The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[Dah-Dee]

My very unscientific calculations trying to fill in the Spotrac blanks say we've got around 5.5M in cap space left to sign Jennings and Aiyuk and anybody else. I don't see a problem nosirreeeee. Who knows, maybe the crickets on Jennings is because AP is chasing Payne around the building waving a restructured contract at him. Daron faster than he looks.

That's right, I'm mathing. Everybody might want to take a couple steps back in case something explodes.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

I agree, peters is probably the best positioned person to judge the risk.

It’s kidof bizarre the SF WR wants to come to Washington to play with his friend and the FO person who evaluated him happens to be the GM.

Of Peters was in Detroit and we had some other dude who didn’t know Aiyuk at all, I think It would be a 100% hard pass for me.

The only reason I’m open to the idea is Peters knows him and I trust Peters not to intentionally destroy the team chemistry.

Sort of. Aiyuk had some rookie issues, wound up in the doghouse, but those were fixed. Peters will have memory of that and of Aiyuk working to get better. But he won't have first hand experience of when Aiyuk started to veer into Antonio Brown territory. Peters was already running the Commanders by the time Aiyuk's issues in 2024 began.

 

[Boone]

No - but he knows and likely still talks to the folks who do have first hand experience with Aiyuk after Peters left San Fran. I guess my thinking is, we could not be in a better position to know whether Aiyuk would be a disaster or a good soldier if he came to DC than we are with both our GM and QB having close ties to him. So whatever decision they make, I don't think it will be a reckless one.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

My very unscientific calculations trying to fill in the Spotrac blanks say we've got around 5.5M in cap space left to sign Jennings and Aiyuk and anybody else. I don't see a problem nosirreeeee. Who knows, maybe the crickets on Jennings is because AP is chasing Payne around the building waving a restructured contract at him. Daron faster than he looks.

That's right, I'm mathing. Everybody might want to take a couple steps back in case something explodes.

Does OverTheCap have different numbers for any of these guys than Spotrac? I know Oweh+a few others haven't hit OverTheCap for 1st year cap hit, but that still seems like such a large difference.

 

[Dlts20]

If you take the legal trouble away, Diggs has been way better and more consistent than all these guys, even at his age. If I knew that he wouldn't be suspended or it didn't look bad on us, he would very much be in play for me, especially being from the DMV. He puts up numbers every single year, even more than Terry. If he gets the legal trouble out of the way, I would give him a look.

 

[Faithful Fan]

Wow, that’s really not much by NFL standards. I’m still amazed how little the NFL values running backs now.

What’s the story here? He’s been productive as a receiving back, averaging about 1000 total yards and 6 touchdowns per season. He is not old or injured, as far as I know, so why such a low salary? Is it just because he is coming off a down year?

Anyway, I am glad if this means we could still take Love if he fall to us.

 

[SkinsFTW]

Wow, that’s really not much byNFL standards. I’m still amazed how little the NFL values running backs now.

It's actually crazy that back up guards and centers, that rarely even play, make more money than pretty good all around running backs.

And the jags just gave Rodriguez over double that figure, for some reason they put the Jags tax on everybody.

 

[Boone]

If you take the legal trouble away, Diggs has been way better and more consistent than all these guys, even at his age. If I knew that he wouldn't be suspended or it didn't look bad on us, he would very much be in play for me, especially being from the DMV. He puts up numbers every single year, even more than Terry. If he gets the legal trouble out of the way, I would give him a look.

That's a pretty big caveat to shrug off though brother. I get 'innocent till proven guilty', but he's accused of slapping and choking his personal chef, he's fathered more children by more women than anyone I have heard of, and he's had a number of other legal issues. The Patriots cut bait with him and I'm sure that was based on some due diligence. I don't see him being a Adam Peters/Dan Quinn kind of a guy.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Running backs just don’t get paid in this league beyond their rookie deals unless they are truly elite.

I wouldn’t go quite that far.

Ekler got slightly more than $11m from us fir 2 years.

Good RBs get some money, just not great money.

 

[Boone]

That is a very low salary for a guy like White though. I wonder if there was a wink and a nod, have a good season and we will make you a very nice extension offer or words to that effect.

 

[Dah-Dee]

Does OverTheCap have different numbers for any of these guys than Spotrac? I know Oweh+a few others haven't hit OverTheCap for 1st year cap hit, but that still seems like such a large difference.

For the guys with numbers attached, they appear to be the same figures on both Spotrac and OTC. Spotrac also lists all the FA signees, but 11 of them have no money info added yet.

 

[bowhunter]

Wow, that’s really not much by NFL standards. I’m still amazed how little the NFL values running backs now.

What’s the story here? He’s been productive as a receiving back, averaging about 1000 total yards and 6 touchdowns per season. He is not old or injured, as far as I know, so why such a low salary? Is it just because he is coming off a down year?

Anyway, I am glad if this means we could still take Love if he fall to us.

Waiting for the tweet that he chose Daniels over Maye.

 

[Dlts20]

That's a pretty big caveat to shrug off though brother. I get 'innocent till proven guilty', but he's accused of slapping and choking his personal chef, he's fathered more children by more women than anyone I have heard of, and he's had a number of other legal issues. The Patriots cut bait with him and I'm sure that was based on some due diligence. I don't see him being a Adam Peters/Dan Quinn kind of a guy.

I think some of it had to do with in his last 5 games, 4 of them were playoffs, he didn't do anything and basically seemed phased out but Maye looked crap so it's hard to say. Still, he had another thousand yard season like he always does. Plus theirs this

 

[SkinsFTW]

That's a pretty big caveat to shrug off though brother. I get 'innocent till proven guilty', but he's accused of slapping and choking his personal chef, he's fathered more children by more women than anyone I have heard of, and he's had a number of other legal issues. The Patriots cut bait with him and I'm sure that was based on some due diligence. I don't see him being a Adam Peters/Dan Quinn kind of a guy.

Ok, so they might need to start a daycare and get him a better law firm, but the dude has put up superior stats, even better than McLaurin most years, and he should be cheap. AP has to love that!

 

[RedWolf]

Gibbs used to take on some players with problems. If there's a strong organization and a strong locker room, a lot of times those issues can be worked out.

But cocaine is a hell of a drug. Ask Dexter Manley

 

[BayouBrave86]

Diggs has been no show the last two playoffs too. No thanks.

 

[Dah-Dee]

Ok, so they might need to start a daycare and get him a better law firm, but the dude has put up superior stats, even better than McLaurin most years, and he should be cheap. AP has to love that!

He's also going to turn 33 during the season, seems like productivity is going to drop off a cliff much sooner than later. Or maybe he's like Jerry Rice and will put up 1,200 yards at age 40. Seems unlikely with how fast/violent the NFL game is in this era.

 

[MartinC]

I wouldn’t go quite that far.

Ekler got slightly more than $11m from us fir 2 years.

Good RBs get some money, just not great money.

I asked our in-house Claude co-work to give me some data on median salaries by position for veterans only. So exclude rookie deals. This includes all players so numbers wouod change if you exclude backups etc.

Position	Median Veteran Pay
QB	~$14.2M
WR	~$6.8M
Edge	~$6.1M
CB	~$4.9M
LB	~$3.7M
OL (combined)	~$3.4M
RB	~$2.1M
TE	~$2.0M

I asked for a big picture summary

Big Picture

Once rookies are removed, the NFL pay structure looks like this:

• Franchise QB second contracts: $45–60M/yr
• Elite non-QB positions (edge, WR, OT, CB): $22–32M
• Solid veteran starters: $8–18M
• Lower-value positions (RB, TE, specialists): $3–12M

So a typical NFL player who reaches a second contract often lands around $8M–$15M per year, with huge variation depending on position and performance.

 

[Conn]

 

[Dlts20]

Diggs has been no show the last two playoffs too. No thanks.

Man just help get us to the playoffs and I will be fine. Jayden and Terry balled out when they were there.

Plus that story seems like complete bs from that girl when you look at her text that was supposedly prove something. He was firing her and she told him to give her the 10k that he promised her to start her business.

Then she said stuff like just give me the money and I am out of your life forever. It sounded way more than professional since she was supposed to be his chef. Sounded like she wanted a relationship or they had one and then she tried to shake him down once she got fired