The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[Boone]

I get the entirely rational position that we can't or shouldn't be setting league salary records at a position (as might've been necessary to land a guy like Linderbaum for example). But on the other hand, I might've been willing to do so for him. Who cares if we are setting the league bar for center pay - if we end up with one of the best young centers in the league. Given that we AREN'T a top 5 NFL destination, it might take that kind of an offer to land a player of that caliber.

I would not have squawked if we had outbid everyone for him, despite how high an offer it may have taken. As long as it did not cause discord amongst the rest of the OL (say, potentially pissing off Tunsil right after we re-signed him), I would've had a 'go for it' mindset.

 

[HTTR]

I get the entirely rational position that we can't or shouldn't be setting league salary records at a position (as might've been necessary to land a guy like Linderbaum for example). But on the other hand, I might've been willing to do so for him. Who cares if we are setting the league bar for center pay - if we end up with one of the best young centers in the league. Given that we AREN'T a top 5 NFL destination, it might take that kind of an offer to land a player of that caliber.

I would not have squawked if we had outbid everyone for him, despite how high an offer it may have taken. As long as it did not cause discord amongst the rest of the OL (say, potentially pissing off Tunsil right after we re-signed him), I would've had a 'go for it' mindset.

Couldn’t agree more. That’s great that they come up with a value and stick to their guns, but we don’t need value right now. We need studs. Would be different if we were up against the cap, but once again we are nowhere near spending it. Wouldn’t have changed anything just to hand 30 mil per year to Linderbaum, other than give us arguably the best O-line in the league. The fact that we could so easily afford to vastly overpay a player like this is the much discussed advantage of having a star QB on a rookie contract. It is an advantage that we have completely failed to take advantage of imo.

 

[ES1974]

Best end of $50m in cap space left. I stick by my take that going a good 10%-15% over the competition on 2 keys FA deals would have been a fantastic long term investment.

I do however remain optimistic that another couple of pieces can be added.

It’s a C+/B- type offseason for me thus far.

 

[KDawg]

I saw this too. I kind of love this coach. “That shit sucked too!” 😂

He’s an excellent coach.

I’m a believer that not everything needs to be a social media clip, though. But I get it from a marketing perspective and Bill has to be okay with it…

 

[DWinzit]

I saw this too. I kind of love this coach. “That shit sucked too!” 😂

And of course "good shit Bill"

Hope the next videos will be involved with pass protection and holding on to the ball

 

[UK Skins]

I have talked about this topic a lot over the years so gonna chime in. And none of this is to say that 'we aren't an attractive destination' was a major factor in this year's swings and misses. But destination 'attractiveness' is a huge factor generally for where players land - especially because we forget it is not always JUST up to a player if he has a girlfriend, wife, kids, family, etc...

This is so true and something we all tend to ignore. I had a friend who was offered an extremely lucrative expat post but turned it down because his kid was half way through an important year at school and he didn't want to move them at the time.

 

[SkinsFTW]

I get the entirely rational position that we can't or shouldn't be setting league salary records at a position (as might've been necessary to land a guy like Linderbaum for example). But on the other hand, I might've been willing to do so for him. Who cares if we are setting the league bar for center pay - if we end up with one of the best young centers in the league. Given that we AREN'T a top 5 NFL destination, it might take that kind of an offer to land a player of that caliber.

I would not have squawked if we had outbid everyone for him, despite how high an offer it may have taken. As long as it did not cause discord amongst the rest of the OL (say, potentially pissing off Tunsil right after we re-signed him), I would've had a 'go for it' mindset.

I would have MUCH rather them offering Barkley 14-15M in 2024, which is 2M more than the eagles paid him, than to now paying a center almost 30M a year. Hell, Vegas has 0 Tax. He might have still turned that down.

If we had Barkley in 2024 which team then wins the NFCCG?

 

[Conn]

I would have MUCH rather them offering Barkley 14-15M in 2024, which is 2M more than the eagles paid him, than to now paying a center almost 30M a year. Hell, Vegas has 0 Tax. He might have still turned that down.

If we had Barkley in 2024 which team then wins the NFCCG?

Okay, but it’s 2026 and that’s not the decision we were faced with

If you wish they overpaid (relatively) for Walker instead of Linderbaum, that would fit the conversation.

But I don’t know how making the comparison to moves you wish we’d made two calendar years ago helps anything.

 

[HTTR]

I would have MUCH rather them offering Barkley 14-15M in 2024, which is 2M more than the eagles paid him, than to now paying a center almost 30M a year. Hell, Vegas has 0 Tax. He might have still turned that down.

If we had Barkley in 2024 which team then wins the NFCCG?

I was in favor of signing Barkley that year, but if I’m being honest, even if we did Philly would have won that game. With our run D and their O-line pretty much any running back could have trucked us. One of the narratives going into the game was that they had us outmanned at every single position but QB, and it was hard to argue otherwise. The final score reflected that and having Barkley on our side wouldn’t have made a huge difference in my mind.

As for Linderbaum, I’m assuming we were already willing to offer him around 25 million and considering our cap situation seems like tacking on another five wouldn’t have hurt one bit.

 

[ES1974]

Any decent interior DL players still available ?

 

[Bulldog]

Just amazing to me that Washington struggles most to find capable interior DL and safeties, when other teams regularly find these players in Rounds 3-7 of the draft.

We spent a #13 overall on Daron Payne, gave Kinlaw the largest deal of any of our free agents in 2025 and took Newton with the #36 overall in 2024.

At safety, we took Quan Martin in Round 2 and spent a bevy of #3-#5 picks on guys like Butler, Forrest and others that were scrubs.

We need to solidify these positions. We don't have enough picks to get blue chip studs in April but we can get Downs and then look to add to the DL room in 2027.

I think that #71 pick is going to go for a WR unless we trade down from #7 and pick up another top 60 selection.

If we do that I could see adding a DL with the acquired #2 or #3 picks and filling both needs this year.

 

[DWinzit]

Just amazing to me that Washington struggles most to find capable interior DL and safeties, when other teams regularly find these players in Rounds 3-7 of the draft.

We spent a #13 overall on Daron Payne, gave Kinlaw the largest deal of any of our free agents in 2025 and took Newton with the #36 overall in 2024.

At safety, we took Quan Martin in Round 2 and spent a bevy of #3-#5 picks on guys like Butler, Forrest and others that were scrubs.

We need to solidify these positions. We don't have enough picks to get blue chip studs in April but we can get Downs and then look to add to the DL room in 2027.

I think that #71 pick is going to go for a WR unless we trade down from #7 and pick up another top 60 selection.

If we do that I could see adding a DL with the acquired #2 or #3 picks and filling both needs this year.

Yup and our interior DL selecting is so bad it appears the best we have done was 2018 5tth rounder Tim Settle who we just have a 3 year deal to , ugh

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I get the entirely rational position that we can't or shouldn't be setting league salary records at a position (as might've been necessary to land a guy like Linderbaum for example). But on the other hand, I might've been willing to do so for him. Who cares if we are setting the league bar for center pay - if we end up with one of the best young centers in the league. Given that we AREN'T a top 5 NFL destination, it might take that kind of an offer to land a player of that caliber.

I would not have squawked if we had outbid everyone for him, despite how high an offer it may have taken. As long as it did not cause discord amongst the rest of the OL (say, potentially pissing off Tunsil right after we re-signed him), I would've had a 'go for it' mindset.

I personally don’t have a problem setting the market.

I do have a problem setting the market by like 30%.

If I remember correctly, Lindy got something like $28m/year and the next highest center is close to $20m/year.

Thats not just resetting the market. That’s crazy banana land resetting the market.

And to me that kind of overpayment generally never works long term. It’s something Snyder would do in the early years before he became a cheapskate.

Aggressive is good. But that was silly and I’m personally fine we didn’t go to stupid money at center.

 

[Dah-Dee]

I get the entirely rational position that we can't or shouldn't be setting league salary records at a position (as might've been necessary to land a guy like Linderbaum for example). But on the other hand, I might've been willing to do so for him. Who cares if we are setting the league bar for center pay - if we end up with one of the best young centers in the league. Given that we AREN'T a top 5 NFL destination, it might take that kind of an offer to land a player of that caliber.

I would not have squawked if we had outbid everyone for him, despite how high an offer it may have taken. As long as it did not cause discord amongst the rest of the OL (say, potentially pissing off Tunsil right after we re-signed him), I would've had a 'go for it' mindset.

I agree, and the thing that bothers me most about that whole C thing is the sequence of events. Go after Linderbaum, THEN cut or (!) trade Biadasz if you get the big fish. The way it actually went down, Peters was left holding his Nick in his hand while Biadasz was snapped up in 30 seconds by a legit playoff contender.

Rivals the 2025 offseason WR fiasco on the idiocy scale.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

We spent a #13 overall on Daron Payne, gave Kinlaw the largest deal of any of our free agents in 2025 and took Newton with the #36 overall in 2024.

Just a note, Kinlaw’s deal was essentially that of a low end starter/ high end backup.

It was high for us but even with all the hand ringing about it, it was basically low end market.

 

[Discobob]

I personally don’t have a problem setting the market.

I do har a problem setting the market by like 30%.

If I remember correctly, Lindy got something like $28m/year and the next highest center is close to $20m/year.

Thats not just resetting the market. That’s crazy banana land resetting the market.

And to me that kind of overpayment generally never works long term. It’s something Snyder would do in the early years before he became a cheapskate.

Aggressive is good. But that was silly and I’m personally fine we didn’t go to stupid money at center.

I generally agree... the biggest argument on the other side IMO is that we have not been spending up to the cap for several years. I understand that we can roll that money over... but every year you roll it over is "lost money" because $10M in 2026 is more valuable than $10M in future year $$$.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I generally agree... the biggest argument on the other side IMO is that we have not been spending up to the cap for several years. I understand that we can roll that money over... but every year you roll it over is "lost money" because $10M in 2026 is more valuable than $10M in future year $$$.

Just because you have the money doesn’t mean you should spend it frivolously or in an irresponsible way. I’m all for spending more, but I wouldn’t har gone to $28m for a center when the previous market high was $20m.

I think they tried to go high on several folks but didn’t catch them.

I don’t think the plan this season was to roll Mo ey over though that might be how it ends up playing out.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I agree, and the thing that bothers me most about that whole C thing is the sequence of events. Go after Linderbaum, THEN cut or (!) trade Biadasz if you get the big fish. The way it actually went down, Peters was lefting holding his Nick in his hand while Biadasz was snapped up in 30 seconds by a legit playoff contender.

Rivals the 2025 offseason WR fiasco on the idiocy scale.

I don’t think they wanted Biadasz as an option. It doesn’t seem like it was financial.

They didn’t want him playing center for this team and felt Allegretti was the better option to keep between the two. Were they right? I don’t know. But they decided they were better off without Biadasz entirely.

If they had ultimately come to that decision there was no point in waiting.

 

[Boone]

I don’t think they wanted Biadasz as an option. It doesn’t seem like it was financial.

They didn’t want him playing center for this team and felt Allegretti was the better option to keep between the two. Were they right? I don’t know. But they decided they were better off without Biadasz entirely.

If they had ultimately come to that decision there was no point in waiting.

And if Allegretti goes down in week 1 how do you feel about letting Biadasz go for nothing then?

 

[Discobob]

Just because you have the money doesn’t mean you should spend it frivolously or in an irresponsible way. I’m all for spending more, but I wouldn’t har gone to $28m for a center when the previous market high was $20m.

I think they tried to go high on several folks but didn’t catch them.

I don’t think the plan this season was to roll Mo ey over though that might be how it ends up playing out.

I guess I don't really care if they overspend on a player if it fundamentally doesn't impact their other roster decisions. An overspend does impact their cap #, but practically, if they aren't going to spend to the cap, it's a distinction without a practical difference.