The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[Bulldog]

Vet minimum and a complimentary wheel chair to get him onto the field.

 

[Bulldog]

Next year's draft is supposed to be real good. Maybe this is a clever ploy to stink next year and restock with inexpensive draft choices in 2027

If you are serious then now would be the time to trade or release Daron Payne and make other like-minded moves.

 

[Canadian Hog]

We always wanted as a fanbase (and clamoured for) a draft and development system. It appears that “draft and develop” is here and many are ready to jump off ledges.

 

[RWJ]

I hope not. If this season fails, it's because AP set the team up to fail starting last season. It's one thing to be hurt by a head coach, it's another to work hand in hand with your own handpicked coach and get led by the nose into failure. And that's the charitable version instead of "sucked at acquiring new talent".

AP struck FA well his first year and his draft other than JD was ok. Last year's draft is still under review. I agree with you but usually the GM gets a "get out of jail free" card most of the time. We'll see.

 

[method man]

We always wanted as a fanbase (and clamoured for) a draft and development system. It appears that “draft and develop” is here and many are ready to jump off ledges.

We don’t have the picks to “draft and develop”

 

[Skintime]

With Washington not being able to outbid winning teams, it unfortunately tells me all I need to know. DQ and AP are on the hotseat. AP probably gets another season to hire a new HC if things don't turn around this season.

He shouldn't, he's a big part of why we sucked last year

 

[NickyJ]

Hey a RB we can sign that probably won’t have better options to prioritize!

But he played for Dan Quinn before! Nepo hire!

 

[BayouBrave86]

It’s just we are going into year 3 of this regime and which unit can we point to and say ..yeah, that’s improved?

Oline and QB? That’s it. And QB was sort of a no brainer.

 

[Conn]

Next year's draft is supposed to be real good. Maybe this is a clever ploy to stink next year and restock with inexpensive draft choices in 2027

Two clever ploys in a row if that’s the case, 2025 and 2026, genius!

 

[Bulldog]

Don’t evaluate Peters based on his supposed misses in free agency thus far. The true test of his merit will be how well the likes of Newton, Sainristril, Amos, McCaffrey, Lane, and Magee develop, and if they can make fairly substantial contributions as pros. By the looks of it, we are going to depend on those guys to factor into the overall equation fairly significantly, and if they don’t become who we hope, that is when Peters will wear egg on his face.

At this point entering Year 3 of his term in Washington I just want to see Ben Sinnott get on the field even if it is just to hold for extra points.

A lot of these guys from 2024 are well established on the bench and we only tend to see them occasionally on special teams coverage and/or returns.

But on the regular offense and defense? Not so much.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Look, it usually comes down to the most obvious factor.

Washington is NOT the top destination for veterans like Mike Evans that want to win a title and are 33 years old.

I think that's a given.

BUT, a lot of these signings are ONLY about the coin. Who has the biggest gold coin to bring to the table.

You don't think Linderbaum went to the Raiders because he wants to win a Super Bowl I hope.

Even with a good draft the Raiders are a long ways away from being a true contender.

If Washington had offered $1M more for any of these players they were after they probably would have signed at least a couple of them.

So, it's a CHOICE.

Agree, if they offered an even more outrageous offer for Linderbaum than the Raiders, he'd be in Washington. Ditto Phillips. For Doubs I get the impression that the money was about equal and if so they aren't going to win a fight against one of the cooler kids.

I genuinely think, assuming lol they don't screw up this off season, they will be back at the cool kids tables next off season. But right now they need to deal with the fall out from 2025 -- and they deserve IMO every bit of that fallout

Can they pivot and still have a big FA, IMO, yes. Plenty of good players left. But I am curious to see how they deal with these setbacks do they retreat and become conservative or get more aggressive -- I am hoping for the later.

 

[Chris]

We always wanted as a fanbase (and clamoured for) a draft and development system. It appears that “draft and develop” is here and many are ready to jump off ledges.

Draft well and develop well would be better.

 

[Conn]

We always wanted as a fanbase (and clamoured for) a draft and development system. It appears that “draft and develop” is here and many are ready to jump off ledges.

You need to draft good players for that to work. Otherwise your QB busts or doesn’t want to re-sign with you, and you start all over having wasted another career.

 

[Conn]

AP struck FA well his first year and his draft other than JD was ok. Last year's draft is still under review. I agree with you but usually the GM gets a "get out of jail free" card most of the time. We'll see.

Last year’s draft looks much better than 2024 so far, again excepting Daniels

 

[RWJ]

I don't know how reliable this entity/site is but...

 

[Canadian Hog]

We don’t have the picks to “draft and develop”

I realize that the stockpile is low this year. That all said, we have 13 draftees rostered from the past two Peters drafts that we are going to have roles for. I will still stand by the notion that 2024 was the best and simultaneously worst thing that could have happened to this fanbase. We had the worst roster in the NFL prior to the Daniels draft and I still remember everyone accepting that we would need five years to see the fruits of labour start materializing into something sustainable. Here we are…

 

[RWJ]

Last year’s draft looks much better than 2024 so far, again excepting Daniels

It looks like it but still need time to tell.

 

[Conn]

At this point entering Year 3 of his term in Washington I just want to see Ben Sinnott get on the field even if it is just to hold for extra points.

A lot of these guys from 2024 are well established on the bench and we only tend to see them occasionally on special teams coverage and/or returns.

But on the regular offense and defense? Not so much.

Sinnott played on offense a bunch, he just mostly blocked. Almost 35% of total offensive snaps.

 

[BayouBrave86]

we had plenty of picks in 2024 and that second round is looking pretty scary right now. I still have some faith in Newton and Mikey to be contributors, but neither are really ones you can point to as feeling good about full time starters at this time which is what you need to hit on in the first three rounds. 2024 is looking Ron Riveraish as it currently stands.

 

[Commander Wraith]

The silver lining to missing out on most of the big signings in terms of weapons is that AP might actually be ok upping an offer to Okonkwo… (I’m guessing waiting on Doubs is part of why we didn’t up our offer to Likely?).