The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[RexTomb]

It's a damn shame we won't get to see Reed Blankenship whiff on a Rashaad White play very often anymore

 

[Chris]

My very unscientific calculations trying to fill in the Spotrac blanks say we've got around 5.5M in cap space left to sign Jennings and Aiyuk and anybody else. I don't see a problem nosirreeeee. Who knows, maybe the crickets on Jennings is because AP is chasing Payne around the building waving a restructured contract at him. Daron faster than he looks.

That's right, I'm mathing. Everybody might want to take a couple steps back in case something explodes.

I’m curious how you can do any back of the napkin math without having the contract specifics beyond AAV? Have the particulars been reported?

 

[Dlts20]

He's more of a screen/dump off guy compared to the other 2 who really run a lot of routes out of the backfield and at receiver but he has great change of direction and get up when he gets the ball in his hands.

One thing I heard Jayden say that he needs to improve on or do more is take the check downs. Considering White is his friend, I think that will make him open to that even more with him in the game.

White is one of the best screen backs in the league, Chigy may be the best screen TE, and if we resign Deebo, he may be the best screen receiver so it's good to have that for some easy gains and to keep the defense off balance

 

[Conn]

I’m curious how you can do any back of the napkin math without have the contract specifics beyond AAV? Have the particulars been reported?

Not at all. And this FO has used void years to great effect with previous contracts. There is literally zero way to know how those contracts yet to be reported hit the current salary cap

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Keim seems to think they’re going to “sit tight” at WR for a while. And isn’t doing another pod until Monday and seemed to indicate he didn’t think there was much which was going to happen over the weekend.

I have no idea if he’s right or not. I kindof think they’re going to sign a couple more guys before Monday but they probably depth guys unless they get Jennings.

 

[Conn]

He's more of a screen/dump off guy compared to the other 2 who really run a lot of routes out of the backfield and at receiver but he has great change of direction and get up when he gets the ball in his hands.

One thing I heard Jayden said that he needs to improve on or do more is take the check downs. Considering White is his friend, I think that will make him open to that even more with him in the game.

White is one of the best screen backs in the league, Chigy may be the best screen TE, and if we resign Deebo, he may be the best screen receiver so it's good to have that for some easy gains and to keep the defense off balance

Being willing to dump the ball off and live to fight another day needs to become a fixture of Daniels’ game if he wants to stay healthy. He can choose his spots to run and kill teams, but it’ll demoralize them even more if he frustrates their rushers as they get close by chipping away at the yardage and letting his guys accumulate YAC.

 

[Chris]

That's a pretty big caveat to shrug off though brother. I get 'innocent till proven guilty', but he's accused of slapping and choking his personal chef, he's fathered more children by more women than anyone I have heard of, and he's had a number of other legal issues. The Patriots cut bait with him and I'm sure that was based on some due diligence. I don't see him being a Adam Peters/Dan Quinn kind of a guy.

Calvin Murphy, former NBA great, has 14 children from 9 different women. That’s a high bar.

 

[Chris]

Not at all. And this FO has used void years to great effect with previous contracts. There is literally zero way to know how those contracts yet to be reported hit the current salary cap

I know. I was being polite.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Being willing to dump the ball off and live to fight another day needs to become a fixture of Daniels’ game if he wants to stay healthy. He can choose his spots to run and kill teams, but it’ll demoralize them even more if he frustrates their rushers as they get close by chipping away at the yardage and letting his guys accumulate YAC.

This is something I don’t think Kliff’s offense did well, and you know I’m a fan of his offense.

But I don’t think the offense gave Daniels a lot of “easy outs” if the primary receivers were covered.

The flip side is when there were professional receivers on the field, it got the primary targets open a bunch. Which led to easy completions in rhythm.

But often times Jayden was the checkdown. So if the primary routes were covered, he was stuck.

It didn’t help that our 1st/2nd down backs (Robinson, CRod, Bill) were not good in the passing game. Ekler was goodbut he was hurt so often it didn’t matter. McNichols was but he didn’t see the field much.

Giving the QB checkdowns and easy answers is something the more traditional WCO’s, including the Shanahan variant, does extremely well. And the Ben Johnson style offense does it really well also.

So assuming our offense has some more traits from those two more traditional offensive styles, I think this will be a bigger part of Daniels’ game going forward.

 

[Higskin]

Keim seems to think they’re going to “sit tight” at WR for a while. And isn’t doing another pod until Monday and seemed to indicate he didn’t think there was much which was going to happen over the weekend.

I have no idea if he’s right or not. I kindof think they’re going to sign a couple more guys before Monday but they probably depth guys unless they get Jennings.

Nicki J. (The Athletic) kind of echoed the same on one of the morning shows today.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Calvin Murphy, former NBA great, has 14 children from 9 different women. That’s a high bar.

Nick Cannon has 12 children with 6 women. I don’t know who Calvin Murphy is, but that’s impressive.

Galdi did a bit when both Pacino had a child at 82, and Robert DiNiro had a child shortly thereafter at 79, and proclaimed them something like the “king of procreation.”

But compared them to Nick Cannon, and maybe a few others I can’t remember.

It was a pretty funny bit.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Nicki J. (The Athletic) kind of echoed the same on one of the morning shows today.

The fist wave is definitely over.

But I think some of these guys are going to cave over the weekend. Jennings, Deebo, maybe they bring Paul back, another RB to compete, I think a few things will continue to happen.

If I had to bet I’d say one more “biggish” piece will happen before Monday.

 

[Gooseneck]

Calvin Murphy, former NBA great, has 14 children from 9 different women. That’s a high bar.

I would go for it; do you know 9 women who would sleep with me after a mental evaluation and medication.

 

[Dlts20]

I'm sure that it was already posted on here and I missed it

 

[KDawg]

That is a very low salary for a guy like White though. I wonder if there was a wink and a nod, have a good season and we will make you a very nice extension offer or words to that effect.

It’s mostly because he’s not a great runner. All around backs are valued, but backs with great rushing numbers get the cash. And then your receiving and blocking up that payment.

He just hasn’t had the production as a rusher.

I think we got a steal here, but it’s an interesting examination why no other team offered him more than $2M. Looks to me he took the $2M to come here and prove he’s worth more than that.

 

[BayouBrave86]

We need a WR that can pick up yards after the catch. We currently don’t have that unless we bring back Deebo. And Tate ain’t gonna help in that aspect either.

 

[KDawg]

We need a WR that can pick up yards after the catch. We currently don’t have that unless we bring back Deebo. And Tate ain’t gonna help in that aspect either.

This is a department Chig helps in. But I agree.

We also need an over the top threat.

But White and Chig should help with dump and run stuff.

 

[Dlts20]

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

It feels like the FA strategy pivoted at some point. It was supposed to be balanced, but then when landing Doubs was becoming problematic they just said...ok...fuck it and went heavy into buying a defense. At least we picked up Chig during that.

Also makes me feel like offense had two resounding thoughts for the team.

1) They really didn't like Kliffs approach to game planning. Coaching changes could tap into unexplored areas of the roster.
2) The impression they got for how the draft would play out would likely leave them with better offensive options at #7 than defensive.

P.S. What does Chig Okonkwo like to be called? Chig? OK? Okie? Anyone know?

 

[DogofWar1]

I’m curious how you can do any back of the napkin math without having the contract specifics beyond AAV? Have the particulars been reported?

If you just make the #s even across years (no backloading or void years) I got roughly the same numbers (about 5.1M in space).

That assumes none of Trenton Scott, Shy Tuttle, Drake Jackson, or Jake Moody are getting paid enough to put them in top 51.

But I assume they'll use a bit of backloading and some void years, so it's likely we have far more than 5.1M sitting around. But we also need money to sign our draft picks, probably around 11M needed for that.