The 2026 Free Agency Thread

Until Philly uses those draft picks...

A first in 2028 is a long way away, it's it's true the value drops a round if it's a year later would that mean this is valued at a 3rd. today? A 3rd and a 5th for AJ Brown is not a bad deal for the Pats.

A 1st round pick is a 1st round pick - no matter what year it occurs in. The idea that a 1st round pick next year, or the year after is of less value is about the draft pick chart. It simply takes into account that a team will not immediately reap the benefit of the pick - it doesn't have anything to do with the actual value of the pick at the time the pick is made.

Not really relevant except we play the Rams once this season.

Rams don't mind giving up a huge first rounder in what's supposed to be the most stacked draft in a long time. They have to maximize what little time left Stafford/McVay have.

AJ Brown can and has taken over portions of games. This is especially true if you have so-so or smaller corners like we have had. Good riddance I say. Also, most of Philly's receivers will now be on the smallish side of the spectrum, Smith, Brown, Moore, Lemon...

Boone said:

A 1st round pick is a 1st round pick - no matter what year it occurs in. The idea that a 1st round pick next year, or the year after is of less value is about the draft pick chart. It simply takes into account that a team will not immediately reap the benefit of the pick - it doesn't have anything to do with the actual value of the pick at the time the pick is made.

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Uncertainty matters. The best teams project out who they may target in the future but the more future it is, the less certainty they have.

To your point though, as we approach that time, it is a first round pick. We have seen dynasties get built around three or four. So we have to see. This is why BPA is sometimes the better move as a general rule. There is a higher chance of ROI, I think, and over time that can make a huge difference.

Since we just finished the 2026 draft, the 2028 draft is too close. Ideally should have been 2038… 😆

Diggs gone to Philly yet ?

ES1974 said:

Diggs gone to Philly yet ?

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Yeah that would be very them, except Lemon is a pure slot. Devonta more of a Z. So I'd think they'd want to add an X.

One reporter stated that Treylon Burks is clearly the number two opposite of Terry at this point

RedWolf said:

One reporter stated that Treylon Burks is clearly the number two opposite of Terry at this point

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I don't think voluntary team activities can indicate enough for a reporter to say he's "clearly" the #2. But good for them for trying to call their shot early I guess.

Always Commander Never Captain said:

I don't think voluntary team activities can indicate enough for a reporter to say he's "clearly" the #2. But good for them for trying to call their shot early I guess.

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What I heard on Standig was when they went with the starting offense, and there were 2 WRs, and Jayden was under center and the starting line was out there, Burks was the opposite receiver.

Standig phrased it exactly like that. He didn't say that Burks had won the job, or anything, he just reported what he saw, which was that Burks was the guy on the field with McLaurin when Jayden was out there and they only had 2 WRs, for the most part. Obviously, they rotated guys a lot.

I haven't heard anything from today's practices or pressers yet, and sorry that I'm way behind but work has been a whirlwind, but listening to JP and Standig from what they could see last week, both were somewhere around pleasantly surprised with the WRs in the first practice they watched. At the very least, it wasn't a horror show. That's good. It could have been a horror show.

Standig also did a whole podcast on the fact that the #2 pass catching option might be Chig. I don't think anybody wants to put that on the rookie Williams. Though, I think it's even money he ends up with the most catches on the team. If Blough uses him in the same role that the Lions use St.-Brown, that's a catch compiling role if you're good. And everybody has said Williams is super smooth.

Standig's point was maybe the general primary targets of the pass offense are McLaurin, Chig then Williams, with White being a weapon out of the backfield, and maybe that's the way they are scheming the offense. They wanted another deep threat outside WR, tried to get one, but since they didn't, the offense, at least this year, will adjust, and Chig is going to be that second main option.

Voice_of_Reason said:

I haven't heard anything from today's practices or pressers yet, and sorry that I'm way behind but work has been a whirlwind, but listening to JP and Standig from what they could see last week, both were somewhere around pleasantly surprised with the WRs in the first practice they watched. At the very least, it wasn't a horror show. That's good. It could have been a horror show.

Standig also did a whole podcast on the fact that the #2 pass catching option might be Chig. I don't think anybody wants to put that on the rookie Williams. Though, I think it's even money he ends up with the most catches on the team. If Blough uses him in the same role that the Lions use St.-Brown, that's a catch compiling role if you're good. And everybody has said Williams is super smooth.

Standig's point was maybe the general primary targets of the pass offense are McLaurin, Chig then Williams, with White being a weapon out of the backfield, and maybe that's the way they are scheming the offense. They wanted another deep threat outside WR, tried to get one, but since they didn't, the offense, at least this year, will adjust, and Chig is going to be that second main option.

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I think if they try to fight the tide and do anything OTHER than what you wrote here, then they’re absolutely fucking nuts. It’s obviously the best chance they have at hiding their outside WR deficiency, they spent good money on Chig, Williams has that potential, White is a known quantity. Seems clear that will be their goal with the offense on obvious passing downs, for sure. If people stay healthy, it could work. Just low margin for error, and the running game has to be good so the rest of the offense can feed from that

skinsinparadise said:

Yeah that would be very them, except Lemon is a pure slot. Devonta more of a Z. So I'd think they'd want to add an X.

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It would be. Though without question Diggs is a downgrade from Brown at this point in their careers. If that's the swap, that works out better for us.

The fact that nobody has signed Diggs is really interesting. It's been a couple of weeks now since his court case was resolved. He said he wanted to take some time.

It's also really possible he doesn't want to sign until just before training camp.

The fact the Giants signed OBJ and 2 other guys and Diggs is still on the market is actually really odd also. If I were the Giants, I would have gone hard after Diggs. It looks like Nabers' knee injury might be a Chase Young type injury where you never really recover the physical skills you had before.

But they didn't.

And they signed 3 guys. Maybe they approached Diggs, maybe they didn't. But that's interesting.

It's possible Diggs wants to go to Philly because they are an obvious contender with a good defense. And he might have been waiting out the AJ Brown trade. It's tough to tell.

Conn said:

I think if they try to fight the tide and do anything OTHER than what you wrote here, then they’re absolutely fucking nuts. It’s obviously the best chance they have at hiding their outside WR deficiency, they spent good money on Chig, Williams has that potential, White is a known quantity. Seems clear that will be their goal with the offense on obvious passing downs, for sure. If people stay healthy, it could work. Just low margin for error, and the running game has to be good so the rest of the offense can feed from that

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Yeah, and while hope is not a strategy, I do think they hope at least one of the former 3rd round draft picks emerge as a consistent contributor. In the absolute ideal situation (for them) it's they can get McLaurin, Chig, Williams and White as the guys with the top 4 targets, and the next guy is McCaffery as the other outside guy. Lane backs up Williams in the slot.

It looks like it's starting with Burks, who has ALL the physical talent to be an outstanding outside WR, but it hasn't happened yet. Why? At least some of it is injury, and some of it might have been playing with duds in Tennessee, and part of it might be he just didn't get it. Maybe he gets it. That's a bit of a low risk, high reward play. But I still think they want McCaffery to win a job somewhere. But he has to go out and do it.

My personal opinion is that as long as you have 3 solid weapons, you can have an explosive offense. They can come in any position. You could have a dual threat QB, RB, and one TE, and if you knew what you were doing, you could have a really good offense. See: the Ravens for the last decade. They've had Lamar + RB (recently Henry) + TE and an absolute hole at WR. The Patriots in the mid 2010's based their entire offense around 2 TEs and 1 pretty good WR. The Eagles had a dual threat QB, one outstanding WR, and a phenomenal RB, and won the SB. Though, they did have other talent as well, but not a ton, remember they traded for our bust 1st round pick to try and be their #3 WR.

So, if we had McLaurin, Chig and Daniels as the top 3 weapons, and then you fill in with Williams and White, does that work? Well, we might find out.

I do think, again, assuming health, McLaurin, Chig, Williams and White + Daniels absolutely could get the job done and be elite.

The question is, if something happens to McLaurin, then what? Well, frankly, if something happens to your WR1 for almost every team, you're in absolute serious trouble. The Bengals are one of the exceptions. You won't have another WR near the level of WR1, so you need to make up for it with a variety of good WRs.

Voice_of_Reason said:

So, if we had McLaurin, Chig and Daniels as the top 3 weapons, and then you fill in with Williams and White, does that work? Well, we might find out.

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Often not true. When people mention weapons the idea is for the QB, not that the QB himself is considering his own weapon. But in Jayden's case it applies because ala 2024 and to some extent 2025, if no one is open, take off. Run Jayden run. Other QBs don't have that luxury. But if his WRs are covered, he needs to take off even more than he has thus far, and clearly as long as he gets hurt he can become to your own point his own weapon.

The more I digest this off season the more I think this has to be the formula to win -- Jayden needs to take off and run.

Voice_of_Reason said:

The question is, if something happens to McLaurin, then what? Well, frankly, if something happens to your WR1 for almost every team, you're in absolute serious trouble. The Bengals are one of the exceptions. You won't have another WR near the level of WR1, so you need to make up for it with a variety of good WRs.

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Any team without a true #2, which is like 3-4 teams? This being one of them is much more vulnerable when they lose their #1. If you don't have a high end #2, its not the end of the world but you need a legit #2 for the offense not to fall off a cliff when the #1 is out.

Voice_of_Reason said:

It would be. Though without question Diggs is a downgrade from Brown at this point in their careers. If that's the swap, that works out better for us.

The fact that nobody has signed Diggs is really interesting. It's been a couple of weeks now since his court case was resolved. He said he wanted to take some time.

It's also really possible he doesn't want to sign until just before training camp.

The fact the Giants signed OBJ and 2 other guys and Diggs is still on the market is actually really odd also. If I were the Giants, I would have gone hard after Diggs. It looks like Nabers' knee injury might be a Chase Young type injury where you never really recover the physical skills you had before.

But they didn't.

And they signed 3 guys. Maybe they approached Diggs, maybe they didn't. But that's interesting.

It's possible Diggs wants to go to Philly because they are an obvious contender with a good defense. And he might have been waiting out the AJ Brown trade. It's tough to tell.

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Diggs right now is mostly slot with some Z. Am assuming Mooney plays slot. They to me seems to have similar to this team some throw things against the wall players at Z. I think they need an X.

Theo Johnson with similar numbers as Chig is their #2, they have Likely too and Bellinger is a good blocker. They have a good TE room and they want to run the ball so I am guessing a lot of 12-13 personnel.

It's a decent roster with a healhty Nabers and Skattebo but they don't have either one healthy.

Rumor is the Ravens are interested in Diggs.

Glass half full:

Commanders have vet/proven weapons at wide receiver, tight end, and running back with McLaurin, Chig, White, and Bill. We are lacking a proven second wide receiver option, but have credible weapons at each level of the offense. Bonus: Jayden's legs add that extra dimension to make defenses a half step slow.

Glass half empty:

Commanders have a proven vet receiver, a push at TE, and White is not as good as prime Ekeler. Bill's weaknesses in pass pro and receiving make him too one-dimensional for a modern running back. Jayden is an injury waiting to happen with so little support given his competitive nature.

I'm a glass half full guy. I'd love to add another receiver so I could be a glass 2/3s full kind of guy.