The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[RedWolf]

D, because I hadn't worked in so long...all those stairs at the game kicked my ass!

I hear ya!!!

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

The guy has suffered like 3x the ailments of the typical receiver. He is an old 29

Yes it is a bruised heel in a vacuum. His recent history is not encouraging.

I did a deep dive earlier but, from a personnel standpoint this offseason, it boils down to two things. 1) Get JD more weapons & 2) infuse the D with younger proven talent

I am someone who wanted more OL help for years and years and especially in the draft. When they traded picks for Tunsil… I thought they would go BPA for their first round pick.

When Adam shows that piece of paper from Kliff: I have doubts they went BPA from their own board there. Serious doubts. That’s not Kloff’s job, so I think Kliff really wanted Josh, I am sure they ranked him in that area (and late 1st is not the same as early 1st, most likely a little more bubble-ish *unless someone slips*).

There is my problem. I think the LB that the Eagles got DID slip, but we let Kliff use our pick in spite of having Coleman and Tunsil for the OL over the last two years at heavy draft prices. I am glad we got OL depth and I was supportive of their plan to give benefit of the doubt, but it was a weird move then, and it is a sad move to me now. It was a good situation: we needed youth and talent at LB, BPA was indeed likely LB, and we went OL. I didn’t dislike it because I believed it was “their” BPA but Adam planted the seeds of doubt when he flashed that paper. That is not generally how BPA works, I would think.

Anyway I say this because your #2 would have been less critical and we would be able to play better complementary football with talent and youth more evenly distributed across position groups.

 

[method man]

Yes it is a bruised heel in a vacuum. His recent history is not encouraging.

I am someone who wanted more OL help for years and years and especially in the draft. When they traded picks for Tunsil… I thought they would go BPA for their first round pick.

When Adam shows that piece of paper from Kliff: I have doubts they went BPA from their own board there. Serious doubts. That’s not Kloff’s job, so I think Kliff really wanted Josh, I am sure they ranked him in that area (and late 1st is not the same as early 1st, most likely a little more bubble-ish *unless someone slips*).

There is my problem. I think the LB that the Eagles got DID slip, but we let Kliff use our pick in spite of having Coleman and Tunsil for the OL over the last two years at heavy draft prices. I am glad we got OL depth and I was supportive of their plan to give benefit of the doubt, but it was a weird move then, and it is a sad move to me now. It was a good situation: we needed youth and talent at LB, BPA was indeed likely LB, and we went OL. I didn’t dislike it because I believed it was “their” BPA but Adam planted the seeds of doubt when he flashed that paper. That is not generally how BPA works, I would think.

Anyway I say this because your #2 would have been less critical and we would be able to play better complementary football with talent and youth more evenly distributed across position groups.

While it was a surprise to me, I was ok with the Conerly pick. It is really hard to find good tackles via FA so you have to draft your own or trade for them.

However, it is fair to argue the pick itself didn’t fit with the timeline as Conerly was seen as a developmental guy.

To your point, Campbell or even Ezeiruaku who I wanted would have been of greater help now and Ez also checked the box of playing a premium position

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

While it was a surprise to me, I was ok with the Conerly pick. It is really hard to find good tackles via FA so you have to draft your own or trade for them.

However, it is fair to argue the pick itself didn’t fit with the timeline as Conerly was seen as a developmental guy.

To your point, Campbell or even Ezeiruaku who I wanted would have been of greater help now and Ez also checked the box of playing a premium position

“Greater help now” because we had need there, there was strong evidence of BPA vs Conerly, and for me the cherry on top is we acquired Tunsil at a heavy trade price - I thought a genius move to free us for BPA!

Then: when Adam showed that paper, I had some doubts. It just didn’t smell like a dynamic BPA situation. It was more like: if Conerly is available, we go for him there, because Kliff wants him and he is good enough at that spot in terms of value. That strategy is not a long term winner strategy in my book. It is conjecture of course to some degree, but I can’t imagine a pure BPA scenario where that paper makes sense.

I agree with you, I can see a lot of upside to getting Connerly there, I am beyond sick of *not* drafting OL high. However, I truly thought acquiring Tunsil freed us of that issue.

 

[SkinsFTW]

D, because I hadn't worked in so long...all those stairs at the game kicked my ass!

The stairs didn't bother me too much, lol.

 

[Anselmheifer]

I don’t think the Cowboys can afford Pickens next year. They are 9 million over the cap.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I don’t think the Cowboys can afford Pickens next year. They are 9 million over the cap.

They are $9m over the cap for next year?

I am waiting for them to have to deal with this:

Dak will count $74m against the cap next year, and they can't cut him, because the dead cap would literally be half of their cap. Also, I don't think they want to cut him. I'm expecting then to extend him again, because man, that's a lot of cap room tied up with Dak.

Mahomes number jumps up next year also, but he's only $28m against the cap this year. They'll re-shuffle his deal again also.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Wonder if this would be a swap for a WR, obviously not a top one, but someone

 

[DogofWar1]

Man...to go after Pickens or to not go after Pickens.

I imagine it probably has at least a little to do with our draft position, like are we sorta in a "2024 Cardinals" situation where we're basically guaranteed to get a high tier WR but also will miss Bain, so we skip Pickens and focus elsewhere.

But like you see what Pickens can do and he's the only guy who can even remotely claim to be a WR1 level UFA available next year. It's just, is he gonna be chill and cool, or is he gonna be a locker room cancer? Maybe he just really REALLY HATED Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Man...to go after Pickens or to not go after Pickens.

I imagine it probably has at least a little to do with our draft position, like are we sorta in a "2024 Cardinals" situation where we're basically guaranteed to get a high tier WR but also will miss Bain, so we skip Pickens and focus elsewhere.

But like you see what Pickens can do and he's the only guy who can even remotely claim to be a WR1 level UFA available next year. It's just, is he gonna be chill and cool, or is he gonna be a locker room cancer? Maybe he just really REALLY HATED Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh.

It's possible. I'd trade Deebo for Pickens from a talent perspective. But there is baggage there. That said, he seems to have been behaving in Dallas this year, so maybe he's fine?

But he would probably make more than McLaurin, and that's a lot of money to tie up at WR. We'll see.

 

[DogofWar1]

It's possible. I'd trade Deebo for Pickens from a talent perspective. But there is baggage there. That said, he seems to have been behaving in Dallas this year, so maybe he's fine?

But he would probably make more than McLaurin, and that's a lot of money to tie up at WR. We'll see.

I refuse to believe the cap is a real concern. Philly just constantly signing big names and paying them huge contracts and seeing 0 cap issues has convinced me there's a way to basically make the cap a non-issue. Not to mention Peters has been pretty conservative and not signing people to large/long deals so far. This year of all years shows you can never have enough depth on offense and at WR. Plus you gotta plan for Terry's decline now. I didn't wanna think about it either, but uhhhh...this year kinda reminded us how mortal Terry is, unfortunately.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I refuse to believe the cap is a real concern. Philly just constantly signing big names and paying them huge contracts and seeing 0 cap issues has convinced me there's a way to basically make the cap a non-issue. Not to mention Peters has been pretty conservative and not signing people to large/long deals so far. This year of all years shows you can never have enough depth on offense and at WR. Plus you gotta plan for Terry's decline now. I didn't wanna think about it either, but uhhhh...this year kinda reminded us how mortal Terry is, unfortunately.

I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, I'm just saying it's a lot of money in one position.

That said, it's also possible Terry is only here one more year.

I think the skill position groups need an entire overhaul. Would anybody be surprised if the only TE/WR/RBs on the team in 2027 are Lane and Bates?
- McLaurin might be released after next season
- Deebo is a FA
- Noah Brown is on a 1 year deal and hurt
- McCaffery would be in his 4th season, if he doesn't improve as a WR next season, he might not make it to season 4. Though he could make it only on STs.
- Lane was just drafted, so he'll be in his 3rd year
- Bill, maybe he works out, maybe not. But he would be in year 3. He's also a 7th round rookie, and they don't tend to get to year 3.
- Ekler won't be re-signed
- McNichols won't be here
- CRod would have to be re-signed, he's a FA this year
- Ertz will have retired
- Sinnott might be here, but he'd be in his 4th year and if he doesn't improve, he could be a casualty.
- Bates deal won't be up and he's a beast as a blocker.

Did I miss anybody of any importance? The whole group needs to be entirely re-built. I'd say start with WR in the draft, and a WR in FA, and a TE in FA. RB can probably wait a year.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Looking forward to next off season. I think Peters while made a couple of bold trades -- hasn't been bold in FA. He's been good at making low risk signings. But I'd like to see more aggression

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Looking forward to next off season. I think Peters while made a couple of bold trades -- hasn't been bold in FA. He's been good at making low risk signings. But I'd like to see more aggression

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I think there might be something to where you are in the development lifecycle which allows you to do this.

We’re still building. Hindsight being 20/20, we should not have made the move for Lattimore. Deebo for a 5th is a non-issue for me.

And if you can get a top 5 Lt, you do it.

I’d like to see Peters’s swing a bit more in FA, but at the same time, I appreciate the roster flexibility.

He’s going to have a ton of cap space again to play with.

 

[Phantvm]

Didn’t I get push back in the chat about Pickens and now he’s suddenly en Vogue? 🤣

 

[RexTomb]

I think there might be something to where you are in the development lifecycle which allows you to do this.

We’re still building. Hindsight being 20/20, we should not have made the move for Lattimore. Deebo for a 5th is a non-issue for me.

And if you can get a top 5 Lt, you do it.

I’d like to see Peters’s swing a bit more in FA, but at the same time, I appreciate the roster flexibility.

He’s going to have a ton of cap space again to play with.

I think AP was hamstrung - not much draft capital to play with and not a lot of highly demanded players to package for picks. I trust AP to get it right.

 

[DogofWar1]

- McLaurin might be released after next season

I didn't really want to think about that being the possibility before this season, I had dreams of him being a lifer like Moss and having roles here all the way through age 35 when he hopefully limps across 10k yards.

But uhh, this season strongly calls that into question, and given he would save us 16M starting in '27 (dead cap 18M) I'm wondering if that's the penciled-in plan Peters has right now.

Which, if that's the case, probably makes it all the more reasonable to chase Pickens. Like you said, we're likely starring down the barrel of a complete overhaul of the unit, including a WR1 and WR2 in the next 2 years, which probably requires both a major FA acquisition AND a high draft pick.

Screw it, get Pickens, draft Tyson. Screw the defense. Jayden will outshoot anyone and everyone with top tier weapons.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Didn’t I get push back in the chat about Pickens and now he’s suddenly en Vogue? 🤣

I wouldn’t have done anything with Pickens coming out of Pittsburgh. It would have been more costly from a draft compensation perspective and he was coming off a head case season.

If he behaves himself in Dallas and they let him hit the market, I’d absolutely kick the tires.

 

[Conn]

I think there might be something to where you are in the development lifecycle which allows you to do this.

We’re still building. Hindsight being 20/20, we should not have made the move for Lattimore. Deebo for a 5th is a non-issue for me.

And if you can get a top 5 Lt, you do it.

I’d like to see Peters’s swing a bit more in FA, but at the same time, I appreciate the roster flexibility.

He’s going to have a ton of cap space again to play with.

It’s a good thing we keep not using our cap space to sign impact players—it allows us to preserve our cap space to sign impact players!

 

[method man]

I am absolutely looking at cost effective feature backs this offseason. Etienne, Javonte, Dowdle, B. Hall, K9, Dobbins, Allgeier and Dobbins all free agents. Most of these guys would bring credibility to RB1 here