Mar 11, 2026, 03:13 PM ET<\/p>\n
The Washington Commanders<\/a> have agreed to terms on a three-year contract with tight end Chig Okonkwo<\/a>, agents Jason Chayut and Jared Fox told NFL Network.<\/p>\n The team also agreed to a deal with safety Nick Cross<\/a>, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, after earlier reaching a deal with former New England Patriots<\/a> pass rusher K’Lavon Chaisson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cross’ deal is for two years and worth up to $14 million, according to NFL Network.<\/p>\n It isn’t immediately clear what the addition of Okonkwo means for the future of veteran tight end Zach Ertz<\/a>, who is coming off a torn ACL and is a free agent.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Okonkwo just completed the final season of his four-year rookie contract with the Tennessee Titans<\/a>, who selected Okonkwo in the fourth round (143rd overall) of the 2022 draft. Okonkwo, 26, started 42 of the 68 games he’s played in over the last four seasons.<\/p>\n Known for his yards after the catch, Okonkwo has caught five passes of 40-plus yards over his career, including a career-high 70-yard touchdown reception against the Houston Texans<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n Over his career, Okonkwo has caught 194 passes for 2,017 yards to go along with eight receiving touchdowns. Okonkwo has become more of a move tight end and is used across the formation, from the backfield and the slot to in-line and on the outside.<\/p>\n He was on the field for a team-high 630 offensive snaps (62.7%) last season.<\/p>\n Cross, 24, established himself as a top-tier box safety the past two seasons. Among defensive backs, only the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>‘ Budda Baker<\/a> has more tackles in the past two seasons than Cross’ 266 for the Indianapolis Colts<\/a>.<\/p>\n His ability to support the Colts’ run defense helped boost a defense that was No. 2 in the NFL in yards per carry allowed (3.9). Cross also developed a knack for blitzing the quarterback in 2025, with 2.5 sacks and six quarterback hits when used as an occasional pass rusher.<\/p>\n A 2022 third-round pick from Maryland, Cross spent two seasons waiting his turn and showing limited development before taking off in 2024. That season, he became a full-time starter for the first time, remarkably playing 100% of the team’s 1,155 defensive snaps.<\/p>\n Cross has made 34 consecutive starts for the Colts since taking over the strong safety spot full time. For his career, he’s registered 322 tackles, five interceptions, two forced fumbles and 3.5 sacks.<\/p>\n ESPN’s Turron Davenport and Stephen Holder contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 11, 2026, 03:13 PM ET The Washington Commanders have agreed to terms on a three-year contract with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-517868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}