If and when Harris wants a do-over and fires Coach Ron Rivera, the clock will reset for the franchise. That’s great news for a fan base starving for a winner at FedEx Field. And yet the hands keep moving for three longtime players. Allen, McLaurin and Way have spent the entirety of their careers stuck in this turbulence, and they don’t get a do-over.
A month before Allen, who won a national championship with the Crimson Tide, was drafted into this franchise in 2017, the overlord in charge at the time fired the general manager, who was treated to a smear campaign on his way out of town. Uhhh, you’re not in Alabama anymore, Jon.
Usually, when a star wideout signs an extension, the news conference is all rainbows and unicorns, just pomp and fluff abounding as the player and coach dream about a rosy future and then wear big smiles for the cameras. But in the summer of 2022, when McLaurin had his moment to trumpet a three-year extension worth more than $70 million, the announcement arrived with a congressional investigation still looming over the team. Really, who wouldn’t want to re-sign with the House Oversight Committee’s favorite football franchise?
And Way, at 33 the resident lifer in the locker room, has experienced just one nine-win season in his 10 years in Washington. That’s a lot of time spent flipping the field and doing his job well enough to be considered among the best in the NFL, only for his efforts to aid his team to a .411 regular season winning percentage.
“Whenever the game is done, it is definitely a solid afternoon and evening of just a blank stare. You replay everything in your head: ‘What in the world?!’ ” Way said, explaining how he processes a loss. And I have to imagine how Way and the others might have stared out the plane windows Thursday night, following that 45-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, watching blurs pass by. Just like their best years as professional football players.
“That next time you sit down to watch film and game-plan for the next team, it’s gone,” Way continued. “It’s like a visual trigger. I know that sounds crazy. … You better do that, or you’re going to get left in the freakin’ dust. But that’s what I would say makes it much easier to move on from that stuff — you’re with guys you love, doing what you love, and you just want to do everything you can to win.”
Though they’ve tried to stabilize this franchise into a winning operation, the “C” these players wear on their chests has represented Chaos. They’re the captains drifting away at sea, in need of life vests as their primes waste away without winning a thing. These company men may soon have more tenure than almost everyone else in the building — including the legion of new owners and a revamped front office and coaching staff.
They’re the Commanders who didn’t get away, unlike old buddies Taylor Heinicke, whose Atlanta Falcons sit atop a weak NFL South, and Chase Young, who gets to pursue a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers.
It’s hard not to feel a measure of sympathy for them. Especially for a Pro Bowl lineman like Allen, soon to be 29. Allen gave us a peek into his frustrations as they boiled over following the first of two losses to the New York Giants. On Oct. 22, Allen spoke for himself but truly anybody clocking hours in a dead-end job when he said: “I’m f—ing tired of this bulls—. It’s been seven f—ing years of this same s—.”
And how can you not have mercy for a wideout like McLaurin, who possesses that “overlooked” reputation only because he has been toiling for 1,000-yard seasons while catching passes from a carousel of quarterbacks? Ten starting signal-callers in 4½ years? The man deserves a hug for enduring the Kyle Allen era. Now running routes for second-year pro Sam Howell, McLaurin, 28, is posting career lows in yards per game, yards per catch and touchdowns per game.
McLaurin said something interesting ahead of the Dallas game: “Losing sucks. Especially when you lose back-to-back, but at the same time, nobody’s going to feel sorry for where you’re at in the season.” But you’ve got to feel something for McLaurin, Allen and Way.
“Thank you,” Way said with a smile. “But I promise you we do not take a step back and look at that at all.”
None of these players is asking for our tears. And, please, don’t get me wrong: They are well-compensated professionals playing a game and living a dream that millions of wannabes and washouts would love to have.
“Those are truly the guys I feel sad for,” Allen said. “Guys who legitimately could’ve been stars in this league but for whatever reason never had an opportunity.”
Allen shared this with me recently, as teammates lounged in leather-bound recliners, playing cards, and radio-friendly pop hits blasted over the speakers. After practice, the players even get little cups of Italian ice. More refreshing than orange slices, I’d bet. So, yes, life in the NFL has its perks. Still, while a new regime might re-energize the fans, it won’t give back the years endured by these most loyal Commanders.
“I try to focus on what I can do to get better because I know I haven’t been perfect this year. There’s some opportunities that I’ve missed,” McLaurin said. “And so I don’t really focus a lot of the time on what everybody else got going on, but it definitely is challenging when you haven’t quite been on the winning side consistently. We’re competitors, you know what I mean? … But at the same time, you just have to continue to work your butt off and try to be part of the solution.
“Obviously, you don’t want to become a consistent loser,” McLaurin continued. “But at the same time, I don’t think stuff like this will last forever.”
Technically, that’s true. The Commanders’ irrelevance may not last into eternity, but neither will the windows for Allen, McLaurin and Way. That’s why, when change happens — a new coach on the sideline and new players in the locker room — it will be a reminder of how little success the team’s standbys have enjoyed.
Despite the cushy chairs and delicious post-practice treats — and, of course, the zeros attached to their paychecks — Allen, McLaurin and Way have not experienced the best part of playing in the NFL: winning.
“Now that you say that, looking at JA, looking at Terry and the years that we have spent together,” Way said, “I think it would make it that much more sweeter when we win. When we build. When we keep the train rolling.”
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