s signing last week. Several other starter-level linebackers were available, but Wagner was one of the team’s most important and productive defenders last year, and he was also the undisputed leader of the defense. I realize that Wagner will be 35 years old this year and is entering his 14th season, so he isn’t the future. That having been said, I think he can remain a plus-level starter and leader for at least one more year. Last season, he played and started all 17 games, and made 132 tackles, including 75 solo and 10 for loss, 8 quarterback hits, and 2 sacks. Washington is betting that Wagner can do that again, and would rather not have to integrate another middle linebacker into the group.
If the $9.5M contract rumor is correct or at least in the ballpark, this is probably the best move the team could have made for the 2025 season. Wagner obviously doesn’t have many seasons left in the NFL. The team will still need to sign several other linebackers, and will need to be on the lookout for Wagner’s long-term replacement.
Zach Ertz
Ertz was about as good last year as the team had a right to expect from a player who will turn 35 this year. In total, he played and started in all 17 regular season games, and had 66 receptions in 91 targets, for 654 yards, 9.9 yards per reception, and 7 touchdowns. He had another 18 receptions in 25 targets for a total of 155 yards and 1 touchdown in the playoffs. His 66 receptions was tied for 7th-most amongst all NFL tight ends, and his 654 regular season yards was ranked 11th. Of the 10 players with more yards, only one, Cincinnati’s Mike Gesicki, is a free agent. Last year’s success isn’t necessarily an exact predictor of success next season, but it appears as though the team probably wasn’t going to do better than Ertz. He knows the team, knows the offense, and while he doesn’t have elite athletic measurables by NFL standards and is up there in age, he showed no signs of slowing down. Ertz isn’t the future, of course, and the team will have to continue to try to find a young player to replace his production. The team’s second round pick last year, Ben Sinnott, didn’t get many opportunities to show his talent. It wouldn’t surprise me if Washington drafted another tight end this year as well.
Zane Gonzalez
Ummm…I guess? In all seriousness, nobody is going to mistake Gonzalez for the next coming of Mark Moseley, and he was just another of what seemed like an endless stream of kickers last year, but he did do fairly well in his limited opportunities. In total, Gonzalez played in 6 regular season games for Washington last season, making 5 of 7 field goal attempts, with one miss between 40 and 49 yards and another over 50. He also made all 19 extra point attempts. He made 7 of 8 field goal attempts and all 8 extra point attempts in the team’s three playoff games. It could be worse, and if his contract is in the range of $1.5M, it isn’t overly expensive by 2025 NFL contract standards. That having been said, I think the team would be foolish to not bring in some competition for him. Who that could possibly be remains to be seen; I’m sure Alex Zeese has a number of former minor-league kickers who nobody else has heard of in mind.
Updates:
ESPN’s John Kein and others have reported this morning and late last night that Washington has signed TE John Bates to a 3 year deal, and have signed punter Tress Way to a 1 year deal.
John Keim reported that Washington has agreed to a deal with DT Javon Kinlaw.
The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that Washington and the Houston Texans have agreed to a trade for LT Laremy Tunsil in exchange for a 3rd round pick from this year’s draft and 2nd and 4th round picks from 2026. The Texans will include a 4th round pick.