That WR room has had some combination of Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and George Pickens every year since 2010.

This is normal for that room.

So what you're saying is that you'd think they oughta know better by now.

That money for a guy who has failed to break 1000 yards as many seasons as he's gone over is utterly insane. Unless they are going to start to give wins and losses for pure athleticism, I have no idea what the Steelers are doing here.

Compare that to the deal Davante Adams signed, he managed to have 1100 yards with two of the most dysfunctional teams in the league last year. Crazy money, and a second round pick to boot.

I read an article that has DK's deal #5 among WR's but spotrac, a website that tracks contracts, has it at #3 behind just Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb.

DK is an absolute 1 of 1 combo of size and athleticism but I think THAT much on a 27-year-old (will turn 28 in December during the season) for potential is crazy. At what age do you stop paying for potential?

At that price, it seems like you would be competitive to sign Chris Godwin, and you wouldn't have to give up a second round pick for him.

I know several people here like The Athletic Football Podcast with Robert Mays.

They are doing a livestream of FA reactions starting at noon Eastern today: Free Agency Day One Blowout - YouTube

Because of all the tampering that was done before the official tampering that starts today, they are actually starting the live stream at 11:30am EDT.

We all have that one friend who has a type despite knowing better.

Bears sign Dalman -- 3 years $42M with $28M guaranteed. An overpay, but a smart one considering what was available in the draft and in FA.

Yeah Dalman was the only guaranteed day 1 starter at center that was really available. He was far and away the biggest need.

really good so far

and WOW was my mental picture of Mike Sando WAY WAY WAY off, I had him easily 20 years older and much more crusty, based on nothing but voice and the vague allusions to stuff he has done

I know Jaycee Horn has been good, but he's missed a ton of games in his short career and was only ranked 57th by PFF for CBs in 2024. I know PFF isn't perfect, but he gave up 6 TDs, almost 7 yards a target, and he didn't seem to help a defense that quite possibly was the worst in NFL history.

All that said, how did he become the highest paid CB in NFL history?

Timing

Horn extension just appalling to me, too... feel like they are trying to retcon taking him ahead of the clearly superior (both now and at the time) Patrick Surtain II

Pretty much every analysis I’ve read agrees with that. It’s a PR contract given out by a truly awful franchise and owner to try to gaslight fans into thinking he was a great pick more than it’s based on any realistic assessment of his play and value.

Hey, it’s their money they can spend it how they like right?

Darnold to the Seahawks

Reported 3 years $110.5 million, 55 guaranteed!

Fields to the Jets. Good luck there.

2yrs/$40mil/$30mil guaranteed.

2 years, $40 million, with $30 mil guaranteed for Fields.

Edit: lol

I guess that's slightly better than going with an untested rookie or 40 year old QB.

Better for the untested rookie or 40 year old QB options at least.

I am going to work myself into feeling excited by this, in time.

But never forget, #LOLJets

Right, except teams working through a rookie-contract QB are interesting to see, and I don't know whether Bryce Young is him, exactly, but... we deserve to see the better version of the Carolina play-out, which would be to NOT do this deal.

Agree

Nearly every penny should be spent doing their best to emulate what Brock Purdy has in SF. He's the best case scenario for Young and it's worth seeing what his ceiling is. Right now he's trending toward being the next Darnold-like reclamation project for someone that knows how to develop qbs.

+1 on the extended rationale there

Not if they wanted to spend it on Milton Williams, suck it Tepper! (I don't think anyone is wrong on the PR parts of the Horn deal, but I also think they had to pay the homegrown draftee and they're not gonna be at a point $3-$5 milllion/year really matters any time soon so who cares if he's overpaid?)

Pats with a nice day. Usually I hate winning FA Day 1 but we're in the rare position where have sooooooo much cap space and so many obvious holes these all seem like wins. Often you can already see the future downside or how it'll limit flexibility down the line, but other than Williams all these deals have been 3 years a.k.a. overlapping with Drake Maye's rookie deal, if any go sideways we should be able to just eat it instead of rolling out bad money onto future cap sheets. LT still a gaping hole and I don't want Will Campbell at 4, but given what Dan Moore got I shudder about what Cam Robinson will get. I'm also the rare Pats fan who doesn't feel a need to spend on a big name WR unless Chris Godwin wanted to come, I'd take like a Darius Slayton but I think Boutte/Bourne/Pop/Polk are fine, especially if we end up with Hunter or a different rookie WR like Tre Harris 2nd round. No interest in older names like Amari Cooper or Nuke Hopkins.

Harris is beast-or-bust to me, the problem is whether you can keep him healthy enough to be on the field.

I'd have doubts about that.

I'm not sure there's much of a worse situation for Darnold to go to, not that any of the QB needy teams would have had an offense like the Vikes.

I'm worried for him about how soon that is going to turn into an absolute shitshow. I don't have PFF so maybe somebody can look it up, but another metric had them as the 30th ranked offensive line last year. And they just traded or released their top 2 receivers.

Laremy Tunsil traded to the Commanders.

per Schefter

Source: former Falcons Pro Bowl DT Grady Jarrett — released today from Atlanta — already has found a new home, reaching agreement on a 3-year $43.5 million deal including $28.5 million fully guaranteed with the Chicago Bears.

No comment on the O-Line but JSN had passed Lockett and DK as WR#1 last season.

Texans Tunsil move is weird with CJ Stroud, basically just got a 2 and a 3 for him. Shaq Mason out the door too but reports implied he fell off physically in 2024.

Well guess Cleveland had a plan for a new QB after all-trade with the Eagles to get Kenny Pickett and their backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson to Philly. Cleveland gives up a 5th rounder too

I assume they got Pickett for free and paid Philly a 5th to take DTR off their hands?

Still plenty of "i can fix him" opinions out there on DTR

Have to imagine this is driven by cap considerations in out-years. Stroud is going to need to get paid in a couple years' time (otherwise they're just fuct and none of this matters), and once he does you won't have the capacity to pay everyone. Draft an OT in this year's draft to replace Tunsil and maybe you get a couple more cheap seasons at an expensive position when you really need it.

He is older than I thought, turning 31 in August, but still strikes me as too cute by the Texans. I think they picked Blake Fisher in the 2nd last year with an eye to this, but I didn't like him at ND and PFF really didn't like him for the Texans last year. Bad juxtaposition when they're moving out multiple big name linemen but bringing in overpaid WR's like Christian Kirk, and even in the trade you're mostly recouping draft assets you moved for Stefon Diggs.

Pats are desperate for a decent LT, Kansas City is out there getting very creative and moving a lot around to try and get Mahomes a real LT, guys like Dan Moore are getting 4/$80m on the market and meanwhile Houston is happy to give up a good one.

Is he good? Bears couldn't stop the run at all last year.

He's an upgrade from that, but his value lay primarily in a) being a fan favorite after 10 seasons, and b) any remaining pass rush.

He's 31,blew an ACL in 2023, and PFF has him 54th/219 vs the run, 98th/219 vs the pass last season.

Agree with this. Texans seemed to have a path to sustained success with Stroud on a rookie deal if they made sensible decisions, and then they've mostly done the opposite since then. They've got unlucky with injuries somewhat and the dropoff in QB play last year probably has them all freaked out, but I think too cute is probably accurate.

Teams are getting smarter.

The teams with possible franchise young QBs are all (smartly) overpaying to ensure that they have a solid O-line.

The era of "Should we get him a pass catcher or a defense or a running back or some blockers?" is over. We now all know that the answer is blockers.

Steelers in "win now" mode without a quarterback is certainly a choice.

Aaron Rodgers and the Rooneys don't seem like they would do well together, but it seems like it is down to him, running Russell Wilson back out after both sides seemed to burn the bridge down, or someone from the pile of Mariotta/Flacco/Winston or Mac or Daniel Jones or one of the 3rd-6th best QB in the draft class with a staff that can't develop QBs.

Can I interest you in a slightly used Kirk Cousins?

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I'd be enjoying my guaranteed $100M as a backup QB and not making any demands.

Probably an overpay but they need all the help they can get on the line. And they have been sitting on cap space for awhile. Not going to complain about them upgrading the line when they're usually wasting the money on off the ball linebackers and backup tight ends.

So what's the deal with the Niners? Are they really that cap strapped or is this some kind of rebuild? Usually having a QB on a rookie deal gives you a whole lot of flexibility.

Getting out of the Deebo contract seems good. But they're losing a lot of really good players too in free agency.

And then Houston over here zagging! Signed 33y/o Laken Tomlinson today (older, but cool if he's the Shaq Mason replacement)... and immediately moved the guard they picked 15th 3 years ago for a safety. :confused:

49ers are racking up comp picks

49ers are apparently clearing space for the Purdy extension... but I'm not sure he's that much of a generational QB that you really need to do that a year ahead of time. We are going to find out just how much of an offensive genius Kyle Shanahan is this year - betting on an injury free year from McCaffrey and Kittle I guess is the plan.

If the 49ers don't win a Super Bowl are they up there with the early 90's Bills for best run from a team that didn't win/most disappointing denouement? Another team that looked dominant after building out the lines that then started spending draft capital and huge extension $$$ on luxury pieces at skill positions, now they're 6-11 talking about comp picks and whether they can save $$$ by paying their (average? above average?) QB $40 million or $50 million a season, it can happen fast.

I think the issue is that you can be a contender with Brock Purdy if he's making rookie scale money. I don't think you can be a contender if Brock Purdy is making $40 million a year.