How much did the Commanders spend on injured players in 2026?
· Yahoo Sports
The Washington Commanders were one of the NFL's most injured teams in 2025. Injuries played a significant role in Washington's downfall from a 12-5 team that advanced to the NFC Championship Game to one that finished 5-12 and landed the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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The most notable injury for Washington last season was quarterback Jayden Daniels. Daniels suffered three different injuries, which led him to miss 10 games. Daniels played only four games from start to finish, one season removed from the greatest rookie season in NFL history.
For the first time in his seven-year NFL career, wide receiver Terry McLaurin missed significant time. McLaurin suffered a quad injury that forced him to miss seven games. McLaurin hadn't missed a game since 2021 and had only missed three games in his career before 2025.
Players like Austin Ekeler and Deatrich Wise were lost in Week 2 for the season. Top pass rusher Dorance Armstrong tore his ACL in Week 7, missing the remainder of the year. It was just that type of season for the Commanders.
Via Sports Info Solutions, the injured Commanders missed a combined 222 games in 2025. While other teams had more missed games, only the Arizona Cardinals had more total points missed. Arizona players missed 296 games, resulting in 266 total points lost. Using the SIS data, Washington had 230 points missed.
Now, we have even more data from the Commanders' injury-plagued 2025 season.
A recent study from Casino Guru revealed that NFL teams lost a combined $540 million to injuries last season. Washington came in at No. 6 with $24.2 million in salary tied to injured players' costs.
In reviewing the Commanders' 2025 salary cap, McLaurin had the team's third-highest cap hit at $17.2 million. He missed seven games, which cost Washington over $7 million. Daniels had the Commanders' sixth-highest cap hit at $8.6 million. He missed 10 games, which cost Washington over $5 million.
Ekeler missed 15 games. He had a cap hit of $4.9 million, while Wise missed 15 games and had a cap hit of $3.2 million. Marshon Lattimore had Washington's second-highest cap hit at $18 million, and he missed eight games.
This offseason, GM Adam Peters' mission was to get younger and faster. The Commanders executed that strategy perfectly, signing over a dozen new players in free agency, most of whom were in their mid-20s and coming off their rookie contracts. While injuries are often based on bad luck, an older roster can often lead to more injuries. No one had an older roster than Washington in 2025. That's a trend that the Commanders are looking to reverse in 2026.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: Over $24 million spent on injured players