If Bobby Wagner wants to close out his career with a winner, he almost certainly has to leave the Washington Commanders.
That means that Wagner, who has played the last 2 seasons on 1-year contracts with the Commanders, will need to go elsewhere in free agency for his 15th season.
Pro Football Focus thinks there is still value in Wagner for a contender, putting him on its list of the highest-graded free agents in the 2026 cycle and projecting the best fit as the Buffalo Bills.
Wagner is an 11-time NFL All-Pro, 10-time Pro Bowler and has over 100 tackles in each of his 14 NFL seasons, including at least 130 tackles each of the last 10 seasons.
“Wagner is another high-performing veteran whose market is worth watching,” PFF’s Mason Cameron wrote. “Although Wagner, at nearly 36 years old, isn’t near the player in coverage he once was, he still excels as a run defender and a blitzer. This season, he stood as the only linebacker to produce 90.0-plus PFF grades in run defense (90.3), pass rushing (92.4) and tackling (90.5). The Bills struggled to fit the run in 2025, ranking 28th in rushing success rate (33.1%) allowed. Their linebacking corps was a contributing factor, as the group’s 27.3% negatively graded run-play rate ranked 30th. With Matt Milano‘s and Shaq Thompson’s contracts set to expire, finding a savvy veteran to overhaul the group would be wise.”
Wagner Hit Career Milestone in 2025
With every tackle he makes from now on, Wagner is making NFL history.
With 162 tackles in 2025, Wagner became just the third player in NFL history to cross 2,000 career tackles and 15th to cross 1,000 career solo tackles.
Former Commanders linebacker London Fletcher (2,039) and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Lewis (2,059) are the other 2 players with 2,000 career tackles.
Fletcher was actually in attendance and came in the locker room to give Wagner the game ball following Wagner hitting the 2K tackles mark in a Week 18 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Bobby Wagner told reporters he has ‘not thought about anything beyond today’ when asked about his playing future,” The Athletic’s Nicki Jhabvala wrote on X.
Wagner played this season on a 1-year, $9 million contract. Spotrac projects his value in the open market around a 1-year, $7.7 million deal — good work if you can get it.
NFL Career Tackles Record in Sight for Wagner
Don’t think there isn’t value in having Wagner on the roster when he undoubtedly breaks Lewis’ career tackles record — he currently sits at exactly 2,000 career tackles and needs just 60 tackles to break the record.
Whenever Wagner does decide to end his career, the 2012 second round pick (No. 47 overall) out of Utah State will almost certainly find his forever football home in Canton, Ohio, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
According to Pro Football Reference’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Monitor, the average score for inside linebackers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is exactly 106.0, with only 9 inside linebackers in NFL history sitting above that threshold.
Out of those 9 players, 7 of them are already in the Hall of Fame and Wagner is the only active player on the list. Wagner’s current HOFm score of 114.10 headed into 2026 has him at No. 7 all time.
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