Daron Payne came through for the Commanders in 2022, and now he feels the Commanders have come through for him.
Payne recently expressed that his mom “suffers with Lupus and kidney failure. She’s been dealing with that a good portion of my life. She does dialysis at home and carries the machine with her where I am, to just get her stuff done.”
“Seeing her fight and determination just made me want to go out there and work hard so she don’t have to work so hard. I’ve put in a lot of work to get to this position today, and it is just nice to see it all finally coming to me.”
Payne has provided for himself through hard work, and now he has the opportunity to provide for his mother, who provided so many things for him when children are unable to take care of themselves.
Drafted No. 13 overall in the 2018 NFL draft, the 6-foot-3, 320-pound defensive tackle out of Alabama had played four seasons for Washington (2018-2021) and wanted a new contract. But the Commanders didn’t feel they should give him one.
In his four NFL seasons, Payne had achieved 14.5 sacks. When he did not get offered a new contract extension from the Commanders, Payne did the right thing. Instead of pouting and publicly complaining and whining about it, Payne went out and got his contract extension the old-fashioned way; he earned it.
Payne recently told Julie Donaldson, “I was kind of upset because they didn’t want to do a contract, and they didn’t offer me. So I just told them I will show them why I deserve to be here, and that is what I did.”
2022 saw Payne put up career-highs in tackles (64), assists (32), tackles for a loss (18) and quarterback hits (20) and quarterback sacks (11.5).
This celebration was strong by Daron Payne. Gets to 10.5 sacks as a pending free agent DT. Signs himself a fat new contract. pic.twitter.com/i9gU5C3Irp
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) January 2, 2023
Upon signing his new deal, a four-year, $90 million contract with the Commanders on March 12, Payne came to the Commanders’ Ashburn facility and could be heard expressing to head coach Ron Rivera while putting his arm around Rivera, “I appreciate you getting this done for me.”
Rivera, rather than taking all the credit when he had the opportunity, instead instantly pointed to Jack Del Rio and replied, “Jack always felt that you were the guy. We felt you earned it, you deserved it.”