Crosby on his three-year, $106.5 million extension: “Them choosing me and taking care of me is obviously a humbling thing.” / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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The NFL offseason got hot over the weekend. It’ll stay that way for the next few days with free agency, so let’s jump right in on the Takeaways …

The Josh Allen contract is a study in how quarterback deals are getting done at the highest levels now, with this underlined—cash is king. The Buffalo Bills and Allen’s camp have been working on the blockbuster six-year, $330 million deal they reached Sunday since the team’s season ended in the AFC title game. And the focus, rather than being on how the deal would be headlined, was on how it would work for everyone.

So the first thing you need to know is the only deal that was really negotiated like this one in recent memory was Deshaun Watson’s in Cleveland—and Allen didn’t have to switch teams to land the contract he just did. And that’s because of what the Bills are going to, rightfully, put in the reigning MVP’s pocket over the next four years.

With that established, here are the keys …

• He’ll get $220 million over the next four years. On his existing deal, he had four years left at $129.555 million, meaning he’s effectively getting a $90 million raise. That’s an average of $55 million per year, which is the six-year average of the deal too. Taking the new-money math out of it, that’s a record—beating Dak Prescott ($54.8 million), Patrick Mahomes ($52.02 million) and Lamar Jackson ($52 million). Remember, Prescott had to play out one deal, and get to end of another to get there. Jackson played out his deal to get to his number.

And Mahomes, of course, had won multiple MVPs and multiple Super Bowls when he redid his deal last year.

• The deal has $147 million fully guaranteed, which is only behind the $230 million fully guaranteed Watson got on his Browns deal. Allen’s $250 million injury guarantee is a record. And the full guarantee rises to $163.5 million after the 2025 season, $218 million after ’26, and $232 million after ’27, pushing the practical guarantee just past Watson’s number.

But the reality, again, is if Allen keeps playing at the level he is, then this will all likely be revisited again after four years, with $220 million in the bank, and another raise coming.

• The cashflow here is relatively flat year over year, which gives the team a little more flexibility to spend, and is also an acknowledgment of the trust between the sides.

And, really, that’s where this began. The relationship between Allen’s camp and the Bills is such that there’s always a running conversation going on, and choosing to dive in and do this now was a result of that conversation. I don’t think there’s anyone on either side who doesn’t envision Allen retiring a Bill. And even if it’s hard to project those things out (see: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers), it’s healthy to operate as if that’ll be the case.

Which, to me, is really the tone and tenor to the whole thing. The Bills are doing right by Allen, who is getting what he deserves, and it’s coming in a way that’s functional and logical for him and the team alike.

Everyone’s better for it.

(And we’ll have more on the Bills a little later in the column).

Maxx Crosby’s three-year, $106.5 million extension does more than make the Las Vegas Raiders’ best player even richer. It, by design, sends a message to the rest of the roster that the 27-year-old represents exactly what new coach Pete Carroll and GM John Spytek are looking for as they overhaul an organization that’s made the playoffs twice in the last 22 years.

And that’s not an unusual move by a new regime—to come in, and reward a guy they know can be a torchbearer for what they’re trying to build, showing everyone who, and really more so what, they plan on rewarding going forward.

What is rare here is that it happens with the same guy twice. Which is about who Crosby is.

Indeed, three years ago, among the first things then-coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler did upon arriving in Vegas was sign Crosby to a four-year, $94 million extension that aged like Napa Valley’s finest. So three Pro Bowl seasons later, the star is well aware of the responsibility Carroll and Spytek are bestowing upon him.

“Three years later, I’m in the same situation,” Crosby told me Thursday night. “I take it with a lot of pride—it’s super humbling because of the work I put in, how much I put into my teammates, how much I give to others on a daily basis. I’m willing to do anything to win. Everybody’s got an opinion, but they don’t know the truth. I’m in that building all year-round. I have relationships with the janitor just like I do the owner. It’s much bigger than just football. The product and the production speak for itself. But it’s about relationships. …

“They believe in me for being the head of the spear of what that next generation of what the Raiders are going to look like, this next movement of what we’re trying to do as a football team with Mark Davis and Tom Brady coming in and all these guys that are involved now. Everybody’s on the same wavelength in terms of what we’re trying to build. Them choosing me and taking care of me is obviously a humbling thing.”

And while they did get this one done early—well ahead of the start of free agency—there was a winding road taken. Here are some of the details …

• Last year, Crosby’s agents, C.J. LaBoy and Doug Hendrickson of Wasserman, went to the team, under a new coach (Antonio Pierce) and GM (Tom Telesco) seeking an adjustment to the four-year deal signed in 2022, reasoning that Crosby had outplayed it, and the market had changed, with Nick Bosa landing more than $10 million per year.

The Raiders agreed, but didn’t want to set the precedent of doing a new deal with three years left on the old one. So after some negotiation, on May 23, the sides reached an agreement to add $5 million in new money to Crosby’s 2024 base salary, and move a little more than $1 million of his ‘25 money into ‘24, while moving more money from ‘26 into ‘25. The pact came with an additional agreement to explore an extension after the ‘24 season.

 • After the season, both Pierce and Telesco were fired, and Crosby told LaBoy, his lead negotiator, to allow him to see the direction and “feel the energy” of whoever was hired. To that end, Crosby was in the building, as he is every day, when Carroll interviewed, and made a point of going to meet him. That started a conversation that Carroll was sure to resume right after he was hired, as did Spytek.

“They were both very cool, very open and transparent from the beginning,” Crosby says.

When Spytek arrived in Vegas, Crosby asked him, What’s the one thing I can do better? The new GM responded that he should consider not playing 100% of the snaps, in order to keep his legs fresh deep into games, and the season. Crosby said he couldn’t stand not being on the field. That was an answer the new guys would remember, as they contemplated their next steps with Crosby—he had exactly the mindset they were looking for.

• The Raiders then communicated to LaBoy and Hendrickson that the plan was to build around Crosby, and wanted to do a contract with him quickly, not just to establish to others their commitment to him, but also so they could have an idea of what they’d be working around from a cash-and-cap standpoint. Accordingly, they exchanged proposals prior to the combine that reflected the agreement that Crosby should be atop the edge market, past Bosa.

The sides met in a conference room the Raiders had at the Indianapolis Conrad on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of combine week, with Vegas’s SVP of football administration Tom Delaney, a 24-year vet of the organization, leading talks and bringing all the context of Crosby’s (and LaBoy’s) previous negotiations with the team to the table.

Meanwhile, other teams, given the regime change, were inquiring. Seattle proposed a deal that would send Geno Smith and DK Metcalf to Vegas for Crosby. The Buffalo Bills and Washington Commanders checked in, too. The Raiders rebuffed that interest, showing Crosby their resolve.

• Last Monday, LaBoy and Hendrickson spent the day talking with Crosby—who wants to know every element of every deal he does—about where things stood, agreeing that the gaps had closed enough for the agents to make a trip to Vegas. So they flew from California on Tuesday morning, and went straight to the team facility to dive in with Delaney.

The sides worked through the morning and, as soon as Crosby was finished with his workout, LaBoy and Hendrickson went back to the star’s house. There, they spent five or six hours with Crosby, his wife and daughter, drilling down on every detail, with the agents getting their directives from him on closing out the negotiation. And late in the day, LaBoy and Hendrickson returned to the Raiders’ facility to work out the final details, which was the guarantee structure of the deal—the average per year and cashflow was agreed upon.

A little after 11 p.m., they got the negotiation to the 1-yard line, finding common ground on a full guarantee of $32 million in 2025, and $30 million in ‘26, and an injury guarantee of $29.5 million for ‘27 that would vest as a full guarantee next March.

The team announced the deal on Wednesday, and it marked something pretty momentous. Over four offseasons he’s been eligible to do new deals, Crosby’s gotten two blockbuster extensions and another big raise. Which, to those around him, is simply a nod to who he is.

“It’s not even the money,” says LaBoy, when I asked what he’s most proud of in the deal. “It’s that Maxx is being rewarded for being himself. It’s not just overcoming what he’s overcome, it’s really who he is. He exemplifies hard work, teamwork, and the kind of culture they’re trying to build. And to be rewarded in this way by three different regimes is just an acknowledgment of what he’s accomplished.”

To Crosby, the hope now is that this is the start, not the end—a couple times he referenced to me what Spytek said at the press conference, about how the contract is not for what he’s done, but what he’s about to do. The money, of course, is mind-blowing. And he told me he has big plans to grow his wealth (he owns 20 Papa Johns in Vegas, and has money invested in a slew of multi-million-dollar companies).

But his main focus remains football. As we talked, he recalled winning Scout Team Player of the Week every week the year he was redshirted at Eastern Michigan. He said he keeps one of the plaques “front-and-center” in his office, as a reminder of what’s important.

“I really can’t say by 27, I would’ve imagined signing two $100 million deals,” he says. “I always had a delusional belief in what I could be. Before anybody else believed in me and before I got the hype and the love and the respect, I was doing it by myself, and I had to prove it every day. I knew deep down I was put on this planet to be in this position. I know my heart. I know my work ethic. I know my obsession with being the greatest at what I do.

“I’ve never lost belief in that. That doesn’t mean that everything is rainbows and butterflies. But I’ve never quit. Every time it gets hard, I think of it as an opportunity to get better, even though that’s the hardest thing to do. … This money is not for what I’ve done; it’s for what they believe I’m going to do. I plan on being the best in the world at what I do. I’m very much looking forward to that.”

The Raiders, clearly, are too.

Carroll and Smith have joined forces in Las Vegas. / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

While we’re on the Raiders—I don’t think there are any losers in the Geno Smith trade. Going back to the fall, it was pretty well known that Smith, two years into the three-year, $75 million deal he did in 2023, was going to be looking for a commitment from the Seattle Seahawks. More than just money, he wanted to know where he stood, as he entered his mid-30s, having been through plenty to get to the point where he was an established starter.

So the Seattle Seahawks and Smith explored that after a wonky season, where most internally believed Smith was put behind the eight-ball in an offense, run by since-fired coordinator Ryan Grubb, that failed to effectively marry the run game to the pass game, and dropped the quarterback back way too much (making Smith a sitting duck).

To be clear, the Seahawks’ actions demonstrated that they wanted to move forward with Smith as their starter. But proposals from Smith’s side were well into the $40-million-plus, some $10 million or so per year ahead of where the Seahawks were. So at that point, dealing with that divide, Seattle started to look for creative solutions, which is how the discussion of trading Smith, and getting a young quarterback around the number they offered Smith came up.

Let’s say that’s Sam Darnold on a Baker Mayfield-level deal (that one was $100 million over three years). In that case, they’ll have saved around $10 million per year, they’ll have gotten seven years younger at the position, and they’d have the third-round pick they got in the exchange from Seattle. Now, Smith’s been a really good player the past three years, so the unknown is whether Darnold continues his level of play. But if you think he can, then this deal makes all kinds of sense for the Seahawks—especially given what’s in the draft.

And I do think what’s in the draft impacts the Raiders’ mindset here.

They were willing to satisfy Matthew Stafford’s financial expectations, in the $50 million range, to lure the Los Angeles Rams quarterback to the desert, which gives you an idea of where Carroll and Spytek are—not content to just tread water at the position in their first year. In landing Smith they get, again, a really good player, and fit for Chip Kelly’s offense (and Kelly’s known Smith since high school, and coached his cousin Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State last year), and another torchbearer for Carroll’s program.

Don’t believe that last part? Well, two summers ago, I spent some time with Smith, and I asked him why he signed one-year deals in four consecutive offseasons to stay in Seattle before finally getting the three-year deal in 2023. His answer was direct and to the point.

“I think it just starts with John Schneider and coach Carroll,” Smith said. “I believe they’re some of the most special leaders I’ve ever been around. Not many organizations are built on positivity, as you know, in the NFL. It’s all different styles of coaching, different styles of getting players better. I think here, the optimism that coach Carroll brings to the table, I remember my first meeting, I couldn’t believe this is the way they did things where they were shooting hoops, guys were screaming, throwing things in the meeting room.

“It was so different from the places I’d been. I almost expected it to change. Eventually you go through the first week, couple days and about a month in you’re like ‘alright.’ Then we’re winning, so it’s like we’ll keep it. I think the thing that’s eye-opening is the season before last, we kind of struggled a little bit, and Russell got hurt. Just watching coach Carroll leading this team and never at all changing, never changing his model, never changing the way he spoke, his demeanor, everything’s the same. It was, to me, one of the most eye opening experiences I’ve had in my life. It changed me.”

So now, Carroll has that guy helping to integrate the locker room into his program—and giving the team certainty at the position as he heads to the free-agent market with a lot of money to spend. Smith turns 35 in October, so he isn’t a forever answer. But it buys the new guys time where if there’s not a quarterback there with the sixth pick, they certainly won’t have to force it.

And that’s a pretty significant thing, given the makeup of the draft class, and where the Raiders are, just needing to add good players, both out of college and from other teams, to their roster.

As a result of all this, Darnold’s situation, for sure, got a whole lot more interesting. On Friday morning, there was palpable buzz in NFL circles that the Minnesota Vikings quarterback had an unforeseen suitor emerging in Seattle, if the Seahawks and Raiders could push the Smith trade over the goal line. Then it happened, and the assumption got around that Darnold to Seattle was done.

So is it? Obviously, there were enough back-room agreements done this weekend to make the mob blush, but nothing can be binding until 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, the start of the new league year.

What we can discuss with certainty now is why Darnold’s likely leaving a really good situation in Minnesota, which can inform you on where he’s going next. Darnold, like Smith, went through a lot to become a starter again. He endured a tough situation in Carolina after the New York Jets traded him to the Panthers, starting in an unwinnable spot in 2021, then having to fight for playing time in ‘22, as the Matt Rhule era circled the drain. In ‘23, he had a reset year backing up Brock Purdy in San Francisco, which led into last year’s revival.

How the revival happened is important, too—he signed a one-year, $10 million deal, only to have the Vikings trade up for J.J. McCarthy (he did know that sort of thing was likely to happen). Darnold then held off McCarthy early in camp before McCarthy got hurt and went on, until the last two weeks of the season at least, to have an unbelievable year.

Putting all that together, and knowing how well McCarthy played in August, before the injury, and that the team has him under affordable, contractual control through 2028, it’s fair for Darnold to think that so much would be out of his control if he stayed a Viking. He could have a great year again, and still be traded, if McCarthy’s progress merited it. Which would subject him to the same variables he faced earlier in his career.

He knows, too, that the Vikings still believe McCarthy can be their quarterback for the next decade. And that, coming back, regardless of the contract, he’d probably be viewed as an insurance policy for the team for 2025—after McCarthy lost a bunch of weight and development time as a result of his meniscus repair and subsequent clean-up surgery.

That’s why, to me, the one thing that the Vikings would always struggle with in trying to keep Darnold would be a team presenting him with the chance to be a multi-year starter going forward, giving him the shot to grow within a program, and with a group of teammates. Until last week, it was unclear whether such a situation—where a team would tell him he could be starter for the next two or three years, and give him a contract that reflects it—would materialize. Seattle, presumably, can now be that situation.

So I do think there’ll be interest. If there’s a wild card here, it’s Pittsburgh. The Steelers like Darnold—I think price would be the question with them. I’d expect the New York Giants to check in as well, if the Aaron Rodgers thing gets wonky. But would either of those teams hitch their wagon to Darnold like Seattle could? I’m less sure.

Which, to me, makes Seattle the most likely landing spot.

Myles Garrett’s contract shows that the Million Dollar Man was right. As the old WWF superstar Ted DiBiase would say, everyone has a price. And I’ll say that about Garrett with the caveat that I do believe he’s a different type of thinker that really wants to win, and cares deeply about his legacy.

The thing is $40 million per year is $40 million per year.

So Garrett did have a price, and it’s a princely sum, especially when you consider that Aaron Donald became the NFL’s first $20 million nonquarterback less than seven years ago, right before the start of the 2018 season. It’s a $4.5 million jump from where Crosby landed last week, and changes the complexion of a bunch of negotiations across the NFL.

Here are some of the finer details …

• Garrett lands $88.8 million fully guaranteed, and a $123.5 million injury guarantee. The latter number is the best ever for a nonquarterback, just edging out Nick Bosa’s number of $122.5 million (which impressively stood as No. 1 for nearly two years).

• Garrett takes home $100 million over the first three years of the deal. Coming into the negotiation, he had $44.796 million left over two years. That means he’s getting more than $55 million in new money simply for adding the first new year (2027), which is a key metric.

• Garrett also gets a no-trade clause. That may seem kind of funny, since he just asked for a trade. But such clauses are tough to get for players, and they become useful in the case a trade does become an option down the line—allowing for the player to steer that process.

So in the end, Garrett got filthier rich than he was before, and is impacting the market in a way that should help guys such as Ja’Marr Chase and Micah Parsons. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns get their biggest star back in the fold and, as part of this, probably some urgency to put together a roster capable of competing with Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens and Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals, and the Steelers, for the foreseeable future in the AFC North.

While we’re here, one thing that I filed away early in this whole saga was that, to keep Garrett, the Browns would have to show him a compelling plan at quarterback. I don’t know to what extent they did that, but let’s jump in on one situation they’ll be monitoring now …

Cousins would like to be traded from the Falcons after he was benched last year for Penix. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Nothing is settled yet between Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons. Last week, he asked for, and got a meeting with Atlanta owner Arthur Blank. That meeting happened on Wednesday night, with Cousins delivering a pointed message—he wants to go to a team he can start for.

The Falcons, of course, don’t have to acquiesce. They paid him $62.5 million last year. Cousins has $27.5 million fully guaranteed for this year, and Atlanta is likely going to have to pay all or almost all of that whether he’s on their roster or not in 2025 (given the offset language, a team signing him would give him the minimum, and let the Falcons pick up the rest, like the Steelers did with Russell Wilson last year). And if they hold on to him through St. Patrick’s Day, then $10 million of his money for ‘26 vests, becoming fully guaranteed.

Thus, Atlanta’s position here is that they’d rather pay $100 million for two years, and have quarterback insurance behind Michael Penix Jr., than just take the $90 million sunk cost for Cousins’s lost season of 2025, and sign someone else as a backup.

So we have a standoff.

The case for the Falcons cutting ties, as Cousins sees it, makes sense. When he signed, he had no idea the team would spend the eighth pick on his replacement—and had he known that, there’s a good shot he’d have stayed in Minnesota. Beyond just that, having Cousins hanging around probably isn’t what’s best for Penix, especially if the young quarterback hits some bumps in his first year starting.

For now, though, the Falcons aren’t budging. The moment of truth, really, has to come within the next week, before the $10 million for 2026 vests. And if he becomes available? Well, you’d think Cleveland would be a team to watch, with Kevin Stefanski having coached Cousins for two years in Minnesota, and the shot to use the offset as a creative way for the Browns to add to the quarterback room while working around Deshaun Watson’s contract.

Stay tuned. This one’s not over yet.

I’m not sure the Derek Carr saga is over yet, either. There was some disagreement over the past couple of weeks, as Carr and the New Orleans Saints talked about potential adjustments to the quarterback’s contract. And without a resolution there, New Orleans moved to exercise its right, within the existing contract, to convert base salary into a bonus to generate some cap space with which to maneuver this week.

That, by the way, was a unilateral move by the Saints, not something that was agreed upon by the sides. Again, by contract, it was New Orleans’s right to do it.

And while it doesn’t affect Carr’s pocket, it does essentially lock him in with the team.

That’s because doing the conversion now makes it illogical for the team to trade him. In doing it, they took money from his $30 million base for 2025 and turned it into a signing bonus. You can’t reverse that. So if the Saints trade him now, they’d be putting themselves on the hook for bonus money, then moving him off the roster, which makes no sense.

That makes the question, from here, where Carr stands, without any adjustment made to his contract, and two years still left on that deal.

Knowing Kellen Moore, and Mickey Loomis’s experience with these matters, I think they’ll come out of this with some sort of understanding, and Carr ready to go as the quarterback for 2025. But they aren’t there yet. So I’m still paying attention to what happens there.

The Steelers finally got their big-play receiver in Metcalf. / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

The DK Metcalf trade signals a significant shift for the Steelers. For years, the team developed its own at the receiver spot—Antonio Brown, Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, Martavis Bryant, Juju Smith-Schuster and now George Pickens were all drafted outside the first round, and developed into highly productive cogs in the Pittsburgh offense.

That’s why last year’s pursuit of Brandon Aiyuk, a pursuit that fell just short, felt so different—the Steelers offered second- and third-round picks for the Niners star before Aiyuk re-signed in San Francisco.

Quietly, GM Omar Khan has kept after it, and in the end he winds up paying less for Metcalf now than he was going to give up for Aiyuk, with a contract not far off (the Steelers were going to pay Aiyuk just below the $28 million per year T.J. Watt is making) from the one they were planning to give Aiyuk as part of that proposed trade.

If you’re looking for his fit in the Pittsburgh offense, it’ll mirror how offensive coordinator Arthur Smith used Metcalf’s ex-Ole Miss roommate A.J. Brown in Tennessee. Or at least that’s the vision. Of course, the next question is who’ll be throwing him the ball, and my guess would be they take another swing on Darnold, but probably wind up bringing back Justin Fields or, if Fields goes to the New York Jets, perhaps poaching Daniel Jones from the Vikings.

Beyond the aforementioned Allen deal, the Bills quietly did a bunch of work over the past few days that cements the new core they invested in last year. When Buffalo went forward with a plan to eat around $65 million in dead cap last year, it was with the idea that the franchise could lean on young players that it hoped would come of age.

They did, and now have the contracts to show for it …

• WR Khalil Shakir signed a four-year, $60 million extension on Monday.

• LB Terrel Bernard agreed to a four-year, $50 million extension on Thursday.

• DE Greg Rousseau signed a four-year, $80 million extension on Saturday.

There’s still work to do from here—the Bills released Von Miller with the idea they might bring him back, and fourth-year star James Cook is seeking an extension of his own—but the week is as good a sign as any of how well Buffalo is, and has been, run in drafting and developing players under Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane, despite consistently landing near the end of the draft order.

It also makes you wonder if the Bills have a big swing coming. They did call the Browns on Garrett. I think they may have taken a look at Tee Higgins, had the Bengals not tagged him. So I do think Beane is staying loose for the right opportunity, should it come along, to strike.

That’s something that building the team the way he and McDermott have affords him.

The Kansas City Chiefs have already been active, and I expect another move from them on Monday. Kansas City had two big orders of business heading into the weekend, and one was taken care of Sunday with the three-year, $45 million deal done with middle linebacker Nick Bolton—the heart and soul of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense. The deal lands between what Philly’s Zach Baun and Bernard got, and ensures the Chiefs won’t have to pivot and add a veteran to their linebacking unit (something they’d considered).

It also allows them to focus Monday on the other order of business: getting a left tackle.

The Chiefs were poised to make a run at Ronnie Stanley before he re-signed with the Ravens, and likely would’ve landed in the range that Baltimore did (three years, $60 million, with $44 million fully guaranteed). So now they’ll take some of that money, and try to sign either 49ers OT Jaylon Moore or Steelers OT Dan Moore Jr.—I think it’s less likely they go get Minnesota’s Cam Robinson. And I think there’s a good chance that the three-time reigning AFC champions land one of the Moores by midday Monday.

What is probably less likely now is the Chiefs bringing S Justin Reid or DT Tershawn Wharton back. They love both, not only as players, but as people. But with both Wharton and Reid having a shot to get into eight figures per year, and the Chiefs having young vets such as Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis in the contractual on deck circle, there will be tough decisions for Andy Reid and Brett Veach to make on defense.

Either way, there’ll be plenty of activity from the NFL’s resident dynasty.

The Patriots, flush with money, are ready to burst from the gates. But that guarantees nothing. Mike Vrabel gives the franchise stability, and Drake Maye brings hope, but what’s left of the NFL’s old dynasty doesn’t have much else to attract free agents. The weather is tough, there’s a relatively new millionaires tax in Massachusetts, and not many players have roots in the region.

It’s why, I think, part of the Patriots’ strategy will be leaning on their connections, as they did Sunday in landing ex-Tennessee Titan Harold Landry III, who played for Vrabel in Tennessee.

The other thing? The guys they want are coming off the market. I was told the Patriots were geared up to make big runs at Stanley and Jets LB Jamien Sherwood—and both guys wound up re-signing with their teams. I’d expect they pivot and kick tires on the remaining left tackles (Dan Moore, Jaylon Moore and Robinson), and also aggressively pursue Philadelphia Eagles NT Milton Williams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin.

And after that, it would be no surprise to see a slew of mid-level signings of guys with connections to the coaching staff, sort of like what Washington did last year. Why? Well, part of it is Vrabel’s program values certain qualities in players across the board. Everyone doesn’t have to fit that mold, but my bet is he tries to build a foundation of players that do.

The good news is he has plenty of resources to do it with, even if some of the team’s early targets are already off the board.

Adams will now be playing with the Rams instead of against them. / Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Let’s dive in with a ton to get to …

• Davante Adams landing a two-year, $46 million deal with the Rams was eye-opening for a lot of folks. Yes, the market has changed, so $23 million per year isn’t what it was even last year—and really, this is a one-year, $20 million contract with a team option for 2026 (it’s not a coincidence that Cooper Kupp was slated to make $20 million this year for the Rams). Still, there are a ton of questions on how much Adams has left, at 32 years old, and with a per catch average over the past two years under 12 yards. That said, the Rams have revived careers at the position (DeMarcus Robinson, Odell Beckham Jr., etc.) in the past.

• The Jets’ investment into the linebacker position—paying Sherwood when Quincy Williams is already on a second contract—mirrors what Aaron Glenn was a part of in Detroit, where the Detroit Lions have paid multiple off-ball linebackers (Alex Anzalone, Jaylen Reeves-Maybin, and now Barnes) and spent a first-round pick on one (Jack Campbell).

• The ripple effect of Stanley’s decision to return to Baltimore should be felt with the suitors he spurned. We mentioned the Chiefs and Patriots as going after left tackle on a post-Stanley market. The Commanders were another team readying a run at the Ravens cornerstone, and they’re right there with Kansas City and New England looking at tackles in the aftermath of his decision.

• The Lions’ decision to move on from Za’Darius Smith could put them in the market for an edge rusher, and there are veterans out there that could effectively bookend a returning Aidan Hutchinson. The question is whether they’ll go for another third contract guy, such as Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat or Matthew Judon.

• Former second overall pick Chase Young should have a decent market. And after last year with the Saints, it looks like he’s got a chance to move into another phase of his career—where he’d be in the same sort of area Jadeveon Clowney was for years, as a strong, tough edge player who’ll produce, and be difficult to deal with for opponents, if not be the 15-sack guy he was expected to be coming out.

• Speaking of the Saints, I wouldn’t be floored if they make a run at bringing Brandin Cooks back after all these years. Cooks can still run, and would be a nice complementary piece to what New Orleans has in Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed and Alvin Kamara.

• On that topic, one reason Kansas City was so aggressive in re-signing Hollywood Brown (he’s back on a one-year, $10 million deal) is because the Chiefs anticipate the market being hot for downfield weapons. And so guys such as the New York Giants’ Darius Slayton and Washington’s Dyami Brown, who we mentioned in our free-agency forecast, should do well.

• I don’t see the Bengals moving Trey Hendrickson for less than a second-round pick. It’s a tricky spot for Cincinnati to be in—finding a team to give up a premium pick and $30 million (or more) per year for a 31-year-old pass rusher isn’t easy. Hendrickson’s camp at one point told the Bengals they could bring home a first-rounder for him, but that hasn’t happened.

• The Vikings paying Aaron Jones $10 million per year at 30 years old, going into his ninth year, is a sign of two things. One is the running back market shifting a little bit upward, finally. The other is who Jones is—because of the work he puts in, and example he sets for younger guys, Minnesota won’t lose sleep over giving him a few big checks.

• The Arizona Cardinals bringing Baron Browning back on a two-year, $15 million deal helps to color the team’s decision to deal a sixth-round pick for him in November. Arizona only got two sacks from the former third-round pick, but he has the athletic potential to do more, which is why the team traded for him. Now they get to see that through.

Published 13 Minutes Ago|Modified 7:27 AM EDT