The Washington Commanders have told center Nick Gates he will be cut at the start of the league year according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

This comes only a year after the team sign Gates to a three-year free agent contract worth $16.5 million with $8 million in guaranteed money.  To say the move did not work out is an understatement.  Gates was handed the starting center job in Washington last year but was benched just seven games into the season. He’ll cost $5.3 million against the Commanders’ salary cap this season, but the team has decided it’s best just to move on from a player who wasn’t working out.

The Commanders are also cutting Charles Leno and Logan Thomas as they try to move on from the failures of the past and head into 2024 with an enormous amount of salary cap space and a new owner, new coach and new front office who know they have a lot of work to do to clean up the mess they inherited.