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Washington Commanders’ free agency approach signifies pending sale of team

Dan Snyder has been working with Bank of America to secure a buyer who will take over as team owner of the Washington Commanders franchise since November. We may be approaching a sale in the very near future, according to JP Finlay, who reported the eventual sale is on “1st and Goal,” on Saturday.

But that’s not all. As The Athletic‘s Ben Standig pointed out, how the Commanders are operating in free agency also hints at a sale coming any day now.

It all has to do with specific details contained within the new free agency contracts signed by Commanders players this offseason. According to Standig, teams typically pay a partial bit of signing bonuses sometime within the first 15 to 30 days after the contract agreement. But the Commanders aren’t operating this way this offseason.

Instead, the Commanders have decided to delay the payout date by two months, to May 12. This hasn’t been how the Commanders have operated in the past with extensions signed by Terry McLaurin or Jonathan Allen, to name a few.

Multiple people with knowledge of the situation indicate the Commanders have done this because they expect a sale of the team before the offseason is through. With all NFL team owners set to meet as they typically do every year later this month from the 26th-29th, we may get an answer soon as to who the new owner of the Washington football franchise is.

Whoever is set to purchase the Commanders is expected to set a new record amount for the sale of an NFL franchise, surpassing the Walton group who bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion last year. Bids for the Washington Commanders are expected to reach at least $6 billion.

Related: NFL mock draft 2023: Latest Round 1 projection for 2023 NFL Draft

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