NFL free agency is over. The draft is over. It's time to pick the best and worst from the 2026 NFL offseason.
As the vast majority of players have been signed, acquired or drafted to their 2026 franchises, I'm going to make my move in advance of the inevitable A.J. Brown trade. I'm going team-by-team around the league and picking each franchise's best and worst move so far in 2026, starting with the AFC. (I'll hit the NFC next week.)
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Of course, some of those moves are draft picks, so it's still impossibly early to say how a prospect will turn out in the pros. With that in mind, I'll try to use the context of where a player was regarded heading into the draft or the typical expectations of what a player drafted in a given round will do as a rookie to estimate their likely production in Year 1.
Did your favorite AFC team attack its biggest weakness successfully? Or did it pay a premium for a player who won't move the needle in 2026? Let's find out, going through all 16 teams in the conference, starting in the AFC East.
Jump to an AFC team:
BAL | BUF | CIN | CLE
DEN | HOU | IND | JAX
KC | LAC | LV | MIA
NE | NYJ | PIT | TEN
AFC East
Buffalo Bills
Best: Re-signing Connor McGovern. A lot of center deals look like bargains in light of what Tyler Linderbaum signed for with the Raiders. Before this offseason, the highest-paid center was Creed Humphrey, who re-upped with the Chiefs for $18 million per season. Linderbaum's new deal with the Raiders pays him $27 million per season, a 50% increase from the prior peak.
Solid centers will have their contracts rise accordingly in the years to come, and so it was good work by Brandon Beane and the Bills to get McGovern's deal done before free agency began. On a four-year, $52 million pact, McGovern's $13 million average salary is less than half of what Linderbaum will make. And though the Bills had to practically guarantee about 43% of McGovern's third-year compensation to keep their starting center from free agency, that figure doesn't seem burdensome in light of what Linderbaum is making.
Even if the Bills decide to move on after two years, they'll pay McGovern only $32.6 million for those prime seasons, or just over $16 million per year. That's going to be good value for a player who made the Pro Bowl in 2024 and whose mobility helps define one of the league's more impactful rushing attacks.
Worst: Everything that happened with DJ Moore. Though Beane anticipated the market and found real value in re-signing McGovern, every step of the Moore process felt like a franchise acting out of desperation. It's clear that the Bills were frustrated by their wide receivers in 2025, as players such as Brandin Cooks, Gabe Davis and Tyrell Shavers were getting meaningful reps late in the season. Keon Coleman, who hasn't lived up to expectations on the outside, became the public scapegoat for what felt like an organizational policy of trying to hit singles at one of the league's most important positions.
Under that lens, making a significant move for a receiver made sense. I'm just not sure this was the right one. Moore is coming off what was comfortably his worst season as a pro, one in which he seemingly fell out of favor with Ben Johnson in the Chicago offense. The Bears had little leverage in dealing with Moore, given that they were about to be on the hook for $49 million over the next two seasons for a guy who might have been their fourth option in the passing game heading into 2026. This should have essentially been a salary dump scenario for Ryan Poles.
Instead, the Bills sent a second-round pick to the Bears for Moore. That was already a curious choice by Beane. Even more inexplicably, the Bills ate all of the salary that was already owed to Moore and then guaranteed their new wideout $13.5 million in 2028, committing money three years down the line to a player who had no leverage as part of this trade. If Moore had a no-trade clause or was about to become a free agent, making that sort of move might have made more sense.
Adam Schefter breaks the news that the Bears have agreed to trade DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills are spending $59.5 million in cash on wide receivers this year, the seventh-highest total in the league. That ranking will rise to fifth once A.J. Brown and Brandon Aiyuk move on later this offseason. Four of the organizations ahead of them are teams with superstar wideouts (Seahawks, Eagles, Bengals and Cowboys). The other one is the Titans, who used a top-five pick on a potential WR1 in Carnell Tate. The Bills are committing plenty of cash to finding Josh Allen playmakers, but I still don't think they have a player whom Allen can rely upon in a key spot -- and they haven't since Stefon Diggs left town.
Miami Dolphins
Best: Signing Joshua Uche. The Dolphins are starting a lengthy rebuild. Though Miami unsurprisingly moved on from a number of veterans, including Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill, their only significant signing in free agency was Malik Willis. Greg Dulcich signed a one-year deal for $3 million, and every other one of their free agent signings was a one-year deal for at most $1.5 million.
What teams like the Dolphins have to offer these veterans is opportunity. For Uche, that might be very appealing. He produced 11.5 sacks and nine tackles for loss with the Patriots in 2022 and appeared to be on the verge of potential stardom, but it never really came together. Uche didn't do much over two ensuing years with the Pats and Chiefs, and he signed to be a rotational player for the Eagles last season; the former second-round pick was on the field for only 244 snaps, managing one sack and three knockdowns.
Uche is still only 27, and he has had success at one of the league's most important positions. Even in those limited snaps with the Eagles last year, Uche showed surprising power to drive tackles backward, especially given that he's listed at only 227 pounds. There probably isn't a superstar in the making here, but Uche could be a useful player if given the opportunity, both now and for several years to come. That's a good bet to make, especially given that he'll make just $1.4 million in 2026.
Worst: Not getting big value on De'Von Achane. I don't really think the Dolphins did many controversial or unreasonable things this offseason. Trading Jaylen Waddle was one of the few decisions that seemed debatable, and I felt like Miami came away with good value for its top wide receiver. All of the major releases the Dolphins made were logical, and signing players for the minimum can't really go too wrong.
And frankly, if the Dolphins were going to hold onto Achane, I thought general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan did well to get a deal done with his star back last weekend. Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs are both likely to sign new contracts this offseason, and when they do, they are likely to reset the top of the RB market to somewhere north of $20 million per season. Getting Achane for $16 million per year was reasonable enough, and I love what he can bring to the table in the right offense.
Are the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Dolphins likely to be that offense? I'm not really sure that will be the case. Achane is coming off a career year in which he averaged 5.7 yards per carry and sat out only the final game of the season. His slight build is always going to raise questions about durability. Achane also thrived under Mike McDaniel, who might be the best run-game designer in the league. And his numbers were significantly less efficient without Tagovailoa on the field. Over the past three years, Achane averaged 0.1 EPA per rush attempt and a 45% success rate with Tagovailoa, but that fell to 0.02 EPA per carry and a 40% success rate with any other QB on the field.
The Dolphins aren't likely to field much of a passing attack anytime soon, and Willis probably will shoulder some of the rushing workload, which will combine to limit Achane's ability to impact games. He's a very good running back, and it's reasonable for Sullivan to see Achane as a core component for the Dolphins moving forward, but I don't know if these Dolphins will be able to get the most out of him. Achane could have thrived elsewhere. If the Dolphins could have landed a second-round pick for him, I would have preferred to see them move on and try to land the next Achane in the middle rounds of the draft over the years to come.
New England Patriots
Best: Continuing to hit the offensive line. Among many successes during a stunning 2025 season, the Patriots and general manager Eliot Wolf managed to rebuild what had been a dismal offensive line in front of Drake Maye. Veterans Garrett Bradbury and Morgan Moses locked down center and right tackle, respectively, and rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson generally held their own when healthy on the left side.
Once the Patriots reached the Super Bowl, of course, things fell apart. Campbell, limited by a knee injury, was a disaster throughout the postseason and gave up 14 pressures in the loss to the Seahawks. Moses and Wilson combined to give up 15 more. Some of those came as Maye extended plays, but the Pats couldn't build anything on offense or protect their star quarterback in dropback passing situations.
The Patriots continue to be committed to Campbell as their left tackle of the future, which is understandable considering where they drafted him. But given that constraint, Wolf did a good job of adding more talent to the line this offseason. The Patriots traded Bradbury to the Bears and moved Wilson to center, where he played during his lone season as a regular at Georgia.
The new left guard will be Alijah Vera-Tucker, who signed a three-year, $42 million deal. The former Jets first-round pick has been valuable when healthy, but Vera-Tucker has sat out 42 games in his first five seasons, including all of 2025 because of a torn triceps. Wolf was able to protect the Patriots in Years 2 and 3 by tying $4.3 million of Vera-Tucker's $14 million cash compensation to per-game roster bonuses, which would require him to be healthy and available.
Wolf then used his first-round pick on Caleb Lomu, who spent two years as the starting left tackle at Utah. Lomu isn't projected to be as pro-ready as Campbell was entering the league, but at 6-foot-6 with 33⅜-inch arms, he does have something closer to a traditional left tackle frame. Lomu should be the swing tackle behind Campbell and Moses while serving as the potential sixth offensive lineman when the Pats go to those sets in 2026. And in the years to come, he'll either step in for Moses on the right side or take over at left tackle if Campbell ends up switching to the right.
Worst: Swapping out K'Lavon Chaisson for Dre'Mont Jones. Chaisson was viewed as a massive bust during his time with the Jaguars, but the onetime first-round pick revitalized his career with the Raiders in 2024 and then had a career year with the Pats in 2025. In a starting role, Chaisson managed 7.5 sacks and 18 knockdowns, making multiple big plays to help seal games late. It was inevitable that he was going to earn a raise on the $3 million he made with the Patriots in 2025.
Though Chaisson did get that raise, it was only to $11.5 million on a one-year deal with the Commanders. I would have liked to have seen the Patriots top that offer. Instead, they gave Jones $14.5 million in the first season of a three-year, $36.5 million pact. Jones is a good pass rusher and a solid player, and the Pats were able to get a two-year commitment, but he's also three years older than Chaisson and a more inconsistent run defender.
There's never any room for sentiment in New England, but it would have been nice to see the Patriots reward one of their developmental success stories from 2025, and there's a chance Chaisson's upward trajectory still had some room for growth.
New York Jets
Best: Signing Nahshon Wright for one year, $3.5 million. Sometimes, players just need an opportunity. Wright had bounced around with the Cowboys and Vikings and ended up getting a shot to start with the Bears only because of injuries to the players ahead of him. Given the chance, Wright delivered, picking off five passes and earning a Pro Bowl nod. Wright is not a good run defender by any stretch of the imagination, but he showed off solid coverage ability and instincts in 2025 while playing in an aggressive defense.
Sometimes, the league sees one surprising season and gives a player a multiyear guarantee. This time, the league mostly dismissed Wright, leading the Jets to pick him up on a one-year deal for just $3.5 million. Given that Brandon Stephens struggled badly in his first year with the team and coach Aaron Glenn has preferred to play a lot of man coverage behind pressures when his defenses have been working, this team sorely needed help at cornerback. Landing D'Angelo Ponds in the second round and signing Wright on a very team-friendly deal were much-needed additions for Glenn and the Jets, who simply didn't have CBs they could trust after Sauce Gardner was traded in midseason.
Worst: Signing Dylan Parham to a two-year, $16 million deal. Teams have taken shots on former Raiders in free agency with the hopes of getting more out of players once they leave Las Vegas. A year ago, that was a success for the Panthers with Tre'von Moehrig, but the Packers didn't enjoy the same results with Nate Hobbs, who was cut after one season.
It's possible that the Jets realize some level of improvement with Parham, who was a four-year starter alongside some rough offensive lines in Las Vegas. But I'm just not sure there has been starting-caliber offensive line play during his time with the Raiders. Parham gave up only five sacks last season, but he also got help more than 54% of the time in pass protection, which was well above the league average of 48% for left guards. Isolated against upper-echelon pass rushers such as Jeffery Simmons and Tuli Tuipulotu, Parham struggled badly.
There's nothing wrong with having trouble against great players, and Parham might improve with better players around him, but his résumé probably didn't support a deal that will pay him $8 million this season. Then again, this probably wasn't the worst deal we saw for a young guard this offseason, an issue I'll get to in the AFC North.
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens
Best: Signing Calais Campbell to a one-year, $5 million deal. The ageless wonder continues to amaze. Campbell isn't quite the two-way force he was earlier in his career, but he continues to make an impact as a situational tackle, especially as a pass rusher. Campbell racked up 6.5 sacks and 16 knockdowns while playing only 46% of the defensive snaps for the Cardinals last season.
Defenses can stretch him at times when they force the 39-year-old to move laterally, but Campbell is a threat to get into the backfield on any passing down. That's a really valuable player to have in your rotation for $5 million, and Campbell offers good support if Nnamdi Madubuike isn't able to start the season on the active roster.
Worst: Not scheduling Maxx Crosby's physical any earlier. I know, I know. Ask the right person and this was all a plot by the Ravens to wait out the Trey Hendrickson situation. I wasn't a huge fan of the original trade for Crosby, and I do think the Ravens probably ended up in a better situation by holding onto their first-round picks and landing on a lesser player in Hendrickson. And I'm not sure I truly believe that GM Eric DeCosta really intended to add both Crosby and Hendrickson to his roster given how much that would have cost a team that's already in a difficult cap situation.
But what's done is done, and in the process, it might have hurt the Ravens more by keeping them out of the market for their existing free agents. A lot of talent walked out the door in Baltimore before Crosby's physical was annulled, including Tyler Linderbaum, Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar. Could the Ravens have kept some of those players had they resolved the Crosby situation before the legal negotiating period began?
Cincinnati Bengals
Best: Signing Bryan Cook to a three-year, $40.3 million deal. This might have been as much about who the Bengals replaced and who they brought in. Geno Stone became the emblem of what had gone wrong for the Bengals' defense. After the Bengals struggled to replace star safety Jessie Bates III, who left for the Falcons in free agency, Stone was brought in as a veteran stopgap. With the Bengals committing so much money to offense, though, they couldn't make a more meaningful addition -- and so they had to hope that Stone would be a viable replacement for a player who was making significantly more money in Atlanta.
Stone wasn't able to be that player, and he was conspicuously a problem in open space. Stone had a 15.6% missed tackle rate in 2024 and then upped that to 20% in 2025, the sixth-worst mark in the league among NFL regulars. The Bengals as a team missed 170 tackles, 39 more than any other defense in 2025.
Cook doesn't have Bates' instincts or playmaking ability, but one thing he can do is tackle. He had a 7% missed tackle rate during his time with Kansas City, including a 4.5% rate in 2025. Cook is not going to singlehandedly fix all of the problems that vexed the Bengals a year ago, but just having a more reliable last line of defense would be a huge step forward for Al Golden's unit. No team gave up more gains of 20 or more yards than the Bengals, who gave up 79 such plays last season.
Worst: Trading the No. 10 pick for Dexter Lawrence II. I wrote at length about the Lawrence trade and why it both did and did not make sense for the Bengals, so I'll refer you there. I'm still blown away that a team traded a known top-10 pick for a veteran for only the third time in the past 25 years, after the Raiders did it for Randy Moss and the Broncos did it for Russell Wilson.
The Bengals didn't have to do as much financially to appease Lawrence as I would have expected at the time of the deal, which helps. And if they get the version of Lawrence they're hoping for -- an elite nose tackle who can control two gaps and get after the passer more than the vast majority of 0-technique linemen -- they'll be happy with the trade. But I'm nervous that Lawrence is coming off his worst season as a pro as part of a defense that was dismal against the run in New York. And though that can partially be chalked up to an elbow injury, Lawrence's 2024 season was ended by that same elbow issue.
Given how much they're spending on their big three on offense (Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins) and a handful of other players (Cook, Boye Mafe, Orlando Brown Jr. and breakout cornerback DJ Turner II when he signs an extension), the Bengals need cost-controlled talent to make their roster construction work. Giving up the No. 10 pick to get a proven quantity like Lawrence feels like a win for Bengals fans who are sick of seeing the team whiff on first-round picks. But is it enough to propel the Bengals forward into Super Bowl contention? And if Lawrence isn't as known of a quantity as it seems, this deal could be disastrous for Cincinnati.
Cleveland Browns
Best: Checking off a lot of the offensive infrastructure boxes at the draft. We'll see how these players actually pan out on an NFL field, but general manager Andrew Berry can feel good about landing a number of key guys over the first few rounds of the draft. Though the Browns rebuilt most of their offensive line during the offseason, Berry's draft goals had to include landing a potential left tackle of the future and some help at wide receiver for whomever ends up playing quarterback in Cleveland.
Job done. The Browns were able to trade back with the Chiefs and still land their left tackle in Spencer Fano, who should be able to beat out Dawand Jones for the starting job in Year 1. Berry was able to stay put with his other first-round pick and select KC Concepcion, who gives Cleveland a multidimensional threat as a speedy receiver after the catch and potentially an elite punt returner. The Browns finished the job by taking Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston at No. 39, landing the closest thing they've had to an Amari Cooper replacement since the organization traded the veteran to the Bills in 2024.
If the Browns can hit on Fano and one of the two receivers, this will be a good draft for Berry. It will make evaluating Cleveland's current quarterbacks easier, and if the Browns do take a big swing at signal-caller in 2027 as expected, it will make the next guy's life easier from the moment he enters the building.
Worst: Signing Zion Johnson to a three-year, $49.5 million deal. During the 2025 offseason, the market for young, questionable left tackles was hot. Dan Moore Jr. signed for four years and $82 million with the Titans. Jaylon Moore signed for two years and $30 million in Kansas City. Those were exorbitant prices for players who were either unproven or underwhelming, and the league might not look back on those deals as smart decisions -- and it led to Rasheed Walker ending up on a one-year, $4 million deal with the Panthers.
The same thing might have happened at guard this year, where there were only a few young options, and they probably got paid too much. I mentioned Parham's deal with the Jets, but Johnson's deal with the Browns is much more significant. Cleveland gave the former first-round pick $32.4 million guaranteed over the next two seasons, suggesting that it sees Johnson as a potential building block on the interior of its offensive line.
Though 2025 was Johnson's best season as a pro, that might be damning him with faint praise. The Boston College product has struggled badly in pass protection on the interior and routinely gets outmuscled or outleveraged by bigger players. He gave up seven sacks and 19 quick pressures a year ago, both of which were the most of any Chargers lineman. And Johnson did that while blocking one-on-one at about a league-average rate in pass protection among guards.
The Browns signed Teven Jenkins to a one-year deal for modest money last offseason, and though it didn't really pan out, a contract like that for Jenkins would have made enough sense given his ability as a run blocker and the growth he showed in 2025. Instead, the Browns are paying Johnson to be a player he hasn't been yet at the pro level and hoping that he lives up to their expectations. That's not typically a good strategy.
On "Get Up," Peter Schrager weighs in Deshaun Watson's chances to reclaim the Browns' QB1 job after being sidelined with an injury last season.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Best: Signing Jamel Dean to a three-year contract. I'm on the record suggesting that the Steelers need to take the end of the Mike Tomlin era as a sign that it's time to rebuild around their young stars, but ownership has made it very clear that the team isn't heading in that direction. Let's leave their plan aside for a minute and judge how well they executed if their goal is to contend in 2026.
The league generally doesn't want to pay cornerbacks as they approach 30, with the Steelers as one of the few exceptions. Though in years past they've gone after players who have lost value such as Jalen Ramsey and Patrick Peterson, Dean is still playing at a very high level. Lining up in a blitz-heavy scheme under coach Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay, Dean gave up a 63.1 passer rating in coverage last season, one of the best marks in the league. His 2.1% missed tackle rate also ranked among the league leaders, and Dean has consistently been a very good tackler in his seven-year career.
The Steelers are only really on the hook for one year and $13.5 million, leaving them with plenty of flexibility if Dean does take a step back in his age-30 season. Between their devastating trio of pass rushers on the edge and the combination of Dean and Joey Porter Jr. on the outside, new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham should have everything he needs to shut down opposing passing games in 2026.
Worst: The continued handling of the quarterback situation. On the veteran side, the Steelers gave Aaron Rodgers halfway through May to decide on his future before re-signing the legendary quarterback to a one-year deal, reportedly giving him a big raise in the process. They weren't competitive with other veteran quarterbacks, including Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins and Joe Flacco, all of whom might project to be better than Rodgers in 2026. Since winning his fourth MVP award in 2021, Rodgers has ranked 26th, 25th and 23rd in Total QBR across his three subsequent healthy seasons.
At 42, the chances are far more likely that Rodgers is worse in 2026 than of any sort of dramatic improvement. It would be one thing if the Steelers were waiting on peak Rodgers to return, but the entire organization was left on hold as a below-average starter spent months deciding whether he wanted to continue playing. And though Rodgers is obviously familiar with new head coach Mike McCarthy, it's worth remembering that Rodgers' performance improved dramatically in Green Bay after McCarthy left and was replaced by Matt LaFleur.
Is there a quarterback of the future on this roster? The Steelers have taken a couple of low-likelihood shots. Will Howard was drafted in the sixth round last year, and though there's optimism about the former Ohio State product, he hasn't taken even a preseason snap as a pro because of injuries, let alone one in the regular season. The decision to draft Drew Allar in the third round this year hints at the organization's real feelings about Howard, but the track record for quarterbacks with ideal NFL size and arm strength who aren't good enough to actually go in the first round of the draft is treacherous.
It's possible that the Steelers unlock something in Allar, but I worry that we're going to be facing this exact same conundrum at quarterback in Pittsburgh next offseason.
AFC South
Houston Texans
Best: Signing Braden Smith to a two-year, $20 million contract. For a Texans team that hasn't had reliable tackle play in the C.J. Stroud era, Smith offers the promise of stability. The 30-year-old has been an above-average-or-better run blocker throughout his career, and though he's not quite on that level as a pass blocker, Smith gave up only three sacks and 10 quick pressures last season. His 2.3% quick pressure allowed rate was right around league average for right tackles.
Getting a veteran who projects to be a solid right tackle for $11 million in cash this upcoming season is a sound move by general manager Nick Caserio. The only downside is availability, as Smith has sat out 16 games over the past three seasons because of various maladies. The Texans did re-sign Trent Brown to serve as their swing tackle, which offers some security, but Brown also has plenty of injury issues in his recent past.
Worst: Bringing back Ed Ingram for three years and $37.5 million. Among the various moves Caserio made up front a year ago, trading a sixth-round pick to the Vikings for Ingram might have been his biggest success. Ingram had been a liability in Minnesota and was benched midway through the 2024 season, but he was able to start 14 games for the Texans in 2025. Ingram improved as a run blocker from what we saw in Minnesota -- but he was still a serious liability in pass protection, where the former second-round pick struggled with his base and was too easy to shed at the line of scrimmage.
There's a price for which bringing Ingram back would have made sense. But on this deal, Ingram is earning $15 million in 2026 and getting $5 million of the $9.25 million he's owed in 2027 guaranteed at signing. I'm aware that I've now been critical of three contracts for young guards between Ingram, Zion Johnson and Dylan Parham, and those organizations could just say that the market was bearing a meaningful price for young guards since there just weren't many available. I'm just not sure any of these players will live up to their contracts, and would rather have tried to find an undervalued player on a rookie deal than pay a premium for guys who haven't been starting-caliber linemen very long or at all.
Indianapolis Colts
Best: Signing Arden Key to a two-year, $16 million contract. General manager Chris Ballard has tried to draft and develop edge rushers with limited success, and the Colts moved on from the likes of Kwity Paye and Tyquan Lewis this offseason. Laiatu Latu took a big step forward as a pass rusher last year, and the Colts will hope for a breakthrough season from 2025 second-rounder JT Tuimoloau, but Indianapolis needed another edge rusher in its rotation and didn't have a first-round pick to go after one.
Landing on Key was a solid move at the right cost. The 30-year-old journeyman has been a consistently solid rotational player on the edge. He has managed double-digit quarterback knockdowns in each of the past six seasons while playing for four different teams. In his one year as a full-time starter in 2024, Key racked up 6.5 sacks, 15 knockdowns and 11 tackles for loss. He can be a bit of a freelancer at times as a run defender, which might make him a liability at times on early downs, but Key has able to win one-on-one against tackles and create splash plays. He should be a useful player for 400 snaps in 2026.
Worst: Guaranteeing Daniel Jones nearly $50 million for 2026. It was inevitable that the Colts would keep Jones after his incredible first half in 2025, even if that run ended with him tearing his Achilles and sitting out the final four games of the season. That came with a $37.8 million transition tag, which seemed reasonable enough for a player with Jones' track record of inconsistency and the uncertainty surrounding his ability to return from the Achilles injury to begin the 2026 season.
But when the Colts eventually came to terms with Jones on an extension, the actual price to get him under contract and on the field in 2026 had ballooned. Ballard probably wanted to restructure that $37.8 million figure to reduce Jones' cap hit in 2026 and obviously hoped to get him under contract past this upcoming season -- at least for one more year -- without making a multiyear commitment.
To get that done, though, the Colts had to guarantee Jones $49.5 million in 2026. They weren't able to tie more than $510,000 of that into per-game roster bonuses, which would have protected the Colts if Jones was unable to play to start the year, or benched by the end of his second season.
Was anyone else really going to pay $37.8 million or more to trigger the transition tag and force the Colts into a difficult decision? If that was a real concern, why didn't the Colts give Jones the $43.9 million franchise tag, which would have made an outside deal even more unlikely? And if there was no market for him, the Colts needed to do more to produce a friendlier contract for their quarterback, either by reducing the guarantee or by putting more of the money into per-game roster bonuses.
The Giants got fooled by one good year from Jones and made a franchise-altering mistake. The Colts are desperate for a solution at QB after cycling through option after option following Andrew Luck's retirement, but this deal might not afford them any sort of stability or upside.
Daniel Jones joins Pat McAfee to discuss his excitement about being back with the Colts and his desire to play Week 1.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Best: Replacing Travis Etienne Jr. with Chris Rodriguez Jr. This has been a quiet offseason for the Jaguars, who were aggressive in rebuilding the roster last year after the arrival of coach Liam Coen and GM James Gladstone. Rodriguez and fellow back Ameer Abdullah are their only veteran free agent additions this offseason, and the Jags also swapped defensive tackle Maason Smith for fellow 2024 second-rounder Ruke Orhorhoro in a challenge trade.
Another de facto challenge was letting Etienne leave on a four-year, $48 million deal to join the Saints while replacing him with Rodriguez, who signed for two years and $10 million. Etienne will trigger $28 million in guarantees over the next two years, and Rodriguez is guaranteed only $6.2 million in that span.
Cheaper isn't necessarily better, but it does fit for Jacksonville. For one, Etienne wasn't being used as a featured back with the Jags under Coen. Even while staying healthy for all 17 games, Etienne played only 60% of the snaps for Jacksonville, as he rotated with rookie Bhayshul Tuten. Both Etienne and Tuten typically came off the field on third downs for LeQuint Allen Jr., who played 146 snaps on third down to Etienne's 52 and Tuten's 19. And Etienne continued to struggle when used near the goal line, as he scored only twice in 12 carries inside the 5-yard line. (Tuten scored on five of his seven attempts.)
When he was drafted out of Clemson in the first round, Etienne's selling point was as a receiving back who had familiarity with former college teammate Trevor Lawrence. But after racking up 1,020 receiving yards over his final two seasons with the Tigers, Etienne managed only 1,338 across his four active seasons with the Jaguars. Etienne averaged 1.3 yards per route run during that four-year span, which fell ever so slightly to 1.2 in 2025 under Coen. The league average for running backs was 1.4 in that period.
Etienne might also have made up for this difference by creating big plays, but those weren't a regular occurrence. Etienne turned 9.6% of his touches into explosive gains (runs of 10 or more yards or catches of 20 or more yards) over the past four seasons, which was below the league average of 10% for running backs. Again, while we can point to middling offenses earlier in his tenure with the Jaguars, Etienne was at 9.5% in 2025, right alongside his career average.
If Etienne doesn't produce big plays, isn't great near the goal line, doesn't make his mark as a receiver and comes off the field on third down, is there really an impact back here? He has profiled as a below-average starter as a pro, and it feels more as if Etienne is being paid for his status as a former first-round pick than what he has shown. There's value in having someone to absorb a big workload, but that probably would not have been a great investment for the Jags.
Meanwhile, in a situational role over the past three years, Rodriguez has topped Etienne in explosive play rate (12.3%). He has been more successful near the goal line, scoring on 37% of his attempts to Etienne's 29%. Rodriguez offers nothing as a receiver, having caught only six passes over the past three years, but he's a more physical runner than Etienne. Given that he'll be playing on early downs before Allen comes onto the field on third down, Rodriguez is a much more logical fit for this offense at a fraction of the cost.
Worst: Repeatedly overdrafting players relative to consensus. There has already been plenty of chatter about how Gladstone and the Jaguars approached the draft and landing their players. It's not truly possible to form a consensus Big Board and where everybody in the NFL really views every single prospect, but we can use the work done by ESPN's Matt Miller and Jordan Reid, who ranked their top 481 and 499 players, respectively, before the draft to get a sense of how two informed outsiders viewed this draft class.
There's a significant gap between where Miller and Reid ranked the vast majority of Jacksonville's draftees and where the Jags took them. Second-round pick Nate Boerkircher came off the board at No. 56. Miller had him as the 129th-best player in the class, and Reid had the tight end at No. 148 on his board. If we take the average of those rankings and say that Boerkircher ranked 139th in the class, the Jags took Boerkircher 83 picks ahead of expectation.
With the exception of third-round guard Emmanuel Pregnon, who was taken 39 picks after Miller/Reid had him ranked, every other Jags pick across the first five rounds of the draft came off the board way earlier than expectation. Defensive tackle Albert Regis was drafted 78 picks ahead of the board in Round 3. Jalen Huskey, drafted later that round, was 110 picks ahead of where the boards had him, which was closer to the seventh round. Fourth-rounder Wesley Williams was 83 picks ahead of expectation, and tight end Tanner Koziol was 53 picks ahead of where Miller and Reid thought he might belong after being drafted in the fifth round.
Now, nobody's perfect in evaluating players. There's a difference between a Big Board, which is typically about evaluating talent without concern for an individual team fit, and drafting players for a particular franchise and its specific needs. It's possible that the Jags had insight into Boerkircher, for example, coming off the board earlier than expected given the run on tight ends during Day 2 of the draft. Ask any NFL general manager about what they want to do on draft night and they're all going to tell you some form of wanting to "get their guys."
Being a general manager, though, is about both evaluation and valuation. Part of the job is understanding where other players are going to land and knowing how much you need to get that player on that roster without overpaying. Every unnecessary resource you put toward one player incurs an opportunity cost that you can't spend on someone else. In free agency, that manifests in dollars. In the draft, it's missing out on players you could have added while still going out and getting your guys.
The Jags could credibly have traded down on Day 2 and landed most of these guys on Day 3 while adding extra picks or acquiring other Gladstone favorites. Alternately, they could have drafted other players on Day 2 and still managed to get most of these guys on Day 3.
If Gladstone is wrong about these players, the Jags will have missed out on adding more talented prospects with the draft capital they had left after the Travis Hunter trade. And even if he's right and guys such as Boerkircher and Huskey play more like second- and third-round picks than the consensus boards would have projected, the Jaguars will have missed out on the ability to add other cost-controlled talent to play alongside them or the extra draft capital that might have permitted them to make a move for someone such as Jakobi Meyers in midseason, as they did a year ago. That's just not a great process, even if it works out for the Jaguars in this particular draft.
Michael DiRocco recaps the 2026 NFL Draft on behalf of the Jaguars.
Tennessee Titans
Best: Signing Cor'Dale Flott to a three-year, $45 million deal. It was a tale of two sides for the Titans this offseason, as I was generally fond of their defensive signings and far less excited about what they did on offense, Carnell Tate aside. We'll get to some of those offensive issues in a moment.
On defense, though, my favorite signing for the Titans probably was Flott. A starter for most of his four years with the Giants, Flott gave up an 86.2 passer rating in coverage, a very solid number given that he was in man coverage nearly 41% over that time, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Flott allowed minus-0.08 EPA per coverage snap over that span, which is right around where stars such as Pat Surtain II (minus-0.12) and Devon Witherspoon (minus-0.04) were last season.
Flott is not quite on their level, but I like his chances of exceeding expectations under coach Robert Saleh, who has done great work with cornerbacks in his stops with the 49ers and Jets. Flott also doesn't turn 25 until August, meaning he probably still has some growth before reaching his peak.
Worst: Paying a premium for secondary options on offense. One way an organization can make a mistake is by paying way too much for one player. A year ago, the Titans did just that by giving Dan Moore Jr. that four-year, $82 million contract to take over at left tackle. Those sorts of errors stick out like sore thumbs. They're conspicuously bad choices.
What the Titans did this offseason on offense is more subtly worrisome. Signing Wan'Dale Robinson was one thing, but to hand new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll some familiar faces, they gave blocking tight end Daniel Bellinger a three-year, $24 million pact and backup Giants center Austin Schlottmann a two-year, $7 million contract while installing the journeyman as the likely starter. And Daboll reunited with a former Bills charge in backup quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, who signed for two years and $10.5 million.
How confident can the Titans really be that these players are going to be significantly better than replacement-level players who would have cost something closer to the league minimum? Schlottmann wasn't breaking into the lineup ahead of John Michael Schmitz Jr., who has been a disappointment in New York. Bellinger was the blocking tight end for a moribund Giants run game. Trubisky threw more interceptions than touchdowns across his two seasons with the Steelers before spending the past two years as Josh Allen's tag team partner in Week 18.
Good organizations develop players at these spots or find more cost-effective solutions. Doing so would have cost the Titans something in the range of $3 million or $4 million per year. Instead, they're paying nearly $17 million per season for Bellinger, Schlottmann and Trubisky, plus incurring the opportunity cost of not finding a young player with more upside than any of the three.
AFC West
Denver Broncos
Best: Re-signing J.K. Dobbins. Since 2020, 51 running backs backs have racked up 500 or more rush attempts. Among those backs, Dobbins ranks:
third in yards per carry
ninth in success rate
second in explosive play rate
first in rush yards over expectation (RYOE) per carry
first in EPA per rush attempt
Dobbins also hasn't fumbled since 2020. He's not a great receiver, but Dobbins might be the most efficient back in the league with the ball in his hands. If you needed any healthy running back to take 15 handoffs in a game, Dobbins wouldn't be anybody's first pick, but he shouldn't be far off.
Of course, the key word there is healthy. Dobbins has racked up only 589 carries across those six seasons as a product of dealing with ACL and Achilles injuries. In 2025, he saw his season ended by a foot injury in a November win over the Raiders. Playing about half of the offensive snaps, Dobbins was averaging an even 5 yards per carry in an offense in which Denver's other backs averaged fewer than 4 yards per attempt.
The medicals are what they are for Dobbins, which is why he'll struggle to ever land a significant guarantee in terms of money or role. The Broncos signed him to a two-year, $16 million deal this offseason, guaranteeing Dobbins $8 million for 2026 in the process. That's third wide receiver money in the modern NFL. Even if you project Dobbins to play only half the year, Denver is getting a player who produces like one of the league's best backs for that stretch of time, which would make this a very palatable contract.
Worst: Failing to address the departure of John Franklin-Myers. The Broncos had a championship-caliber defense last season, and Franklin-Myers was one of the many players who helped Denver come within a quarterback injury of potentially making it to the Super Bowl. After being salary-dumped on the Broncos in 2024, Franklin-Myers put together two excellent seasons in Denver, racking up 14.5 sacks and 33 knockdowns for the Broncos.
It wasn't a surprise that Franklin-Myers left for former coach Robert Saleh's Titans this offseason, especially after Tennessee cleared out a space in the lineup by trading T'Vondre Sweat. But the Broncos haven't done much to replace the veteran, as their only addition so far was third-round pick Tyler Onyedim.
There's nothing wrong with asking Onyedim, second-year lineman Sai'vion Jones and 28-year-old Eyioma Uwazurike to take on some of Franklin-Myers' workload, but this is a team with championship aspirations given the Jaylen Waddle trade. General manager George Paton probably was trying to protect the compensatory picks the Broncos earned for losing Franklin-Myers and P.J. Locke in free agency, but with that formula now locked, it's a surprise that Denver wasn't more aggressive in pursuing a veteran such as Calais Campbell, who signed with the Ravens, to help become part of the defensive line rotation.
Kansas City Chiefs
Best: Signing Kader Kohou to a one-year deal for roughly the league minimum. The Chiefs have drafted and developed plenty of cornerbacks under coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, but they've also been willing to take their chances on young CBs who aren't at their peak value in the hopes of building them up. The most famous example of this is Bashaud Breeland, who played a significant role on the 2019 Chiefs (as they won their first Super Bowl in a half-century) while making $2 million.
Kohou's career hasn't gone as expected in just about every way. An undrafted free agent, Kohou made the Dolphins' roster in 2022 and excelled as a rookie, posting an 83.2 passer rating in coverage. He looked like a building block in the making, but Kohou struggled badly in 2023 under Vic Fangio and lost his every-down role.
Kohou appeared to be back on track by the end of 2024, but he sustained a torn ACL in training camp and sat out all of the 2025 season. At his best, Kohou offered the ability to play inside and outside with above-average coverage skills. Tackling was a concern, which could cause Kohou problems in Kansas City, but the Chiefs are desperate for cornerbacks after losing Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson this offseason. Kohou is the right sort of risk.
Worst: Not addressing receiver. General manager Brett Veach is mostly running things back at receiver in 2026. Hollywood Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster are gone, but the only addition the Chiefs made at wideout or tight end this offseason is fifth-round pick Cyrus Allen. Kenneth Walker III should play some role in the passing game as the team's new lead halfback, of course, but there are no substantial additions at receiver.
The Chiefs can talk themselves into this working. Rashee Rice was excellent by the end of his rookie season before having his 2024 and 2025 campaigns disrupted by injuries and suspensions, respectively. He had another knee surgery this offseason. Xavier Worthy had a big game in the Super Bowl as a rookie, suffered an injury on the opening drive of the 2025 season and might never have been healthy afterward. And Travis Kelce was actually more efficient in 2025 than he was in 2024, averaging nearly 3 full yards more per catch. As long as he wanted to play in 2026, the Chiefs were always going to find a role for the future Hall of Famer.
Could Veach have done more to give Patrick Mahomes -- or Justin Fields -- another answer in the passing game? I think so. A second tight end would have taken some of the load off Kelce and allowed the Chiefs to play more multi-tight end sets, something they leaned into after trading Tyreek Hill in 2022. Another route runner might have given Mahomes a reliable pair of hands. You can understand why the Chiefs worked on their defense with most of their selections in this year's draft, but this offense still feels as if it's going to be dependent upon Mahomes magic, which will be even more difficult as the QB returns from a torn ACL.
The "NFL Live" crew reacts to news of Rashee Rice violating the terms of his probation and being ordered to serve 30 days in jail after testing positive for marijuana.
Las Vegas Raiders
Best: Bringing back Eric Stokes. The Raiders don't have many player development victories over the past few years, and there were even fewer during Pete Carroll's lone season as coach. One of the few exceptions, perhaps unsurprisingly, was at defensive back. Stokes was promising as a rookie first-rounder with the Packers, but injuries and inconsistent play lingered throughout the rest of his time with Green Bay. The Raiders signed Stokes to a one-year deal for $3.5 million.
In return, they got outstanding corner play. Stokes gave up a 77.7 passer rating in coverage last season despite playing behind the league's seventh-worst pressure rate. Crucially, Stokes stayed healthy enough to play 16 of 17 games.
The Raiders re-signed Stokes to a three-year, $30 million contract, committing just over $21 million in cash over the next two seasons. That's a very viable deal for a player who played as well as Stokes did a year ago, and a bargain if he repeats that level of play. With the Raiders eventually holding onto Maxx Crosby and adding Kwity Paye, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker this offseason, the pass rush should also be much better in 2026, which will help make Stokes' life easier.
Worst: The only significant upgrade at receiver coming in the form of Jalen Nailor. The Raiders upgraded the offense in a lot of ways this offseason. The biggest move was drafting Fernando Mendoza, of course, but Vegas also upgraded the backup role by bringing in Kirk Cousins. The Raiders paid a premium for center Tyler Linderbaum and added guard Spencer Burford off his best season as a pro. Coach Klint Kubiak should be an upgrade from the ill-fated Chip Kelly era on the sideline calling the offense.
What's missing is the one thing just about everybody expected the Raiders to hit this offseason: receiver. Sure, they return Brock Bowers, downfield threat Tre Tucker and a pair of 2025 top-115 picks in Jack Bech and Dont'e Thornton Jr., but we saw how limited this offense was when Bowers was compromised by his knee injury. With Mendoza coming in as the No. 1 pick, it seemed likely that the Raiders would consider adding multiple new starters at wide receiver.
That never really happened. The one significant addition Vegas did make was signing former Vikings third wideout Nailor, whose three-year, $35 million deal has $18 million guaranteed at signing. Nailor has a role in the right offense as a second or third wideout who can do some dirty work and catch the occasional pass, but it would be a major surprise if he suddenly emerged as a legitimate second option in the offense behind Bowers.
It's possible that general manager John Spytek might have hoped to use some of the draft picks he was supposed to get for Crosby on wide receiver help, but the Raiders have had chances to add playmakers and been hesitant. Could they have signed Jauan Jennings as he lingered in free agency for months before taking Nailor's old job in Minnesota? Should they be in the market for Stefon Diggs, who ranked second among all wideouts in ESPN's receiver scores last season? There's still time to add somebody between now and the start of the season, but this receiving corps feels incomplete at best.
Los Angeles Chargers
Best: Signing Tyler Biadasz before free agency began. When the Commanders surprisingly cut their veteran center in late February, Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz was wise to get involved. Before Tyler Linderbaum massively propelled the top of the center market forward, the Chargers were able to bring in Biadasz on a three-year deal for $30 million, guaranteeing $15 million of the $20 million he's owed over the first two seasons.
The Dolphins didn't have a reliable quarterback, more than one standout receiver or consistent O-line play in 2025, but Mike McDaniel was able to manufacture a running game with a great back (De'Von Achane) and a center playing like a superstar in Aaron Brewer, who might have been the team's best player at any position. McDaniel is in L.A. now as the offensive coordinator, and Biadasz's athleticism will be key for the Chargers as they try to build a version of that run game in 2026. And as is always the case every offseason, the Chargers hope that the arrival of a new interior lineman -- and a healthier season on the whole -- will make life easier for Justin Herbert.
Worst: The choices made at guard. I liked just about everything the Chargers did this offseason, so I had to really look hard to find something that I was disappointed with from Hortiz and coach Jim Harbaugh. They made defensible decisions on the interior around Biadasz, but I'm not sure they're as comfortable at guard as they might look on paper.
The organization unsurprisingly moved on from Mekhi Becton. It was a bit of a surprise to see them re-sign Trevor Penning, who was acquired midseason as an emergency left tackle option before quickly moving back to the interior. Penning has not been an NFL-caliber lineman since being drafted in the first round in 2022. McDaniel also brought fellow former disappointing first-rounder Cole Strange from Miami, and though Strange is coming off a solid season with the Dolphins, he has had significant injury issues, and he'll be making $7 million this season.
Hortiz then took a big swing by using a second-round pick on Florida center Jake Slaughter, who probably will start his NFL career at guard given the presence of Biadasz. Slaughter could be an option at the pivot down the line, but he didn't take a snap at guard for Florida. He would have been a great Day 2 pick for a team that needed a center. At guard, I'd be a little nervous about whether Slaughter can step in quickly and play a new position at the highest possible level.