The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[Always Commander Never Captain]

So the NFL rules no suspension on 1 of his sexual assault cases, have they ruled on the other one? Doesn't he have a 3rd case (that might not be sexual assault) that needs to get settled?

 

[DWinzit]

This is the kind of player we brought in last year. Hoping we weren't offering anything for him. He'll eventually be a FA if we become that desperate.

ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi did not project Cedric Tillman to make the Browns’ 53-man roster.​

Tillman posted a few big games in 2024 and garnered some breakout hype heading into 2025. He struggled to find much of a role, let alone put up decent counting stats, amid another lost season for the Browns. He has been rumored to be a trade candidate heading into his fourth year, but it seems unlikely that any team takes a shot on him at this point. Isaiah Bond is ahead of him on the depth chart and Tillman doesn’t play special teams, making it hard for the Browns to justify keeping him around.


This guys questionable health (plus character concerns) should still be enough for AP to have him totally removed from possibility

Tyreek Hill said he has “no power” in his left leg.​

Hill suffered a dislocated knee, torn ACL and LCL, and other ligament damage in Week 4 of the 2025 season. He posted a video of himself working out and said he didn’t have a timeline to return, but added that the timeline is “looking real good right now.” Still, the fact that he has no power in his recovering leg speaks louder than his words. Hill is currently a free agent and is likely several months away from playing if things go well. It’s also unlikely we know where he is playing until deep into the season. Fantasy managers, in turn, shouldn’t worry about him in summer drafts

 

[DWinzit]

If Antonio Williams is going to play on the outside, Diggs won't be taking any reps from him because Diggs will likely play in the slot. I see it as a win-win.

If they did sign Diggs and Williams turns out near as good as we hope he is, the three can be interchanged to some degree with roles. Similar potentially with Jefferson if he made the squad.

 

[KDawg]

Been avoiding the site to avoid conversations about the Yuk… am I safe? Or do I need to hibernate a few more days?

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

B. Season 2. Let's run it back. if Jayden can do it with Zaccheus -- damn right he can do with Chris Moore, KJ Osborn, etc. We got maybe the best QB in the NFL, he will elevate ANYONE

I think the thinking was that Jayden could do it with Terry, Noah Brown and Deebo. And McCaffery was option 4, and probably Lane option 5.

And maybe he could have.

But:
Terry - Gone
Noah Brown - Gone
Deebo - Gone, then came back in a role he wasn't suited for because Terry and Noah were gone.
McCaffery - Gone
Lane - Ended the season gone.
Not a WR, but Ertz - Gone.

Then enter Chris Moore, Robby Chosen, whoever else they had to elevate from the PS squad. Who weren't elevatable.

I didn't like the Noah Brown plan to begin with because he was going to get hurt eventually. They should have let him walk and found a better, more dependable option. Then when he got hurt in mini-camp, they should have panicked and signed whoever was left who could start. He got to us because the Texans knew he couldn't stay healthy and then he got hurt with us too. Trusting Noah Brown was a huge mistake.

I liked the Deebo part of the plan if he could be the gadget/slot kindof guy. Not as a starting outside WR, that's just not who he is.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I think the thinking was that Jayden could do it with Terry, Noah Brown and Deebo. And McCaffery was option 4, and probably Lane option 5.

And maybe he could have.

But:
Terry - Gone
Noah Brown - Gone
Deebo - Gone, then came back in a role he wasn't suited for because Terry and Noah were gone.
McCaffery - Gone
Lane - Ended the season gone.
Not a WR, but Ertz - Gone.

Then enter Chris Moore, Robby Chosen, whoever else they had to elevate from the PS squad. Who weren't elevatable.

I didn't like the Noah Brown plan to begin with because he was going to get hurt eventually. They should have let him walk and found a better, more dependable option. Then when he got hurt in mini-camp, they should have panicked and signed whoever was left who could start. He got to us because the Texans knew he couldn't stay healthy and then he got hurt with us too. Trusting Noah Brown was a huge mistake.

I liked the Deebo part of the plan if he could be the gadget/slot kindof guy. Not as a starting outside WR, that's just not who he is.

That summer they didn't want to pay what Terry wants in part because of the history of 30 plus year olds declining and being more injury prone. So how about lets do this?

A. Terry won't miss a beat at 30.

B. Turning 30 year old Noah Brown who was recovering from a major injury, was still hurt, and can never stay healthy as the Z. And we got him shockingly for 2 million and change guaranteed money

C. At slot, we will go with turning 30 year old Deebo who also has an injury history albiet not as bad as Noah.

And we will do it with no net behind them? What can go wrong? Either you or someone else said easier to say now with hindsight. Actually it was easy to see it then. I among others commented on it that summer. You don't have to be some deep football savant to see the perils of this approach.

 

[NickyJ]

Been avoiding the site to avoid conversations about the Yuk… am I safe? Or do I need to hibernate a few more days?

Silent on BO since the immediate reaction to Aiyuk's meltdown involving Jayden. If he has said anything, the Commies world has turned its back to him.

 

[36ST21]

Been avoiding the site to avoid conversations about the Yuk… am I safe? Or do I need to hibernate a few more days?

All clear on the Yuk Mouth front. Just in time for the "Pick up Pavia and let him compete for QB3 !" discussion.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

That summer they didn't want to pay what Terry wants in part because of the history of 30 plus year olds declining and being more injury prone. So how about lets do this?

A. Terry won't miss a beat at 30.

B. Turning 30 year old Noah Brown who was recovering from a major injury, was still hurt, and can never stay healthy as the Z. And we got him shockingly for 2 million and change guaranteed money

C. At slot, we will go with turning 30 year old Deebo who also has an injury history albiet not as bad as Noah.

And we will do it with no net behind them? What can go wrong? Either you or someone else said easier to say now with hindsight. Actually it was easy to see it then. I among others commented on it that summer. You don't have to be some deep football savant to see the perils of this approach.

But none of that is what you said which I replied to. What you said was they trusted Chris Moore and whoever else, and Jayden could elevate them. What I said was they weren't actually doing that. They were trusting Terry, Noah and Deebo.

Should they have? No. I said that too at the time.

But the way you put it, you represented it as the plan to trust guys who were on the PS to play meaninful snaps, and I don't think that's what they did. It was a bad plan. I don't think anybody is arguing with you about that.

But I think you're misrepresenting the bad plan.

At least represent the bad plan correctly.

 

[burgold]

I think the thinking was that Jayden could do it with Terry, Noah Brown and Deebo. And McCaffery was option 4, and probably Lane option 5.

And maybe he could have.

But:
Terry - Gone
Noah Brown - Gone
Deebo - Gone, then came back in a role he wasn't suited for because Terry and Noah were gone.
McCaffery - Gone
Lane - Ended the season gone.
Not a WR, but Ertz - Gone.

Then enter Chris Moore, Robby Chosen, whoever else they had to elevate from the PS squad. Who weren't elevatable.

I didn't like the Noah Brown plan to begin with because he was going to get hurt eventually. They should have let him walk and found a better, more dependable option. Then when he got hurt in mini-camp, they should have panicked and signed whoever was left who could start. He got to us because the Texans knew he couldn't stay healthy and then he got hurt with us too. Trusting Noah Brown was a huge mistake.

I liked the Deebo part of the plan if he could be the gadget/slot kindof guy. Not as a starting outside WR, that's just not who he is.

You missed Ekeler. Losing Ekeler also had a big effect on the passing game.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

You missed Ekeler. Losing Ekeler also had a big effect on the passing game.

And they shouldn’t have trusted him to stay healthy either.

It was Bruce Allen level bad plan to trust all these guys to stay healthy.

But that was the plan. The plan was for the weapons top targets to go to Terry, Ekler, Deebo and Ertz. With Noah Brown as the 5th option playing outside and McCaffery and Lane as primary backups.

Then it all fell apart. It was a bad plan.

 

[burgold]

Yep. They played craps on old vets in 2024 and every throw was a winner then tried to do it again do it again, but Ekeler and Ertz were a year older. Noah Brown just had the worst luck and then Terry who had a history of being an iron man also got knocked out for about half a season. So, it went from rolling all 7's to throwing snake eyes on every toss of the dice.

If this was an old black and white Western, I'd have thought that someone switched out the dice. We sure defied the odds. Once in a super positive fashion then in the crappiest way possible.

 

[Conn]

I think that led to a lot of our slow-start-itis and coming into the year so low energy too. In 2024 we got a lot of vets together and successfully cashed in on the “no one believes in us but watch Daniels make magic in Q4 every week” vibes. Then that offseason, we ran it back with all the old vets who could barely even be trusted to survive practice reps going into 2025, we were slow and rusty and lacking confidence. And we just didn’t add to or replace enough of those guys.

It was like that damn song. In 2024, those vets WERE as good once as they ever were. Except…we ignored the lyrics and tried to make them do it twice when 2025 rolled around.

 

[KDawg]

All clear on the Yuk Mouth front. Just in time for the "Pick up Pavia and let him compete for QB3 !" discussion.

Oh thank God I didn’t miss that one!

 

[skinsinparadise]

But none of that is what you said which I replied to. What you said was they trusted Chris Moore and whoever else, and Jayden could elevate them. What I said was they weren't actually doing that. They were trusting Terry, Noah and Deebo.

Should they have? No. I said that too at the time.

But the way you put it, you represented it as the plan to trust guys who were on the PS to play meaninful snaps, and I don't think that's what they did. It was a bad plan. I don't think anybody is arguing with you about that.

But I think you're misrepresenting the bad plan.

At least represent the bad plan correctly.

At least represent the bad plan correctly? You mean at least see it from the lense the way you do? Sorry I don't. Like I told you in another post, I can't think of anyone I've debated in lol my 20 years of discussing football give or take on boards, that I disagree on more topics than I do with you and I gather vice versa. So I do think that is an overhang of these debates. We just look at this stuff very differently. And that's OK.

What post are you referring to? My last post was about Noah Brown, Terry, and Deebo. I didn't even mention Chris Moore, so I'm not sure what you're responding to.

My point has always been the same. The plan was to rely on injury-prone 30-year-olds—or players about to turn 30. They had Terry who they were reluctant to pay big in part because of concerns about age, injuries, and the production decline that often comes around 30. That was my thesis last summer, and it's still my thesis now. And Noah was my prime concern and point.

The quality of the backups was never the main point. That was just icing on the cake. The argument then was the same as now give Jayden a legit #2 WR. Noah had a bad injury, he wasn't practicing, yet he's the dude? And no having Van Jefferson backing him while would make a bad situation a little less bad yet it would still be bad.

I represented why I thought it was a bad plan just fine, and I think I called it correctly last summer. Honestly, it wasn't a particularly difficult prediction to make.

From what I gather, your argument today is that Dyami Brown and Van Jefferson are good enough along with the other guys here, so the rest of us are overreacting to the current slate of WRs. That's basically the JP Finlay view, and I understand the logic even though I disagree with it. But my issue wasn't simply who was backing up Noah Brown. It was that Noah Brown himself was part of a fragile plan.

The backups were secondary. They weren't the thesis—they just reinforced it. If this debate were only about the backups, I'd agree with you about their WR situation today. I actually think the receiver depth is much better this year. If backup quality were my biggest concern, I wouldn't have spent months complaining about the position, would I? This team might have the best group of #4 WRs in the league. Backups on this team are more than fine.

The fragility of that starting lineup is what bugged me and as far as I was concerned Chris Moore was the starter not Noah. Your point I gather was I'd have been fine if name that current backup we got now would have been behind Noah. But not true. I gather that's how you feel about it. That's cool but its not how I felt then or now.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I think that led to a lot of our slow-start-itis and coming into the year so low energy too. In 2024 we got a lot of vets together and successfully cashed in on the “no one believes in us but watch Daniels make magic in Q4 every week” vibes. Then that offseason, we ran it back with all the old vets who could barely even be trusted to survive practice reps going into 2025, we were slow and rusty and lacking confidence. And we just didn’t add to or replace enough of those guys.

It was like that damn song. In 2024, those vets WERE as good once as they ever were. Except…we ignored the lyrics and tried to make them do it twice when 2025 rolled around.

Yeah Keim has referecnced among others the energy differences. Heck apparently even Quinn did, showing a practice to the current team from 2024 compared to 2025. In so many words, Peters and Quinn has owned up to thios team coming into 2025 without that edge that they had in 2024.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

At least represent the bad plan correctly? You mean at least see it from the lense the way you do? Sorry I don't. Like I told you in another post, I can't think of anyone I've debated in lol my 20 years of discussing football give or take on boards, that I disagree on more topics than I do with you and I gather vice versa. So I do think that is an overhang of these debates. We just look at this stuff very differently. And that's OK.

What post are you referring to? My last post was about Noah Brown, Terry, and Deebo. I didn't even mention Chris Moore, so I'm not sure what you're responding to.

My point has always been the same. The plan was to rely on injury-prone 30-year-olds—or players about to turn 30. They had Terry who they were reluctant to pay big in part because of concerns about age, injuries, and the production decline that often comes around 30. That was my thesis last summer, and it's still my thesis now. And Noah was my prime concern and point.

The quality of the backups was never the main point. That was just icing on the cake. The argument then was the same as now give Jayden a legit #2 WR. Noah had a bad injury, he wasn't practicing, yet he's the dude? And no having Van Jefferson backing him while would make a bad situation a little less bad yet it would still be bad.

I represented why I thought it was a bad plan just fine, and I think I called it correctly last summer. Honestly, it wasn't a particularly difficult prediction to make.

From what I gather, your argument today is that Dyami Brown and Van Jefferson are good enough along with the other guys here, so the rest of us are overreacting to the current slate of WRs. That's basically the JP Finlay view, and I understand the logic even though I disagree with it. But my issue wasn't simply who was backing up Noah Brown. It was that Noah Brown himself was part of a fragile plan.

The backups were secondary. They weren't the thesis—they just reinforced it. If this debate were only about the backups, I'd agree with you about their WR situation today. I actually think the receiver depth is much better this year. If backup quality were my biggest concern, I wouldn't have spent months complaining about the position, would I? This team might have the best group of #4 WRs in the league. Backups on this team are more than fine.

The fragility of that starting lineup is what bugged me and as far as I was concerned Chris Moore was the starter not Noah. Your point I gather was I'd have been fine if name that current backup we got now would have been behind Noah. But not true. I gather that's how you feel about it. That's cool but its not how I felt then or now.

I'm going to keep this kindof short, I think maybe I went a bit overboard, but there was one specific line which I was responding to, and maybe that's where the disconnect is:

In my response, I only responded to "B" below. Where you didn't mention the age of the receivers, or the backups, or anything. And you did say it was hyperbolic:

The way it feels to me at WR with some hyberbole to make a point

A. Season 1. Was not a high priority but then again they probably thought it was a rebuilding year

B. Season 2. Let's run it back. if Jayden can do it with Zaccheus -- damn right he can do with Chris Moore, KJ Osborn, etc. We got maybe the best QB in the NFL, he will elevate ANYONE

C. Season 3. Oops we got a bit full of ourselves and learned that Jayden is mortal. We will chase WR and add weapons, we get it. Crap Pierce decided to stay and Doubs would rather go to NE but no problem we will get Aiyuk on the cheap -- oops Aiyuk is a bit crazy and is attacking his pal on social media, he's now not in play either.

My response was simply that they weren't counting on Chris Moore or KJ Osborn. In fact, neither made the initial 53. The 5 that made the 53 were Terry, Noah Brown, Deebo, McCaffery and Lane.

I think we are in complete agreement that the plan to trust Noah to stay healthy was bad. I will admit I was less concerned about Terry's health because he had been remarkably resilient. Deebo was going to be Deebo, and we got from Deebo what I thought we were going to get from Deebo.

Trusting Terry, particularly Noah, and Deebo to stay healthy was a bad plan.

And it blew up because all three got hurt, and then all of a sudden there were PS players playing.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Question to the group:

Keim said on one of his last podcasts, if they got Pierce, they might not have gotten some of the defensive guys, and if they got Doubs, they probably wouldn't have gotten Chig.

So, thought experiment: let's assume for a minute we weren't getting Pierce, so he's out. But let's say we get Doubs instead of Chig. There is no option to get both. We might/might not have gotten another TE. What Keim said is when they didn't get Doubs, they pivoted (his word) to Chig. So I'm assuming he was plan C.

Would you feel better, worse or the same if the WRs and TEs were

WR: Terry, Doubs, Williams, McCaffery, Lane + one of Van Jefferson/Burks/DBrown
TE: Sinnot, Bates, Yankof or a second tier TE from FA (I'm not sure who, but not one of Likely, Otton, Chig, Kolar of Bellinger who all were 24M+ and seemingly would be out of the price range after signing Doubs.)

vs.
WR: Terry, Williams, McCaffery, Lane, + 2 of Van Jefferson/Burks/DBrown
TE: Chig, Bates, Sinnott

With the obvious ideal scenario that they get Doubs + Chig off the table, would you feel any differently in either scenario?

I will say, while I think the WR group would be markedly better, the TE group would not, and I think they might cancel each other out. Doubs would have to pick up the production from Ertz, and we'd be counting on Sinnott to "get it" which he hasn't shown at all yet.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I think that led to a lot of our slow-start-itis and coming into the year so low energy too. In 2024 we got a lot of vets together and successfully cashed in on the “no one believes in us but watch Daniels make magic in Q4 every week” vibes. Then that offseason, we ran it back with all the old vets who could barely even be trusted to survive practice reps going into 2025, we were slow and rusty and lacking confidence. And we just didn’t add to or replace enough of those guys.

It was like that damn song. In 2024, those vets WERE as good once as they ever were. Except…we ignored the lyrics and tried to make them do it twice when 2025 rolled around.

I'm nowhere near smart enough to know what song you are referencing.

I really agree with you.

They tried to walk a really fine line in 2025, and they fell off it entirely. The line they were trying to walk was "keep the group together, don't break chemistry, plug holes where needed." Because the team HAD just made it to the NFC Championship Game. But that meant managing an older roster, which hurts preparation. Terry's holdout didn't help either. It might have been a perfect storm.

So they thought plugging in a top 5 LT, an upgrade at slot WR, and shoring up the run defense (after getting torched by the Eagles run offense in the NFC Championship Game) would be enough to put them over the edge, while bringing back the core of the team, including re-signing vets like Wagner and Ertz, would be fine.

The problem, and Peters should have known this, is they were just too old and slow on defense to really compete, even with plugging a few holes to shore up the run defense.

Offensively, I think the plan to have all of your primary weapons as essentially older guys, 4 of which had injury histories, (Terry, Noah Brown, Ertz, Ekler and Deebo) was asking for trouble. Of that group, the only one without some injury history was Terry. Not just at WR, but across the board. However, there was a path to success there because if they did stay healthy, then they were the same older guys who played really well in 2024 + Deebo, which was an upgrade. So, it was a gamble which failed.

And I would say at least the Noah Brown part was predictable. I don't think you could predict that 4 of your 5 opening day WRs + your starting TE and RB were going to end up on IR during the season, and the 5th WR was going to be limited in 4-5 games and miss a game.
Terry - Quad IR,
Noah Brown - I have no idea, but it was week 2 or 3 to IR,
Deebo - missed a game and was limited with a toe injury for several games,
McCaffery - Collar bone IR,
Lane - Ankle (I think) IR to end the season.
Ertz - ACL to IR
Ekler - I don't remember to IR

Not to mention Daniels missing games. I don't think he ever went on IR, but he certainly could have.

That's bananaland. So was THAT predictable? I'd say no. But I would have put money that Noah and Ekler were going to get hurt by week 8. Both were out by week 3, though.

It really was a perfect storm of "if it can go wrong, it will." Some of that was predictable, some of it is just damn rotten bad luck.

The defensive woes were easy to predict because of lack of speed everywhere. Even before all of the DE's got hurt, the defense was going to struggle with speed. The defense was bad in 2024, they didn't do enough to make it better in 2025.

Offensively, it all started to fall apart in TC when Terry and Noah weren't practicing. That left Deebo as the only healthy NFL caliber starter on the roster. Then Terry and Noah came back for a hot minute to start the season, then they both got hurt. And then Daniels got hurt, and we were off to the races with the injury problem.

 

[Conn]

Question to the group:

Keim said on one of his last podcasts, if they got Pierce, they might not have gotten some of the defensive guys, and if they got Doubs, they probably wouldn't have gotten Chig.

So, thought experiment: let's assume for a minute we weren't getting Pierce, so he's out. But let's say we get Doubs instead of Chig. There is no option to get both. We might/might not have gotten another TE. What Keim said is when they didn't get Doubs, they pivoted (his word) to Chig. So I'm assuming he was plan C.

Would you feel better, worse or the same if the WRs and TEs were

WR: Terry, Doubs, Williams, McCaffery, Lane + one of Van Jefferson/Burks/DBrown
TE: Sinnot, Bates, Yankof or a second tier TE from FA (I'm not sure who, but not one of Likely, Otton, Chig, Kolar of Bellinger who all were 24M+ and seemingly would be out of the price range after signing Doubs.)

vs.
WR: Terry, Williams, McCaffery, Lane, + 2 of Van Jefferson/Burks/DBrown
TE: Chig, Bates, Sinnott

With the obvious ideal scenario that they get Doubs + Chig off the table, would you feel any differently in either scenario?

I will say, while I think the WR group would be markedly better, the TE group would not, and I think they might cancel each other out. Doubs would have to pick up the production from Ertz, and we'd be counting on Sinnott to "get it" which he hasn't shown at all yet.

Appreciate the discussion you’re trying to have here, but the very idea of the hypothetical I find repellant. Because it basically confirms my fears about our budget, there would be zero reason not to pursue both in that scenario. Chig isn’t even very highly paid in the grand scheme and wasn’t a super hot commodity, he’s at like 3/$27M. The idea that we only signed a TE upgrade because we missed on WR upgrades is a big part of my whole issue with this operation right now.

Same thing with the idea that Pierce would’ve put a dent in their defensive spending (and implied again, no Chig), because they can either only do one thing at a time or don’t want to actually spend the cap dollars, because the real dollars are intimidating.

I don’t know why I should take this franchise’s chances of winning a Super Bowl more seriously than they in the building do. So I won’t. This isn’t a serious operation until they prove that it is. I take Keim’s word on this as pretty close to gospel (unless the team just thinks this is effective “be careful what you wish for when it comes to WR, if you liked the rest of our offseason” messaging, and is pushing that out to local journos, which would be a misread imo) so I don’t see this as an iteration of the many staffs we’ll have under Harris that has a realistic shot at ever going all-in and going all the way.

I’ll hope they learn their lesson after this year. I hope in the meantime they enjoy the money they’ve been dutifully saving up and rolling forward for Jayden Daniels’ future extension, while they’ve been hindering him in actually earning it as if he already has Patrick Mahomes’ resume.