The 2026 Free Agency Thread

[SkinsFTW]

It just sucks that apparently someone is going to have to start a GoFundMe for them to attempt to sign anyone else despite all that cap space.

 

[ES1974]

Not getting Diggs signed would be a major fail. I try not to be too ridiculously critical of Adam Peters but Diggs is the best WR available by far, he’s said he would love to play in DC and we have the $$ to sign him.

It is the biggest no-brainer of the offseason and it needs to get done.

I can’t figure out what the issue is with AP to be honest. Is it ego, it is a stubbornness to admit we have come up short on recruitment and need to address that, is it a lack of willingness to slightly overpay to get a guy in.

It’s been a circular debate for months now, which in itself is frustrating.

Sort the issue out, which quite frankly even the most causal of supporter/fan can see.

 

[burgold]

Chiefs apparently had two injuries at receiver today. If Washington wants Diggs they need to get serious quick.

 

[Boone]

Chiefs apparently had two injuries at receiver today. If Washington wants Diggs they need to get serious quick.

This is why you are aggressive in going after players who can help you vs waiting hoping the price comes down.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I don't know that we're ever going to get the answer fully why they don't spend up to the cap limit, but it is a bit odd, at least for signings which you would think would be in the 1-2 year, low money area.

Signing Diggs could be complicated because of 2 factors:

1. All of the off the field stuff. He's still got civil suits pending, and I don't think it's 100% clear if the league is going to suspend him even though he was acquitted in the criminal case. Here's what I found about his current legal situation:

"Stefon Diggs is currently involved in an active civil defamation lawsuit and countersuit with an online influencer, Christopher Griffith. While a Massachusetts jury acquitted Diggs of felony strangulation and assault charges in a separate dispute with a private chef, the ongoing civil case regarding Griffith's sexual assault allegations remains active."

That's a lot of noise. Is it insurmountable? No. But it's something.

2. He could be looking for higher dollars and multiple years on his new deal than most are anticipating. I think we're all kindof assuming he would sign some type of a one year deal for low money, but that's not what he signed last year. His last year included:
- $12m signing bonus
- $16.6 guaranteed at signing
- 3 year term
- AAV of $21m.

That's not a nothing contract. The Patriots are carrying a $10m dead cap hit from releasing him. Which isn't huge in today's cap world, but it's also not nothing either. He went out and had a really good year coming off an ACL. There's nothing saying he might be asking for something similar this year. And Peters has proven he does not want to give long term deals with good money to aging WRs.

My guess is if Peters could get Diggs for something like 1 year at $10m, it would be done by now. But if Diggs is looking for a deal like he just got with the Pats, I think that's going to be tough for Peters. Rightly or wrongly. And I think it would be tough to play hardball with Terry one year and then cave for Diggs the next for an aging WR.

Keim keeps saying that he hears they are "monitoring the situation." He even went so far to say that's the word he has heard, and then rambled on about what "monitoring" means. He said it meant that they have to be in contact because "you can't monitor a situation from over there." Or something.

I just looked up Diggs contract stuff this morning. Now that I did that, and marrying it with what Keim said, plus what Peters did with Terry last year, I really think we have had conversations with Diggs, but so far, they haven't gotten to an agreement on the contract. That might come. Now that there are some more injuries, some other team might be willing to meet Diggs' price, and that might nudge Peters to go higher in his offer.

Or maybe not. Will be interesting to see.

 

[DWinzit]

This is why you are aggressive in going after players who can help you vs waiting hoping the price comes down.

Yup, it was inevitable players would go down peeking interest in Diggs elsewhere. San Fran and KC have already potentially experienced this with ore to come.

Also, Deebo has signed and Hopkins has taken a coaching job reducing the available market

Maybe they are thinking Keenan Allen but he kind of fits the Jefferson lane and they have really liked Jefferson to date.

 

[Boone]

Why would Diggs accept a huge pay cut? We can call him an ‘aging’ player because he is - but his performance has not fallen off. He has consistently been one of the most productive WRs in the NFL including last season. I do think not pissing Terry off is a consideration. But Diggs is likely to be worth every penny he gets even at his advanced age lol.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Why would Diggs accept a huge pay cut? We can call him an ‘aging’ player because he is - but his performance has not fallen off. He has consistently been one of the most productive WRs in the NFL including last season. I do think not pissing Terry off is a consideration. But Diggs is likely to be worth every penny he gets even at his advanced age lol.

Well, he's going into his age 33 season (I just learned his b-day is November 29th, so he's even split 32-33 for this year.

The analytics show that with rare exceptions, WRs fall off a cliff after 30. He just had an ACL in 2024. This was a major sticking point for Peters giving Terry the deal he got vs. what he wanted. I can't imagine his mind has changed on that.

He is still productive, but he doesn't have his top level athleticism anymore, and there's a chance father time takes that away more and more every year. His performance has fallen off. It's just that his ceiling was 2020 - 20222 area where he had 2 ~1500 yard seasons sandwiching a 1200 yard season. He's not THAT guy anymore. But he still has tremendous value.

Personally, I am totally fine with a 1 or 2 year deal, moderate signing bonus, easy to get out of, with incentives. (Not the oft referred to vet minimum + incentives.)

But I wouldn't sign him to a 3 year 60+ million dollar deal this year like the Pats did last year. If it didn't work out, I wouldn't want to take a $10m cap hit next year to get rid of him like they did. And I get they probably released him, at least in part, because of the off the field stuff. But he was good for them, and they're still paying him $10m to go away.

If Diggs wants another 3 years for $64m, $16m guaranteed, I think that's going to be a hard sell for Peters. I think it would be a hard sell for me. I would do 2/3 of that deal, though: 2 years, $35-40m, $10m guaranteed. Get all of the guarantees out of the way this year so you could cut him for virtually nothing next year if you needed to. We have the cap to do that, so that's the way I would structure it.

 

[Chris]

1. All of the off the field stuff. He's still got civil suits pending,

"Stefon Diggs is currently involved in an active civil defamation lawsuit and countersuit with an online influencer, Christopher Griffith.”

Yeah, the ‘not every day you see’ alleged sexual assault he said/he said civil case.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Is it possible they are overly concerned with Terry in years to come asking for a screwed up contract again based on what Diggs is asking for?

Harris has consistently said he wants to build for a perennial contender and not a one year winner. Sometimes I think there are parts of their approach that is really hurting them there.

By the way, while I think AP has probably not been as good as we have hoped if we look at the drafts and performance with a critical eye, our bad coordinator selection has effected us in ways that are really hard to measure. That falls on DQ.

I am currently pretty concerned about their OL coach. I wish they got the dude from the Eagles. Proven. Seems like a no brainer. So of course it doesn’t happen.

 

[SkinsInSATX]

I have a feeling that Diggs' off field shit is keeping AP from signing him.....also I think AP sees that Terry is a full participant in camp this year getting the necessary reps and time with JD, and is willing to roll with his draft picks in Luke and Lane, imo. 🤷

 

[Conn]

I have a feeling that Diggs' off field shit is keeping AP from signing him.....also I think AP sees that Terry is a full participant in camp this year getting the necessary reps and time with JD, and is willing to roll with his draft picks in Luke and Lane, imo. 🤷

It’s not like it was a choice, he tried very hard to bring in high dollar guys (Pierce, Doubs) to push them further down the depth chart and failed, so then he spent a 3rd on Williams to do what he could to add talent to the room. But obviously he entered this offseason not content to “roll with his draft picks” who both seem closer to career ST’s aces at best. So to retroactively pretend that it was the plan all along now that we’re stuck with it is obviously not correct

I think there’s a good chance you’re right about Diggs off-field stuff being a road block

 

[HTTR]

I just spent the last two years complaining that they always go cheap and old in free agency, so far be it from me to get upset if they don’t sign Diggs. Sometimes though as in this case, it is necessary to sign one as a stop gap. But when bringing in a grizzled veteran, I really prefer a high character guy that can be a good mentor to the young players on the team and I am not so sure Diggs fits that profile. I don’t expect him to be the player he once was or even the player he was last year at this age. Betting against father time is almost always a bad play. Still I can’t deny that he makes the team better so I hope they do sign him, even though I won’t be nearly as excited about it as some of you.
And at the risk of people getting sick and tired of hearing it, I just think it’s absolutely absurd that they leave so much salary cap room on the table every year. They are purposely putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage compared to every other team in the league and that upsets me way more than whether or not they sign any individual player.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

It’s not like it was a choice, he tried very hard to bring in high dollar guys (Pierce, Doubs) to push them further down the depth chart and failed, so then he spent a 3rd on Williams to do what he could to add talent to the room. But obviously he entered this offseason not content to “roll with his draft picks” who both seem closer to career ST’s aces at best. So to retroactively pretend that it was the plan all along now that we’re stuck with it is obviously not correct

I think there’s a good chance you’re right about Diggs off-field stuff being a road block

I think they can get past the roadblock, but only at the right price.

I keep coming back to Keim stressing they are "monitoring" the situation. That reads to me that they have made him an offer and he doesn't like it. So now they're in wait and see mode. And I'm sure the offer took into account the off the field noise as a risk and lowered the dollar amount.

I see four options:

1. We sign him to some type of a moderate deal and there is much rejoicing.
2. Somebody else signs him to a moderate deal and our fans lose their minds.
3. Somebody panics and signs him to a deal similar to what the Pats did last year, and some will say "why not do that anyway?" and other will say "yeah, for that price, I'm out."
4. Nobody signs him which indicates the league might have something to say about a possible suspension after he signs.

I also think absent the off the field stuff, he'd still be on the Patriots. So it's an important variable in the whole situation...

 

[washington football]

The problem has to be years and money. I was thinking a one year deal, but if he is looking for multiple years I would pass and just take the 49ers headache player on a one year deal.

 

[Conn]

The problem has to be years and money. I was thinking a one year deal, but if he is looking for multiple years I would pass and just take the 49ers headache player on a one year deal.

The 49ers headache player isn’t even likely to be an option because he seems to never want to play football again (while pretending he does). He hasn’t shown at camp which is the only way he counts against their cap and gets cut

 

[Faithful Fan]

The 49ers headache player isn’t even likely to be an option because he seems to never want to play football again (while pretending he does). He hasn’t shown at camp which is the only way he counts against their cap and gets cut

I understand we mostly let that ship sail by after Aiyuk called out Jayden on social media, but it’s probably still within the realm of (remote) possibility. I saw an IG story with him located in DC and his kid in a Commanders hat recently. This was the only tweet I could find about it today:

 

[SkinsInSATX]

I understand we mostly let that ship sail by after Aiyuk called out Jayden on social media, but it’s probably still within the realm of (remote) possibility. I saw an IG story with him located in DC and his kid in a Commanders hat recently. This was the only tweet I could find about it today:

Vagiants fans talking shit 😂

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

The 49ers headache player isn’t even likely to be an option because he seems to never want to play football again (while pretending he does). He hasn’t shown at camp which is the only way he counts against their cap and gets cut

It’s interesting we’re referring to him as the 49ers headache player. I doubt they even think about him because they have no need to.

The player whose name we do not speak from the draft we do not mention has already been taken and copyrighted by me, those are out. Player’s name was sometimes shortened to a hair styling device and the draft is the one where we selected 3 pass catchers in the second round who all eventually busted.

Galdi refers to Kirk Cousins as “you know who.”

I’m not sure if Galdi got his inspiration from Harry Potter or not. I definitely did. If he did then I find it interesting two different ways of referring to Voldemort have been used on 2 different players.

Greg Easterbrook just referred to Dan Snyder as Lord Voldemort. And the Redskins as the “Potomac drainage basin indigenous people.” And the Giants/Jets as New Jersey A and New Jersey B.

Gads I miss that column.

 

[washington football]

What would a good deal for us and Diggs be. He going to want alot he is proven and can still play. I dont think you want to go more then a year. Probably 15 to 20 million he asking for. I would not want to go that high.