D.C. United announces 2017 contract decisions

D.C. United announced today that they would not be exercising the 2018 contract options on five players, with veteran defender Sean Franklin heading the list. United also confirmed that Bill Hamid, who has signed a pre-contract with FC Midtjylland, and Patrick Nyarko are both out of contract with the club. The Black-and-Red could end up re-negotiating new deals with any or all of the players involved today, but after a rough 2017 season it seems like this is goodbye for the majority of this group.

Beyond Franklin, the list of players not granted an extension includes forward Deshorn Brown, midfielders Julian Buescher and Rob Vincent, and rookie goalkeeper Eric Klenofsky. At the same time,…