Terry McLaurin is on track to make the Commanders offense one of the NFL’s best

On November 4, 2024By Littum

Terry McLaurin, who had eight catches and 39 yards through the first two games of the season, made it look like the Washington Commanders weren’t using their highest-paid player enough.

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) – Terry McLaurin has eight catches and 39 yards through the first two games of the season made it look like the Washington Commanders didn’t use their highest paid player enough.

Now almost halfway through the quarterback Jayden Daniels’ rookie yearMcLaurin is fourth in the NFL with 579 receiving yards and is coming off the most productive season of his professional career. Him and the team is 6-2 for the first time since entering the league in 2019, and there’s a chance McLaurin will get the ball even more in the second half as the Commanders chase a playoff spot.

“Every game with a guy like that, you come out of it and say, ‘I wish we could have given it to him more.'” offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said Thursday. “He’s a guy you want to make sure every week, if the money’s on the table, the ball goes to him.”

Early and for long stretches in the games, the ball does not get to McLaurin. Daniels tried and threw the ball to Washington’s best receiver eight times in week 2 and it didn’t amount to much.

What has been the difference since? In McLaurin’s mind, “Patience.”

“Just having some patience and trusting that the work we’ve put in since the offseason will start to show,” McLaurin said. “Patience has been key. Obviously, Jayden has come in a lot more ready than most as a rookie, but at the same time, there’s obviously still a learning curve.”

Daniels is a quick learner and has emerged as the heavy favorite to be AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. Despite only a handful of games of experience at this level, the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner appears to have found a balance in not forcing throws to McLaurin.

“When the defense allows it — that’s how I know when to give him the ball,” Daniels said.

Eighteen different receivers have been targeted more than McLaurin this season, but the 29-year-old, who has played with a dozen QBs during his time in Washington, isn’t one to make a scene about demanding more attention.

“He never asks for it,” Kingsbury said. “He never comes back and complains. He never gets to the quarterback. He’s just doing his job. And when that guy does that and blocks and plays without the ball, then everyone else falls in line, and that’s kind of the beauty of him.”

That doesn’t mean McLaurin, who makes more than $24 million, doesn’t want to be counted. Quite the opposite.

“I just want to continue to be the guy for our offense where we need a play and they trust me to do that,” McLaurin said. “It’s been really fun playing with (Daniels) and the rest of the receiver group that we have because every week it seems like someone else makes a play to help us win, so I know that It doesn’t all fall on me.”

Noah Brown was on it Daniels’ Hail Mary touchdown to beat Chicago. But on the play immediately before that, McLaurin caught a 13-yard pass and came out of bounds near midfield to make it all possible.

That reception gave him 40 on the season and put the Ohio State product on track to surpass 1,200 yards in a season for the first time. It is not by chance that it comes along Kingsbury is now in charge of the attack, which is the league’s third best and has scored the third most points.

“He’s allowed me to really open up a part of my game that I always feel has been there, which is the deep balls down the field,” McLaurin said. “Adding that to our offense and my arsenal has been huge for me individually, but as a collective group I think we’ve done a good job of just trying to make plays downfield and he’s going to give us plenty of opportunities to to do so.”

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