"Contract Year" Payne is Putting in the Offseason Work. Will It Produce In-Season Results?
One of the longest-tenured members of the franchise caught the eye of the fanbase this past week.
This past week, Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne posted training videos demonstrating the incredible grind he has embraced this offseason.
One video, featured on the Washington Commanders official website, showed Payne participating in footwork drills in Ashburn, Virginia. In the background, you can spot new Commanders defensive line coach Eric Henderson — the former USC and Los Angeles Rams assistant — staring with approval and urging his new student on.
Henderson posted a celebration tweet online with the hashtag #DAWGWORK to give his player props.
Henderson uses 'dawg work' as a cultural philosophy, breaking down the first half of the phrase into the core character traits required of his players:
- D-Discipline: Doing things the right way consistently and focusing on the details you control every day.
- A – Attitude: Bracing yourself with a positive, aggressive, and proactive mindset.
- W – Work Ethic: Showing up with a lunch-pail mentality, willing to put in effort when the cameras aren’t on you.
- G – Grit: Showing toughness and perseverance through physical and mental challenges.
Payne working to embody exactly that discipline and work ethic as he enters year nine in the NFL. Selected No. 13 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, Payne has been a staple of Washington’s defensive line since starting 16 games as a rookie. He has been incredibly durable, missing only six of 130 possible games in his DC tenure, with three of those absences occurring six or seven years ago.
Over his career in DC, Payne has accumulated 37 sacks, 432 tackles, and 65 tackles for loss. Primarily serving on the interior defensive line, he has spent over 3,000 snaps as a B-gap defender. The remaining 3,000 snaps of his career are roughly split between playing as an A-gap/nose defender, or lining up directly over the offensive tackle.
He enters 2026 in the final year of the four-year, $90 million contract extension he signed with the Commanders on March 12, 2023. At the time of his signing, the deal included $60 million in total guarantees, with $46 million fully guaranteed at signing. His current contract ranks him 12th out of 289 interior defensive linemen leaguewide.
Many fans have joked that Payne possesses a "contract year" or "leap year" alter-ego due to his massive breakout performance in 2022 — the last time he was playing for a new deal. That season, Payne hit a career high-water mark of 11.5 sacks, soaring well above his career average of 3.5 sacks per year.
This time? Payne enters the 2026 season with a new defensive coordinator in Daronte Jones while the interior defensive line has experienced depth to turn to, putting pressure on the veteran to live up to his impact status once again.
With Payne entering another contract year, will we see history repeat itself with another dominant breakout season? He is certainly putting in the necessary offseason work to make it happen, and the Commanders would love nothing more than to see it.
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