The Washington Commanders have invested big in their interior defensive line in recent years, and no investment in that position has been bigger than the $90 million contract they gave to defensive tackle Daron Payne in March 2023.
The results didn’t live up to the bottom line for Payne in 2023 — something you could say across the board for the Commanders after a 4-13 season — but PFF’s Bradley Locker put Payne on his list of NFL players who could be in line for bounce-back seasons in 2024.
“Payne has established himself as one of the more solid interior defenders across the NFL, but his past season wasn’t his finest,” Locker wrote. “He tallied 14 fewer pressures despite having 32 additional opportunities to rush the passer.”
Payne’s numbers took a noticeable dip in 2023 after making his first Pro Bowl in 2022 — he also had 7.5 fewer sacks and 9 fewer QB hits.
Payne Has Dominated on Every Level
Locker’s theory that Payne will bounce back to have a big season in 2024 seems like a safe bet — he’s dominated on every level.
Payne was a five-star recruit out of Shades Valley High School in Birmingham, Alabama, then won two College Football Playoff national championships in three seasons at Alabama. In the CFP in 2017, Payne was the defensive MVP in both the semifinal win over Clemson and the national championship game against Georgia — in the Clemson game he even caught a touchdown pass.
The Commanders selected Payne, 6-foot-2 and 311 pounds, in the first round (No. 13 overall) of the 2018 NFL Draft, making back-to-back years taking an Alabama defensive tackle in the first round after selecting Jonathan Allen in 2017.
Payne has been incredibly durable and only missed one game due to injury in his 6 seasons, and has started every game in 5 of 6 seasons, including every game for four consecutive seasons headed into 2024.
After Washington exercised its fifth-year option on Payne, he answered by giving the team his first Pro Bowl season in 2022 with career highs of 63 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 20 QB hits, 18 TFL and 5 pass deflections.
In return, the Commanders made him very, very rich — he’ll only be 29 years old and will have accumulated $112.9 million in career earnings when his current contract runs out in 2026.
Glimmer of Hope for Commanders in 2024
The Commanders have something headed into the 2024 season that the franchise hasn’t had in awhile — hope. That’s thanks in large part to drafting a quarterback at No. 2 overall in Jayden Daniels and having a new head coach in Dan Quinn who has been a winner at every stop in his career.
So maybe the bar for whether or not Payne bounces back in 2024 should be set at wins and losses and not necessarily statistics.
“With Washington drafting Illinois’ Jer’Zhan Newton in the second round, new head coach Dan Quinn could turn to more of a rotation along the Commanders’ defensive line, which might reduce Payne’s pressure numbers even further,” Locker said. “Then again, as Payne enters the second year of his $90 million extension, he’s unlikely to go anywhere. A more motivated Payne — who also happens to clean up his tackling — could return to being an amazing pass rusher in 2024.”
