The 2026 Free Agency Thread

clskinsfan said:
If JD and Mariota both go down the season is over anyways. I have no interest in spending a dime on a QB3.
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Why go to that extreme? Let’s say Jayden has COVID and Marcus has a tight hammy and we are without both of them for a game or 2. You don’t care about having a competent QB3?

AP and crew certainly do, which is why they got Josh Johnson rather than having someone like Brett Rypien serve as QB3
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Dlts20 said:
Those numbers in the SEC are pretty special and he's another local kid
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Those numbers are but I think that there will be better options at 7.

(And I’ve never gotten the enamourment with locals.)
 
Conn said:
Maybe. But I knew from snap 1 that he wasn’t the same dude I watched as a rookie. Maybe he wasn’t prepared the same way by his coaches, maybe his confidence wasn’t there due to the McLaurin/other WR issues, maybe it was a million other things. But he didn’t look the same or carry the same swagger. I expect he has a chance to bounce back from that but it was like watching a nightmare unfold as the carriage turned back into a pumpkin. I don’t want to see it again.

I suspect with a full offseason with whatever weapons end up on our roster, he’ll look a lot better this year. And hopefully won’t feel the need to recklessly go cape mode all the time when no one’s open. But that has to start with his inner clock being wound appropriately and his natural confidence being back at the forefront. Both of those things are tied to trusting his teammates—if he trusts he doesn’t have to do it alone, he’ll play looser and smarter, and if he trusts his teammates will do their jobs, he’ll execute confidently again. But it all radiates out from him on gameday, so he needs to feel that way before the season starts. And hopefully AP & Co. have done enough/will do enough to help him feel that way.
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I fully admit this could be rose colored glasses, however I think several things came together all at the same time, and it just turned into the worst case scenario:

1. Terry's holdout robbed the starting offense of getting time together with him and Deebo at the same time.
2. If memory serves, Noah Brown also missed a ton of time in camp. I believe he was carted off the field during OTA/Mini-Camp, and wasn't ready for Training Camp, and was in and out.
3. WRs 4-X all stunk like the south end of a north bound Skunk. Deebo was literally the only guy practicing for parts of camp.
4. Defenses saw what JD liked to do, how he liked to do it, and came into the season to take that away.
5. Which would have been fine if there was a counter. But with all the guys missing as much time as they did in training camp, they really didn't have a counter move.
6. The guard play in the first two games was abysmal. Coleman was terrible (and I think he was hurt a lot of camp), and Allegretti was also terrible. Both were benched because they were bad. However by that time, JD was injurred.
7. After the first injury, there was essentially no practice time with the whole group because when he was ready, Terry was out and Deebo was hurt.
8. Then Noah Brown got hurt, and even a pop warner DC knew the way to play us was to stack the box, stop the run, play man coverage on the outside, and key on Daniels. We didn't have the personnel to do anything about it.

And for a second year guy, that's a lot to handle. And maybe he could have handled it better. And played better. But the entire thing unraveled so quickly.

I also think ALL of those things together factored into JD looking so much different for much of the season. If only half of them happened, then maybe it's a different story.

I dunno. Maybe I'm trying to convince myself.

One way or the other, I'm also going to be keeping a close eye on how the off-season progresses.

One thing I think should be clear: Quinn has to get Daniels and the offense more reps together some way some how. Both in practice, joint practices, scrimmages, pre-season games. They started slow in 2024 also, and then they really started slow and never recovered in 2025. That can't happen again.
 
Noah Brown who is a 5th type WR for most teams and can never stay healthy. Shockingly couldnt stay healthy last season either. And was oddly counted on as the Z Wr, with no net behind him.

The depth at outside Wr were street free agents that no other teams wanted shockingly sucked for Washington, too.

And no IMO Deebo on his own wipes all of this out. As we can see NFL teams are fighting each other as we speak to sign Deebo.

Yeah i am not debating that Peters didnt have a plan and it simply didnt work out. Of course he had a plan but it was a lousy one and i said so in the summer. This one wasnt hard to predict.
 
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skinsinparadise said:
I wouldn't be surprised either. It feels very Peters like. I like what he's done in FA. But he hasn't earned my trust on the WR spot -- his leaps of faith have rarely worked thus far.
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I mean, what more did you want him to do? If you believe the reporting he offered Pierce more money than the Colts, but Pierce wanted to stay in Indy, and he offered Doubs as much money as the Pats, and he went to New England.

In my opinion, you would have a point if he clearly didn't see that there was a problem and AGGRESSIVELY tried to address it as best as possible. He took shots at the two top WRs who were available. It didn't work, but he went after what was there.

And I think it's somewhat unfair to say his leaps of faith have rarely worked in the WR. They basically all worked in 2024: Noah Brown as a pickup after cutdowns, OZ and to a lesser extent, retaining DBrown. Sure, they could have added somebody else in FA in 2024, but they got good production from everybody they signed. I'd say all of those leaps of faith worked out nicely.

2025, he made mistakes. You attribute it to arrogance, and you've been absolutely steadfast on that stance absent any reporting that I've seen to support the opinion. Which is fine, but I think it's also clouding your judgement a little at this point.

2024, they made some really good additions. 2025, he made 2 moves which in conjunction were a mistake:
a. Trading for Deebo, who is a "move around" piece, not a WR2 outside guy
b. Signing Noah Brown as the defacto starting outside WR opposite McLaurin.

The idea was Terry + Deebo + NBrown would give them the ability to spread the field vertically, both Brown and McLaurin did that very well in 2024, and horizontally, which was Deebo's specialty. But what it also did is it loaded the WR room with 4 locked in players, because McCaffery was just drafted. So any backup level player was competing for the 5th spot assuming they didn't draft anybody. If they signed a true upgrade to Noah Brown, that's different, but to get the #5 guy, that's a challenge at that point. So you saw all the old reclamation projects and never has beens come in here.

The whole thing was a mistake. If they had not traded for Deebo, but had signed Brown, then they could have done some things, or if they hadn't signed Noah Brown, they could have done some things. Together, it was a big mistake.

In 2026, he seemingly learned from it, attacked the top of the market aggressively. When it didn't work, he was forced to plan B, and pretty quickly signed additional depth guys in Van Jefferson and Diyami Brown, both of which can play a bit. I'm absolutely convinced they will sign another starter somehow. Whether that's Aiyuk, draft pick, Deebo, any 2 of those or all three of those options. I doubt all three, but at least one is going to happen. And I wouldn't be surprised if 2 happen, as in Aiyuk/Deebo + Draft pick.

I'm sure I'm going to get a 3 page rebuttal, but I'll be honest, I really liked seeing Peters acknowledge through actions his mistake by going for the top of the market. He doesn't have to say that he knew there was a problem, he showed us he knew there was a problem. And to me that shows he's smart and humble enough to admit he made a mistake and learn from it.

And that's what leads me to believe they're not done yet. I don't think they want a repeat of 2025. They had a front row seat for it. They've already tried to be very different. They have to change tactics because plan A of Pierce didn't work even through they offered more money. So they've already started the pivot. There's not much more they can do immediately, unless they re-sign Deebo. So we wait.
 
skinsinparadise said:
Noah Brown who is a 5th type WR for most teams and can never stay healthy. Shockingly couldnt stay healthy last season either. And was oddly counted on as the Z Wr, with no net behind him.

The depth at outside Wr were street free agents that no other teams wanted shockingly sucked for Washington, too.

And no IMO Deebo on his own wipes all of this out. As we can see NFL teams are fighting each other as we speak to sign Deebo.

Yeah i am not debating that Peters didnt have a plan and it simply didnt work out. Of course he had a plan but it was a lousy one and i said so in the summer. This one wasnt hard to predict.
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I said re-signing Noah Brown, who we last saw getting his kidney ruptured, was a mistake the moment it happened.

I was against that from the beginning. I agree that it was a bad plan. I also said that Noah + Deebo meant the end of OZ and DBrown. And I was right about that at the time.

I thought it was a bad plan also. So please understand that we absolutely agree about that. I might have even said it before you did, because I hated the Noah Brown re-signing. Like, with a passion.
 
Voice_of_Reason said:
I said re-signing Noah Brown, who we last saw getting his kidney ruptured, was a mistake the moment it happened.

I was against that from the beginning. I agree that it was a bad plan. I also said that Noah + Deebo meant the end of OZ and DBrown. And I was right about that at the time.

I thought it was a bad plan also. So please understand that we absolutely agree about that. I might have even said it before you did, because I hated the Noah Brown re-signing. Like, with a passion.
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Your point in our repeated debates on this topic has been he had a plan so whether i liked the plan or not it was a plan. It sure was and the plan for 2025 sucked IMO and i called it before it unraveled.

As for 2024, Jayden overcame the mediocre WR crew. Does that validate Peters as to his instincts on WRs? You suggest, yes. IMO, hell no. But it does give him props for drafting Jayden.

As for 2026, i made my point with plenty of detail and nuance which you missed. And I dont have the energy to repeat.

Ive defended Peters on some issues and I believe I am relatively balanced on him.
 
CapsCommies said:
I'd look at Hendon Hooker. He was QB3 in Detroit under Ben Johnson and is a FA
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Yeah. Hypothetically has some untapped upside if he gets to continue developing the slow way. Mentally I have no idea if he’s an NFL QB, but physically every year removed from that horrendous college injury the better. Definitely more worthy of a roster spot than freaking Hartman
 
Conn said:
Yeah. Hypothetically has some untapped upside if he gets to continue developing the slow way. Mentally I have no idea if he’s an NFL QB, but physically every year removed from that horrendous college injury the better. Definitely more worthy of a roster spot than freaking Hartman
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If they bring back Hartman it’s either because

1. Jayden said he would quit if they didn’t bring back his buddy

2. Hartman has blackmailed Peters in some way

That’s the only 2 reasons I can think of which make any sense why he would be on the roster again.
 
Conn said:
Yeah. Hypothetically has some untapped upside if he gets to continue developing the slow way. Mentally I have no idea if he’s an NFL QB, but physically every year removed from that horrendous college injury the better. Definitely more worthy of a roster spot than freaking Hartman
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That is a bold statement; Let us get down to football basics; "Who had better hair"
 
Gooseneck said:
That is a bold statement; Let us get down to football basics; "Who had better hair"
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Hartman needs to be the hair model for head and shoulders or something or an underwear model.

He has great hair. And as the owner of less hair every day, that makes me jealous and wish ill upon him. May his stylist sneeze while cutting his hair, hand slip, and take a chunk of hair out of his ‘do forcing him to wear a wig.
 
Voice_of_Reason said:
If they bring back Hartman it’s either because

1. Jayden said he would quit if they didn’t bring back his buddy

2. Hartman has blackmailed Peters in some way

That’s the only 2 reasons I can think of which make any sense why he would be on the roster again.
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I figure they have been grooming him (no pun intended) to become a coach, which seems like it's quickly becoming the de facto QB3 career trajectory.
 
Voice_of_Reason said:
Hartman needs to be the hair model for head and shoulders or something or an underwear model.

He has great hair. And as the owner of less hair every day, that makes me jealous and wish ill upon him. May his stylist sneeze while cutting his hair, hand slip, and take a chunk of hair out of his ‘do forcing him to wear a wig.
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Um, Hartman *is* a hair model... for Slick Gorilla. No, really. I also wish a pox upon his Fabio-maned person.

slickgorilla.com

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1773545565783.png
 
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Dah-Dee said:
Um, Hartman *is* a hair model... for Slick Gorilla. No, really. I also wish a pox upon his Fabio-maned person.

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Explore past Slick Gorilla campaigns. From product launches to creative drops, see how we shape style, culture, and grooming.
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View attachment 14370
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"I dont always throw a pretty pass, but when I do its with Slick Gorilla hair."

And yeah dammit, I couldn't help my fool self. I'll see my way out.

HTTR!
 
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