The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[heisenberg]

Wow thats a surprise.
Definitely worth a look.

After taking a look at giants fans reaction its actually not that surprising.

Seems like hes kind of a bobby Wagner type, great leader, great tackler but slow and terrible in coverage.

 

[Conn]

Umm..... anyone know anything about this dude?

Can’t speak to the truth of this, but one of the comments on that tweet from a Giants homer:

 

[RedWolf]

Looks like Brandon Aubrey will be a free agent. He has not accepted the Cowboys offer. That guy is a game changer with his leg. He is a Restricted free agent. But no compensation would be given if the Cowboys dont match a teams offer for him. Make it happen.

"Aubrey is set to become a restricted free agent. The Cowboys are likely to place the second-round tender on Aubrey at a cost of close to $5.8 million. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent, so if the Cowboys put the right-of-first-refusal tender on Aubrey, they would not receive any compensation in return if they did not match an offer made by another team."

Brandon Aubrey seeking larger deal from Cowboys, sources say

The Cowboys have extended an offer to Brandon Aubrey that would make him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL, sources told ESPN, but Aubrey's agent has asked for a deal closer to $10 million per season.

www.espn.com

I was seriously thinking about him. One of the best kickers in the game and it has been a weakness for us for a long time

 

[burgold]

AUBREY'D BE A HELL OF A GET

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Cowboys can find talent but starting to become very poor contract negotiators.

Hmm, this is a really interesting comment, because I think the concept they are running into is fairly predictable and it's one that AP may be trying (perhaps too hard) to avoid.

They backed up the Brinks truck for Dak, their QB. I mean, the thing is, they really, really backed up the truck. Then, for other players, they have given out some pretty big paychecks as well.

That structure creates issues. The other exceptional players on your team see that and say, OK, what is my value to you? It's simple. It's fair. It's predictable. So part of your team culture and team chemistry is certainly built on this; how you range your pay scales. AP may be too aggressive here, but generally I do think it's fairly important and some teams truly struggle with it. One of the ways that it can be controlled - frankly - is with straight communication, and I have to assume with what you and I have seen - the Cowboys are NOT communicating well. I think the Eagles do communicate clearly with their players.

The Cowboys have had some bad situations brew over the past couple of years, and probably a big source of the bad communication is the dude on the radio all of the time... ol' JJ.

 

[Riggo44]

Didn't he have a gruesome knee injury? Okereke that is...

 

[Dlts20]

 

[RWJ]

Let Von stop somewhere else besides here. AP needs to spend the money on young, talented players.

 

[Conn]

Hey speaking of unchecked injury rumors with no current fact basis:

 

[method man]

Didn't he have a gruesome knee injury? Okereke that is...

No that was Micah McFadden, his fellow off ball LB teammate. I'd be interested in taking a look at Okereke on a 1 year deal. He was excellent in Wink Martindale's scheme in 2023 but was meh in Shane Bowen's scheme this year and last year. Shane Bowen was Whitt level bad where Lawrence, Carter, Adebo, Holland and Okereke all had down years.

 

[burgold]

I was hoping to wake to news.

 

[KDawg]

I was hoping to wake to news.

Of what?

 

[burgold]

I thought at midnight "free agency" was supposed to begin. Do I have my dates off?

 

[DWinzit]

I thought at midnight "free agency" was supposed to begin. Do I have my dates off?

Tamper time begins the 9th at 4pm, official start of FA is the 11th at 4pm

 

[DWinzit]

The biggest news regarding FA right now is probably that not as many players were tagged as initially expected or rumored

Ony three NFL players officially received the 2026 franchise tag: New York Jets RB Breece Hall, Atlanta Falcons TE Kyle Pitts, and Dallas Cowboys WR George Pickens. Additionally, the Indianapolis Colts applied the $37.8M transition tag to QB Daniel Jones.

 

[Riggo44]

Tamper time begins the 9th at 4pm, official start of FA is the 11th at 4pm

Legal Tampering period starts at noon. Don't short me my 4 hours of ignoring life and obsessively refreshing Twitter.

Hopefully it doesn't crash like last year...

 

[Boone]

There is literally a Countdown Clock on the homepage folks for anyone who wants to know how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until free agency starts..

 

[Bulldog]

Hey speaking of unchecked injury rumors with no current fact basis:

I don't want any part of Brandon Aiyuk. He's trouble with a capital T. His behavior last year showed him to be emotionally immature and not a guy you want to have to count on when the chips are down and adversity hits.

Plus I remember his social media war against the 49ers agitating for a new contract and how he should no respect to the team at all.

This is one selfish mother and let someone else like Dallas or the Raiders that seem to like these kinds of players have him.

 

[KDawg]

I don't want any part of Brandon Aiyuk. He's trouble with a capital T. His behavior last year showed him to be emotionally immature and not a guy you want to have to count on when the chips are down and adversity hits.

Plus I remember his social media war against the 49ers agitating for a new contract and how he should no respect to the team at all.

This is one selfish mother and let someone else like Dallas or the Raiders that seem to like these kinds of players have him.

I actually want him more now because I’m guessing he has no market. Vet min + incentives! I don’t want to give him millions… but I have a feeling he won’t have much of a market. Although the Jets exist so maybe.

 

[Bulldog]

I actually want him more now because I’m guessing he has no market. Vet min + incentives! I don’t want to give him millions… but I have a feeling he won’t have much of a market. Although the Jets exist so maybe.

The vet minimum plus incentives concept is great when you are talking about a solid veteran that has produced and is coming off an injury in a prove it season.

BUT if I am an NFL GM the caveat is that I want to sign players that are known for working hard to rehab and are relentless 100% work ethic guys in regards to managing their careers.

Aiyuk is an immature player who seems to have slow rolled his rehab from the ACL and failed to listen to the doctors that were handling his care so he was not ready to play at ALL in 2025.

THAT bothers me and the question then becomes do you want a player with this type of attitude on the team in the first place?

My answer is no.

This is Blough's first season as OC, if I am the GM I want to get him players we can count on to contribute no questions asked, I don't want to acquire a guy that may blow up on us with outbursts and immature conduct as a distraction on and off the field.

You may say that Aiyuk has an incentive to behave himself here on the contract and work hard.

But I could have said the same thing about Aiyuk last year - he had a lot of incentives both career and financial to do his utmost to get back 100% and contribute in a year where SF had a number of receivers go down.

He didn't. He sat on the inactive/IR list and posted some drawings to social media.

Nothing but a loony tunes.