The 2026 Free Agency Thread

Dah-Dee said:
FWIW, it does not appear that Aiyuk showed up today for the start of SF OTAs. Sigh.
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Don't feel too bad. At this rate, Luke McCaffrey is going to have closer to 2k yards this season than Aiyuk will. Isn't that what we all hoped for in the end?
 
Edit: scooped by SIP while I typed my paragraphs lol

I am not posting the following because these guys are authorities on the matter. I’m posting to give an example of the casual disregard you’ll see around the internet and media for what we’ve done to surround Daniels with weapons, as has been the discussion here. These are prominent fantasy football analysts, which while disqualifying for some, their whole thing is breaking down and ranking skill position players. They made these posts which were not considered controversial in the least:



Again, not posting because it’s some gospel I’m pushing. This is how outside observers who pay attention to the deepest of sleepers are critically speaking of our weapons, with minimal pushback from other outside observers, but some rationalizing how Daniels can be so damn good that it doesn’t matter.

Most people in the comments agreed with the post but did argue that Achane is so good and explosive all by himself that him vs Terry at least makes WAS 31 vs. MIA 32 a conversation. Many WAS fans came into the comments to talk about the collective top-10 overall production the offense is capable of having despite few stars, much excitement and positive projecting for Chig, some fears around depth. Lots of chatter about Daniels being so good in 2024 that those weapons were maxed out, and that we’re basically banking on that again.
 
The OTA side of this cornerback discussion. I think I read that Amos was not yet ready to practice. Given how thin the DB room is (numbers and talent) they ought to look at bringing in more bodies. It'd be nice if they were talented bodies, but it's hard to get the new defense installed and test the new offense if you don't feel good about the players you are using.
 
Regardless, if they have Amik against Terry that means they are currently looking at him as being potentially CB1. Doesn’t mean it’s set in stone, but that’s where they are now.

When Amos is back, I’m betting Sainristil moves to CB3.

I’d like to see him get reps at post safety in OTAs to see what he can do. I bet he can do well there with time in.
 
burgold said:
The OTA side of this cornerback discussion. I think I read that Amos was not yet ready to practice. Given how thin the DB room is (numbers and talent) they ought to look at bringing in more bodies. It'd be nice if they were talented bodies, but it's hard to get the new defense installed and test the new offense if you don't feel good about the players you are using.
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Yes I read where these 4 were present but still injured - Dorance Armstrong, Deatrich Wise, Trey Amos, Tim Settle.

Since they are all on the defense, I question if there was also a list of offensive guys that I didn't see or if that's it.
 
KDawg said:
I'd like to see him get reps at post safety in OTAs to see what he can do. I bet he can do well there with time in.
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It sure feels like an area he could flourish in with his play making abilities.
 
DWinzit said:
Yes I read where these 4 were present but still injured - Dorance Armstrong, Deatrich Wise, Trey Amos, Tim Settle.

Since they are all on the defense, I question if there was also a list of offensive guys that I didn't see or if that's it.
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It felt like the offense was getting healthy towards the end of the season. So maybe they're all back?
 
Wonder what the details of Amos’s injury are. They said a broken bone. Did it needed hardware or something. Seems like a long time to recover.
 
HOF44 said:
Wonder what the details of Amos’s injury are. They said a broken bone. Did it needed hardware or something. Seems like a long time to recover.
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Hopefully, precautionary. Do you remember when he got hurt? It was towards the end of the season, wasn't it?
 
As a point of reference, here are Bill Barnwells 2025 RB and WR group rankings from July of last year: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...s-2025-season-best-players-playmakers-offense

A lot of teams we are currently fawning over weren't thought of very highly going into last year. I'm here for the "yeah, buts..." but the reality is we know absolutely nothing. We won't have any additional, real information for at least another two months.
 
burgold said:
Hopefully, precautionary. Do you remember when he got hurt? It was towards the end of the season, wasn't it?
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He broke his fibula week 10. It sounds like he is supposed to be working out and feeling good but no solid recent report other than he was't participating yesterday
 
bowhunter said:
Although responding to SIPs post, I am not singling him out. Just a thought regarding colloquialisms we've all heard and used in out football focused convos. Fill in the blank:
"A good (_____) is a young QBs best friend."

How many of you said "#2 receiver?"
My mind went to TE, Defense, OL, and Running game before I even got to WR1. So WR2 would be option #6 in my list. And that's just on field personnel. Bad coaching would basically defeat all of them. Just trying to keep things in perspective.

And Yes I definitely am on board with signing Aiyuk, Diggs, trading for BTJ, or anything else to add to WR depth. Please and Thank you
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So now we’re saying a RB, a guard, or some random defensive player like a CB is more important to a young QB than even a WR1 — let alone a WR2 — as his best friend on the field? And multiple people liked the post. Wow.

To each their own, but if we took that argument outside this board and put it in front of most NFL people or fans, I don’t think I’d be the one getting side-eyed here. That’s an outlier take.

And trust me, I’ve had some outlier opinions myself over the years, so I get it.

But I also suspect some people here don’t fully believe some of what they’re saying once you remove the emotion from it — the excitement around Peters, loving the offseason, wanting to defend every move, believing this season is destined to be special. I remember that feeling well. I can remember like it was yesterday defending every offseason move and convincing myself the next season was going to be one for the ages.

And look, I get that for some people, posts like this from me or others feel like a downer, so the points get dismissed or ridiculed. But I’m actually not down on this team at all. I think they’ve got a real shot to be very good this season, and I genuinely love what they did on defense.

I’m just not at the point where I’m going full football version of a teenage crush and convincing myself every single move was flawless.

And trust me, I know how to do that. I can spin and defend every move and paint Peters’ offseason like it’s a Picasso. Honestly, I think I’m as good as anyone at doing it. Just for fun, I even did it in a couple of posts recently to show I still have that old-school homer fastball in me. But I do think some people are getting a little carried away.

If WR is supposedly some secondary “yawn” position when it comes to helping a QB, then why is the league paying receivers what it is? WRs are making dramatically more than RBs, TEs, guards, centers — even more than left tackles by a pretty healthy margin. The only positions consistently paid more are QB and elite edge rushers.

So when some people act like emphasizing WR help for a young QB is some silly obsession by me and others, I’d argue the league itself clearly disagrees. NFL teams are telling you exactly what they value with their wallets.
 
In fairness, I think he was just paraphrasing the old broadcaster's axiom. I have heard play by play and color guys on TV say perhaps hundreds of times, "A good TE is the QBs best friend."

The idea being, the TE is almost always a friendly, big, and available target when a QB gets in trouble. A good TE can be a "Get out of jail free" card.
 
Riggo44 said:
As a point of reference, here are Bill Barnwells 2025 RB and WR group rankings from July of last year: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...s-2025-season-best-players-playmakers-offense

A lot of teams we are currently fawning over weren't thought of very highly going into last year. I'm here for the "yeah, buts..." but the reality is we know absolutely nothing. We won't have any additional, real information for at least another two months.
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Absolutely. And “yeah, but…” cuts both ways. These guys are absolutely wild cards. On paper, this supporting cast doesn’t exactly jump off the page.

Now, if you lean into every best-case scenario — and to be fair, every fan base does this in the offseason — sure, it could all come together beautifully. Maybe multiple guys break out, the line gels, the weapons outperform expectations, and everything clicks. That absolutely can happen.

But projecting players who’ve already done it at a high level to do it again is usually easier than projecting a bunch of unknowns to suddenly hit their ceilings at the same time or reach levels they haven't reached previously.

Take K. Allen as an example. You can frame him two completely different ways.

One view is:
“He was the leading rusher at Penn State, runs hard, is physical, determined, and has upside.”

The other is:
“He was healthy, yet skipped all the combine drills — which is pretty unusual for a RB — so maybe the athletic testing wasn’t going to be great. What if he runs a 4.8? That won’t play in today’s NFL.”

And the truth is: we just don’t know yet.

I think that’s really where some of these debates come down to. Are we evaluating this offense through a best-case lens? A worst-case lens? Or do we simply admit a lot of it is unknown right now?

For me, it’s mostly the unknown category. And there are just a few too many unknowns for my comfort.

And it’s not like I’m automatically negative on these moves. I was pounding the table for Antonio Williams in the draft thread. I was vocal about wanting Rachaad White and Chig in free agency. I liked the Ford signing. Heck, I even took arrows for defending the idea of moving on from Biadasz.

So I’m absolutely willing to give Peters and this staff the benefit of the doubt on a lot of this.

I’m just not comfortable assuming every single best-case scenario is going to hit. I can’t really remember many offseasons — for any team — where every gamble paid off and every projection turned into reality.

So all I’m saying is: I want more. More proven options. More insulation. More margin for error. More ways to increase the odds that the best-laid plans actually work out.
 
If we are lucky, Burks realizes his first degree pedigree and stays healthy. Lane becomes a speed threat on swings, screens, and short crossers. Luke blossoms. Williams is the readymade plug and play rookie many believe him to be. It could happen. Any of them could happen.

It's scary to depend on luck.
 
burgold said:
In fairness, I think he was just paraphrasing the old broadcaster's axiom. I have heard play by play and color guys on TV say perhaps hundreds of times, "A good TE is the QBs best friend."

The idea being, the TE is almost always a friendly, big, and available target when a QB gets in trouble. A good TE can be a "Get out of jail free" card.
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He wasn’t just saying TE, though.

Now, if the argument was that an elite RB and elite TE combo can sometimes offset not having a top-tier WR2, I’d at least understand the logic. There are examples of that. But that’s not really the situation with this roster.

More broadly, the tone of some of the pushback (not you) on the WR discussion feels like a variation of: “You guys are being emotional, unrealistic, or impossible to satisfy.” The implication sometimes comes off as, “Just sit back and enjoy the fruits of Peters’ labor,” while the rest of us are framed like high-maintenance spouses constantly looking for something else to complain about. :p

And look, I get the counterarguments. “Chig is better than people think.” “Rachaad White adds versatility.” “Dyami could emerge.” “Give Luke time and he could become just as impactful as some of the WR2s people wanted.”

Those are all possible. Like I said in the previous post. I don't dismiss our fondest hopes for any of these players, won't come true. I'd bet they do with some, and not others. That's the NFL.

But the people raising concerns here — whether it’s me, NickyJ, KDawg, DWinzit, Conn, or others — aren’t casual fans who barely follow the roster or don’t understand team building. Doesn’t mean we’re automatically right, of course. But we pay close attention too. We follow roster construction, positional value, cap allocation, league trends, and what successful teams around the NFL are doing.

And I don’t think any of us really have a reputation for being irrational doom-and-gloom posters who are never satisfied with anything the team does.

Most of us actually like a lot of what Peters has done. The disagreement is really about degree. Some people think they’ve already done enough around Jayden. Others think they’re one more legitimate weapon away from maximizing the opportunity in front of them.
 
It is a reality of messageboards and forums. Some fans will boldly state the 'facts' and die on that hill defending what is in their minds an indisputable certainty. Some fans will doom and gloom it. Other fans cringe at the suggestion, any suggestion, that the team may have made miscalculations and that bad things may be about to happen. And they will whistle past that graveyard every chance they get and be hostile towards more 'negative' posters who are themselves bracing themselves against disappointment in their own way by lowering their internal expectation bar up front.

The only real truth we can ALL count on is that we simply don't know what is going to happen. We want to believe we can predict it. It's uncomfortable and disconcerting to consider that we can't possibly know. But we don't know. And it doesn't matter how much experience, insight, intelligence, or savvy we possess. We don't know. We can't know.
 
If we go 7-10 but Jayden is great again this season will be a success IMO. We have to find out if we really have a great QB or not. Many people are talking up the OL, I see a line with question marks at C and LG. The lack of weapons is a major concern as it should be. But we aren't done yet. All signs point to Aiyuk being the plan for the upgrade, they better be right.
 
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