The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[Skinfanjon]

Cee Dee ran 4.5 and Justin Jefferson ran 4.57 at the combine. That is plenty fast enough to be a dominate WR in the league.

That was Justin Jefferson the LB from Alabama 😆

Your point stands though. Tate is well above the threshold for NFL speed and that’s all that matters.

 

[aledb11]

JJettas ran a 4.43 40

 

[burgold]

I think some folks feel that way because he is a 4.5 guy not a 4.39 guy. But he wins down the field on consistently on contested balls and as we saw from guys like Michael Irvin and Art Monk you don't need to necessarily be a speed demon if you have size and the ability to use leverage to your advantage.

As it turns out - if you are correct and Peters and other GMs feel the same way, then it appears that win against the Eagles was very costly as Love may be gone by that pick and so will the top pass rushers.

If someone steps up to #6 to take Downs we will be screwed.

That's one reason I wanted to finish in the top 5 so we could get WHO WE WANTED instead of who was left.

But our Warrior Culture demanded we try and win each game

I believe in trying to win each game so I won't begrudge them trying. However, I also believe in developing players so if we played a lot more Magee, Sinnott, Kain, and others who we'd like to see get live reps just to see if they could swim and we won that would have been better. I guess I am happy about Wagner getting his 2,000 tackles and it wouldn't be nice to have shorted him (like the Eagles keep doing to Sequan) but we definitely could have found space to throw the babies from the nest and see if they could fly.

In other words, if we won while playing our developmental depth I think there would have been less of a reason to grumble.

 

[Kalu44]

No, we haven't. But I think Peters was focused on fixing the shit-tastic defense. I would expect Jenning and Chig Onkwonkokonnko level signings today. I don't imagine they'd be after too many bigger defenders.

AP knows the offense has issues. He went hard after Pierce and Linderbaum first, and when he struck out there he shifted to Defense. So, I’m sure O help is on the way!

 

[BayouBrave86]

JJettas ran a 4.43 40

Jefferson also had twice as many yards and twice as many TDs as Tate and that was with Chase on the opposite side. Tate isn’t even anywhere near Jefferson or Chase in terms of talent. Ask yourself this, which WR from Ohio State drafted in the first round the last 10 years would you take Tate over? I don’t see any. He’s simply getting the hype he is because there aren’t any truly elite WRs in this draft class. His production and him never being a 1 should be enough to pass on him at 7. If it was Egbuka or Smith, sure I’d take them at 7 in a heartbeat. Tate has great catch radius but he was playing against the weaker CBs in their match ups. I’ve said all of this before though so back to free agency talk for me.

 

[Bulldog]

The Jennings thing has been very quiet. Not a peep in any media about updates on his search for a contract or teams interested in him.

Strange. We kept hearing things on Doubs and other free agents all the time.

Wonder what is up.

 

[aledb11]

Jefferson also had twice as many yards and twice as many TDs as Tate and that was with Chase on the opposite side. Tate isn’t even anywhere near Jefferson or Chase in terms of talent. Ask yourself this, which WR from Ohio State drafted in the first round the last 10 years would you take Tate over? I don’t see any. He’s simply getting the hype he is because there aren’t any truly elite WRs in this draft class. His production and him never being a 1 should be enough to pass on him at 7. If it was Egbuka or Smith, sure I’d take them at 7 in a heartbeat. Tate has great catch radius but he was playing against the weaker CBs in their match ups. I’ve said all of this before though so back to free agency talk for me.

I agree completely. Was just correcting the numbers put out previously of the actual 40 time run by Justin.

 

[BayouBrave86]

Is Brian Thomas back on the market? Can the Jags make up their mind already? 😂

 

[Chris]

My major concern with Wagner returning is that the organization seems to have overwhelming respect for him and a inclination not to have him take any plays off. Not even when a season is lost. Will they be willing to sit him in likely passing situations?

(Maybe that was due to the tackles number he was chasing but now that’s past.)

 

[Darc Requiem]

Honestly, I could never stand LaCanfora either. He's one of the few reporters who I wouldn't be surprised if someone punches him in the face one day

Where is Jim Everett when you need him

 

[Bulldog]

From what I am reading Tate's hands and route running have scouts saying he will be a Day 1 starter in the NFL and a player that can develop into a pro bowler during his career.

 

[Skinfanjon]

Jefferson also had twice as many yards and twice as many TDs as Tate and that was with Chase on the opposite side. Tate isn’t even anywhere near Jefferson or Chase in terms of talent. Ask yourself this, which WR from Ohio State drafted in the first round the last 10 years would you take Tate over? I don’t see any. He’s simply getting the hype he is because there aren’t any truly elite WRs in this draft class. His production and him never being a 1 should be enough to pass on him at 7. If it was Egbuka or Smith, sure I’d take them at 7 in a heartbeat. Tate has great catch radius but he was playing against the weaker CBs in their match ups. I’ve said all of this before though so back to free agency talk for me.

Yes, we know you don’t like Tate. You are allowed to just live in your wrongness lol

 

[method man]

From what I am reading Tate's hands and route running have scouts saying he will be a Day 1 starter in the NFL and a player that can develop into a pro bowler during his career.

As a Brian Hartline trained receiver, I have no doubts he is a Day 1 starter. The ceiling does scare me because we haven't seen it so far.

That being said, if he ends up being a Doubs caliber player, I believe we'd be getting $8M excess value. If he ends up being Pierce caliber as a very low end WR1/high end WR2, that is $20M+ excess value. If Love is Saquon or CMC, that is $11M or so excess value. If he ends up K9, that is $6M excess value.

 

[DazedSkinsFan]

I see everyone posting our team needs and one position that gets lost is kicker......can we PLEASE find someone that can kick a damn field goal beyond 40 yards this year???

 

[Bulldog]

As a Brian Hartline trained receiver, I have no doubts he is a Day 1 starter. The ceiling does scare me because we haven't seen it so far.

That being said, if he ends up being a Doubs caliber player, I believe we'd be getting $8M excess value. If he ends up being Pierce caliber as a very low end WR1/high end WR2, that is $20M+ excess value. If Love is Saquon or CMC, that is $11M or so excess value. If he ends up K9, that is $6M excess value.

From what I see about the Titans and Giants and others Love isn't likely to fall all the way down to #7 so I don't necessarily think he is a realistic option at this point until we see the board shake out.

In re the receivers, CeeDee Lamb was the #17 overall pick at WR but I think if you re-drafted that class he would necessarily rate higher.

 

[Skinfanjon]

Where is Jim Everett when you need him

“You bet I do….Chris”

 

[BayouBrave86]

Yes, we know you don’t like Tate. You are allowed to just live in your wrongness lol

History is on my side so we shall see. 😉 We are talking about using the 7TH overall pick on this guy, not a third rounder like we used on Terry. And Terry has almost as good of numbers as Tate did in college and he was a #3 option at Ohio State.

 

[bowhunter]

I see everyone posting our team needs and one position that gets lost is kicker......can we PLEASE find someone that can kick a damn field goal beyond 40 yards this year???

Our re-signed K Jake Moody was 2-2 from 50+ and 5-6 from 40-49

 

[Bulldog]

History is on my side so we shall see. 😉 We are talking about using the 7TH overall pick on this guy, not a third rounder like we used on Terry. And Terry has almost as good of numbers as Tate did in college and he was a #3 option at Ohio State.

OK, but Terry did not carry a first round grade in 2019.

I suppose that's the hole in the drafting system, it's an art not a science.

You can have a running back that comes in runs a 4.6 and gets taken later in Round 1 like Emmitt Smith and he becomes a Hall of Famer. A lot of teams passed on him because of his 40 time, which we know is not always a reliable indicator of NFL ability.

 

[SkinsFTW]

History is on my side so we shall see. 😉 We are talking about using the 7TH overall pick on this guy, not a third rounder like we used on Terry. And Terry has almost as good of numbers as Tate did in college and he was a #3 option at Ohio State.

So you are saying that Tate will have better numbers than McLaurin. Not bad.