Terry McLaurin is the one constant in Washington’s receiver room. Everything after that is still being sorted out.
McLaurin arrives at training camp as the Commanders’ clear No. 1, healthy and in good shape after an injury-shortened 2025 season. New offensive coordinator David Blough already has a plan for him, saying he wants to feed his top wideout 10 targets a game, according to Hogs Haven. That part of the depth chart is settled.
The real fight is for the No. 2 spot, and Dan Quinn has made it clear that nothing behind McLaurin is decided yet. Multiple camp reports this week point to an open competition, with a handful of receivers trying to separate from the pack.
Antonio Williams has gotten early buzz as the front-runner. The third-round rookie out of Clemson is drawing attention from Athlon Sports, which notes that general manager Adam Peters targeted him for his route running and short-area quickness.
Those traits make him look like a natural slot fit, in the mold of a player like Wes Welker. Williams also brings a productive college résumé, finishing last season at Clemson with 55 catches for 604 yards and four touchdowns, and he ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash at the combine.
He’s not the only name in the mix. Luke McCaffrey, Treylon Burks, Dyami Brown and free-agent pickup Van Jefferson are all battling for snaps, and RotoWire says Williams’ most direct competition for early camp work is McCaffrey, who is coming back from a collarbone injury that ended his 2025 season early.
The group around McLaurin is still pretty thin on proven production. McLaurin himself posted 38 catches for 582 yards and three touchdowns in 10 games last season.
Williams is trying to carve out a role after his Clemson production. McCaffrey had three touchdowns before his injury.
Brown finished with 20 catches in Jacksonville, and Jefferson had 29 catches for 350 yards in Tennessee.
McLaurin doesn’t sound worried about how it all shakes out. In comments to ESPN’s John Keim, he said he trusts the room to sort itself out once camp gets going.
“I have a lot of confidence in the guys that we have in the room right now. Somebody’s going to step up,” McLaurin said, via NFL.com.
That kind of uncertainty isn’t new for him. As a rookie in 2019, McLaurin stepped into a similarly open receiver group and ended up leading Washington in every major receiving category with 58 catches, 919 yards and seven touchdowns. The Commanders will spend the next month trying to find out whether Williams or someone else can make that same kind of leap.
There’s urgency here, too. Deebo Samuel and Zach Ertz, who combined to lead the team in catches a year ago, are no longer on the roster.
No returning wide receiver besides McLaurin caught more than 20 passes last season. Tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo, who had a career-best 56 receptions and 560 yards, gives Blough another dependable target, but Washington is still rebuilding the passing-game pecking order behind its top receiver.
For now, the Commanders are taking the broad approach, bringing in or keeping five different players to compete for the role instead of handing it to one obvious answer. Camp will start to reveal who can actually claim the job before the preseason games begin.
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