The NFL's last-ranked defense is getting a whole new crop of players, and Jayden Daniels is getting another target on offense.
The Washington Commanders agreed to terms with edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson, linebacker Leo Chenal, safety Nick Cross and tight end Chig Okonkwo, a person with knowledge of the moves told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contracts cannot become official until the new league year begins at 4 p.m. EDT.
Chaisson's deal for next season is worth $12 million, with $10.3 million guaranteed, according to Athletes First, the agency that represents him. He is the second pass-rushing specialist joining the team after Odafe Oweh agreed to a four-year, $100 million contract earlier this week.
Chaisson, who turns 27 on July 25, was a 2020 first-round draft pick of Jacksonville who helped New England reach the Super Bowl last season. He had 7 1/2 sacks in 16 regular-season games, then three more during the Patriots' four-game playoff run.
Chenal, 25, was part of Kansas City's Super Bowl-winning team in the 2023 season. The 24-year-old Cross, who spent the past four seasons with Indianapolis, returns to the D.C. area, where he played his college football at Maryland.
The Commanders earlier in the week agreed to terms with cornerback Amik Robertson. Washington has committed more than $200 million in salaries over the first two-plus days since teams could begin making deals with players' agents.
That includes re-signing backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, who has served as a mentor to Jayden Daniels and provides the face of the franchise some continuity. Mariota acknowledged wanting to move west to be closer to family but said other factors contributed to him staying in Washington.
“There was, to me, no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be back,” Mariota said on a video call with reporters. “Nothing really knocked my socks off, so this is where I wanted to be and I’m privileged and blessed to be back.”
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FILE - Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, right, bobbles the ball as he is hit by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)
FILE -New England Patriots linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson (44) looks to get past Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Charles Cross (67) during the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano, File)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony at the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died. He was 74.
Fuhrman was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He reported finding a bloody glove at Simpson’s home but his credibility came under attack during the trial as the defense raised the prospect of racial bias.
Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs in the past decade, but a recording showed he had done so repeatedly.
Lynn Acebedo, the chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho, said that Fuhrman died May 12. The county does not release the cause of death as a rule.
Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer and law professor who was a legal strategist on Simpson’s defense “Dream Team,” said Fuhrman was a “much better detective than he was a witness.”
“He’s very smart, and you know, a very, very aggressive detective. Ultimately his actions helped us win the O.J. case because of his use of the ‘n’ word,” Dershowitz said Monday evening. “I got to know him later, after it was all over, and we had a cordial relationship.”
Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal. He subsequently moved to Idaho with his family and set up a 20-acre (eight-hectare) farm, raising chickens, goats, sheep and llamas.
In 1996, Fuhrman was charged with perjury and pleaded no contest. He later became a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the killings.
A criminal-court jury found Simpson, a former star NFL running back and actor, not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown and Goldman. He served nine years in prison on unrelated charges and died in Las Vegas of prostate cancer in 2024 at the age of 76.
Kato Kaitlin, a friend of Brown who also testified in the murder trial, wrote in a post on X that he wanted to respectfully acknowledge Fuhrman's death and that he hopes Fuhrman's loved ones can find peace.
“While we were never close personally, our lives were indelibly linked through our roles in the O.J. Simpson trial over thirty years ago. It was a deeply complex and painful chapter for everyone involved, but any loss of life is a time for reflection and solemnity,” Kaitlin wrote.
Fuhrman’s father left when he was 7 years old, and Fuhrman often cared for his younger brother while his mother worked. As an adult, he joined the Marines and then the Los Angeles Police Department.
Golden reported from Seattle.
FILE - In this June 15, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces as he tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in a Los Angeles courtroom. (AP Photo/Sam Mircovich, Pool, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Police Department Det. Mark Fuhrman, foreground, and Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, rear, crane their heads to look at an overhead monitor during the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, Friday, March 10, 1995, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman shows the jury in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial evidence during testimony Friday, March 10, 1995, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, Pool, File)
