The 2025 Free Agency Thread

So for what it's worth Reggie White joined the Packers at age 32.
 
Get Miles and Stanley these guys make teammates better. I feel confident in the FO to help address the other needs with value signings.

TE bring back Ertz and hope Sinnott develops.

WR bring D Brown back and let the market play itself out a ton of good WR available in free agency.I also believe McCaffery still has a chance a being a solid 2 or 3.

Oline Stanley at LT Coleman at LG Biadasz center Alligretti can hold rg til Cosmi is ready and Wylie at RT

RB I could see them running it back with a speedy mid round pick added.

DE Miles Garrett and Armstrong as starters. I think D Lawrence makes sense here as well.

DT Payne, Newton and I think Allen will redo his deal to stay.

LB Bring back B Wagner let him complete with Mcgee who many reporters have stated the fo is high on. Luvu is a complete animal.

CB I think Lattimore get its together. The competitor he is l bet no one is more disappointed in his performance than him. He will work his a** off this offseason. Mickey is great and we just seen a bit of who he will become. We need more here I hope we add a starting level outside corner. Ward would be fantastic.

SS I hope we resign Chinn
FS Martin seems to be coming along. I really feel he is a canidate for breakout season next year.
 
So for what it's worth Reggie White joined the Packers at age 32.

That's the guy this situation keeps reminding me of. I am surprised we don't hear the comparison more.

Also, my real dream scenario is that they don't move Garrett before the draft, Garrett refuses to go to camp, and they trade him for a '26 and 27th 1st rounder. So, we still get our 1st rounder this year. I actually think that it's pretty likely that they don't move Garrett before the draft.

But also, if Cleveland were smart, they would wait until after the draft, dump Garrett and anyone else they can in favor of 2026 draft assets, and try to tank and get a top QB in a much better draft class next year. They are spinning their wheels with Garrett. Don't waste the asset.
 
That's the guy this situation keeps reminding me of. I am surprised we don't hear the comparison more.

Also, my real dream scenario is that they don't move Garrett before the draft, Garrett refuses to go to camp, and they trade him for a '26 and 27th 1st rounder. So, we still get our 1st rounder this year. I actually think that it's pretty likely that they don't move Garrett before the draft.

But also, if Cleveland were smart, they would wait until after the draft, dump Garrett and anyone else they can in favor of 2026 draft assets, and try to tank and get a top QB in a much better draft class next year. They are spinning their wheels with Garrett. Don't waste the asset.
Might be smart on their point as this year is considered a poor draft.
 
I’d love Garrett, but part of me also realizes there are a ton of holes on this roster. Garrett is great, but are we in a place to devote that many resources to one position? I keep going back and forth on that question
 
I look at like this. Every observation we as fans made about our defense this year was we could not stop the run on the edge and we could not get consistent pressure on the QB. We then came up with a blueprint of the type of end we would love to have and what he could do. The cool part about that blueprint? Its named Myles Garrett. He is literally what teams are hoping to draft. And this guy has at least 3 years left in the tank at DPOY abilities. Imagine our secondary dealing with QBs that have to throw, consistently, too early? That type of impact is worth top dollar and it pays well.
 
I look at like this. Every observation we as fans made about our defense this year was we could not stop the run on the edge and we could not get consistent pressure on the QB. We then came up with a blueprint of the type of end we would love to have and what he could do. The cool part about that blueprint? Its named Myles Garrett. He is literally what teams are hoping to draft. And this guy has at least 3 years left in the tank at DPOY abilities. Imagine our secondary dealing with QBs that have to throw, consistently, too early? That type of impact is worth top dollar and it pays well.

Yeah let's not overthink this. He's a Hall of Fame player in his prime at a position of urgent need for a team that was one win away from a Super Bowl, has ample cap room, and a top 5 QB on a rookie contract. Make the call, come correct, and hope you can get something done.
 
If you do get MG, then I think our defense does take a huge step up if everyone stays healthy.

Lattimore/Sanristil/Chinn/Martin is anywhere from a decent to actually really good secondary core.

Luvu is a baller. Wagner is old but he's got that Ultra Instinct thing going where he doesn't need to be as fast because he casually walks to where the ball is gonna be and gets a tackle.

Then if Allen can stay healthy and either Payne recaptures his high level play, or Newton takes another step, with Garrett on the edge, you've got a real dangerous defense right there.

We do need to figure out OL tho since Cosmi is out for a while, don't want to get a baller defense only for Jayden to get sacked 12 times a game.
 
sign Mack, forget Garrett, trade down from our first pick and try and pick up draft capital for 2026. No Superbowl next year=Superbowl 2026-2031

we need to look for edges to stop the run= and to bite Barkley's toe
 
sign Mack, forget Garrett, trade down from our first pick and try and pick up draft capital for 2026. No Superbowl next year=Superbowl 2026-2031

we need to look for edges to stop the run= and to bite Barkley's toe

I'd prefer this. I'd give up a single first for Garrett but not two firsts.
 
sign Mack, forget Garrett, trade down from our first pick and try and pick up draft capital for 2026. No Superbowl next year=Superbowl 2026-2031

we need to look for edges to stop the run= and to bite Barkley's toe
Why would a team sign a 33yo Khalil Mack, if they werent trying to make the superbowl this year?
 
Here is what I believe (until proven incorrect)-

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) are contractually considered that whether they sign with their previous team or move to a new team. So league rules are applied the same for both scenarios.

The ‘legal tampering’ period is March 10-12. Players can be signed starting at 4pm on March 12.
Quoting myself because I have been proven incorrect and consider this my penance.

I DMed John Keim the question on X and he responded that a team’s free agents can be resigned ‘at any time’.
 
Makes sense that that is the way it is set up. Otherwise, you could possibly have 30 different conversations starting at 4 pm and you could not have any sort of chance to plan properly going into that moment if you had no concrete resolution to those players who were on your team already. That would be a nightmare.

Also makes sense that if they are still under contract til the end of the season in March, then we should be able to negotiate with them. Since we have their rights at that time and it would give both player and team a chance to control their future.
 
Why would a team sign a 33yo Khalil Mack, if they werent trying to make the superbowl this year?
Could make Superbowl. Great run defender. We can concentrate on other areas of need and have money for next year. Would still have draft capital and money over signing Garrett
 
Interesting analysis of a potential Garrett trade: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6111260/2025/02/04/myles-garrett-browns-trade-nfl-draft-picks/

Paywalled, but The Athletic is one of few worth the subscription. Long and short of it--there are a number of hurdles on both ends to clear to make this work; primarily the $36m dead cap hit for a team that is already $27.5m over the cap.

Another post on it https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43679339/myles-garrett-trade-contract-not-simple-seems-browns

Theyre suggesting that it’s most likely we don’t see Garrett traded until post June 1st. If that’s how it plays out I find this a better situation since we’ll likely need all of FA and the draft to fill out the roster. Unfortunately, it does leave us in a predicament on resigning Fowler. My move would be not to sign him, draft someone in the 2-3rd at DE and make a move for Garrett.
 
Another post on it https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43679339/myles-garrett-trade-contract-not-simple-seems-browns

Theyre suggesting that it’s most likely we don’t see Garrett traded until post June 1st. If that’s how it plays out I find this a better situation since we’ll likely need all of FA and the draft to fill out the roster. Unfortunately, it does leave us in a predicament on resigning Fowler. My move would be not to sign him, draft someone in the 2-3rd at DE and make a move for Garrett.

It's not unheard of to "agree to terms" on a trade earlier in the offseason and then process it post-June 1 for cap implications.

For example, let's say we included Daron Payne in the trade for Garrett. Processing it post-June 1 would substantially reduce our dead cap for 2025, but we could agree to terms before, say, the draft.

If folks remember, this is what happened when we traded for Alex Smith (though that was a league year thing). We agreed to terms in January and then processed the trade in March.
 
I wonder if Daron Payne, Marshon Lattimore (who I haven't given up on), and a first could get it done? That really is a huge payday.
 

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