2026 NFL Discussion.

[madbad2000]

With free agency about to start and a few trades queued up there is no better time than now to start the discussion for the 2026 season.

[adambr2]

I can’t believe the Bears got a 2nd round pick for DJ Moore who was probably going to be their 4th target this year.

It’s obnoxious seeing all these other teams just give great deals to the Bears. The 1.01 Bryce Young trade continues to pay dividends.

[JosephC]

Bears were smart to dump Moore when they did.  At his best, he is an excellent, really under-rated WR.  Problem is, the Bears gave him a big, fat contract last off-season and he kind of Rashan Gary'ed them.  He can probably still be very, very, very good if he wants to be.

[adambr2]

Maxx Crosby domino fell. He’s on his way to Baltimore for 2026 and 2027 first round picks.

I would consider this trade nearly identical to what we gave up for Parsons — Baltimore has an appealing #14 pick this year compared to our #20, but we also gave up Clark.

[CheezWizHed]

Linderbaum to the Raiders for $27M/yr.  I know he is the best C in FA, but is he really that game changing to pay that much for a C? 

 

[LouisEly]

In one of the more curious moves of the last two weeks, Lions starting LT Taylor Decker asked for and received his release.  The Lions had asked Decker to take a pay cut.  His release saves the Lions $11.6M in cap space, but creates a huge hole.

Lions probably going to be looking LT at #17.  They aren't going to get one for $11M.

[JosephC]

22 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

Linderbaum to the Raiders for $27M/yr.  I know he is the best C in FA, but is he really that game changing to pay that much for a C? 

 

I put him as the #1 free agent in this class.

When talking about all the other top free agents, they all had stuff like, "is relatively inexperienced," "had a bad year in 2024," "suffered through injury filled seasons in 2023 and 2024" attached to them.

Every time Linderbaum's name came up, the talk was always something like, "how does a player this young and this good get to free agency."

I agree that 27 million per year is too much.  But I would pay him in the 20-22 million range ahead of paying Sean Rhyan 11 million in a millisecond. 

[LouisEly]

22 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Every time Linderbaum's name came up, the talk was always something like, "how does a player this young and this good get to free agency."

I was told that if a player doesn't get a second contract with the team who drafted him then he sucks.

[CheezWizHed]

1 hour ago, JosephC said:

I put him as the #1 free agent in this class.

When talking about all the other top free agents, they all had stuff like, "is relatively inexperienced," "had a bad year in 2024," "suffered through injury filled seasons in 2023 and 2024" attached to them.

Every time Linderbaum's name came up, the talk was always something like, "how does a player this young and this good get to free agency."

I agree that 27 million per year is too much.  But I would pay him in the 20-22 million range ahead of paying Sean Rhyan 11 million in a millisecond. 

Being a #1 FA in the class doesn't mean much, IMO.  That just means you are the best player that your original team didn't want to pay.  

FA is all about scarcity.... if you don't have much value, people still pay $$ for what is available.  Often making bad choices. I saw an article comparing FA last year to this year... Mediocre CB and LB last year were getting more money than higher ranked players this year.  Supply and demand... 

[HarryDoyle]

I have no idea what the Raiders are doing throwing tons of money at free agents when they should be rebuilding through the draft. I guess that's why they're the Raiders.

[HarryDoyle]

Big news out of Baltimore. The Ravens are backing out of the Maxx Crosby trade after failing his physical.

[homer]

50 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

Big news out of Baltimore. The Ravens are backing out of the Maxx Crosby trade after failing his physical.

Watch the Bears get him now. 

[HarryDoyle]

7 hours ago, homer said:

Watch the Bears get him now. 

Yes, please give up those two first round picks for a soon to be 30 year old guy that just failed his physical.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

3 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Yes, please give up those two first round picks for a soon to be 30 year old guy that just failed his physical.

Yeah, similar thoughts. The Bears seem to be on the right path. That's the kind of thing that would throw it off the rails.

[homer]

3 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Yes, please give up those two first round picks for a soon to be 30 year old guy that just failed his physical.

Ravens may have knocked his trade value down

[madbad2000]

Ravens nix the Crosby trade then pivot to Hendrickson on 4 year, $112M deal.  

[GAME05]

The way people are talking up Kyler Murray makes a person wonder why Arizona got rid of him in the first place.

[JosephC]

Murray is not a top player, but I think he's a legitimate NFL starting QB.  Where he ranks on the scale of starting QBs....I'd probably stick him in at something like #20-#23.  That said, #20-#23 is a massive improvement over JJ McCarthy.  It really sucks as a Packer fan, because the Vikings weren't in a good position to upgrade the QB position this off-season, and they end up having a legitimate starting QB fall into their lap for at a rock bottom price.  I think they will be much better even with a mediocre starting QB.  McCarthy really held them back last year.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

11 hours ago, JosephC said:

Murray is not a top player, but I think he's a legitimate NFL starting QB.  Where he ranks on the scale of starting QBs....I'd probably stick him in at something like #20-#23.  That said, #20-#23 is a massive improvement over JJ McCarthy.  It really sucks as a Packer fan, because the Vikings weren't in a good position to upgrade the QB position this off-season, and they end up having a legitimate starting QB fall into their lap for at a rock bottom price.  I think they will be much better even with a mediocre starting QB.  McCarthy really held them back last year.

I don't think he's any good, really. But a one-year Walmart contract is pretty much a dream for Minnesota. No commitment, an upgrade at the position, and if it goes well they will extend him during the season. I'm hoping he doesn't faceplant and does just enough to get them to commit to a bigger deal and be stuck with him for a bit, because I don't think he's a real answer, but he's good enough to keep them in purgatory. 

[homer]

28 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I don't think he's any good, really. But a one-year Walmart contract is pretty much a dream for Minnesota. No commitment, an upgrade at the position, and if it goes well they will extend him during the season. I'm hoping he doesn't faceplant and does just enough to get them to commit to a bigger deal and be stuck with him for a bit, because I don't think he's a real answer, but he's good enough to keep them in purgatory. 

I think Baker Mayfield is a free agent after the 2026 season. The plan might be a one-year stop gap and then try and sign him. I don't see anyone else worth going after. 

[GAME05]

Ten different streaming services and something like $800 to watch every NFL game this coming season, plus RedZone now has commercials. FCC is now launching an inquiry into the NFL with the possibility they could lose their antitrust exemption on the idea that it's no longer freely available for the common viewer to watch. 

 

[endaround]

The NFL fighting tooth and nail to save thousands of dollars a year willing to make games intolerable slogs and refereed terribly!

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48298693/nfl-consider-rule-proposals-case-ref-work-stoppage

[CheezWizHed]

15 hours ago, endaround said:

The NFL fighting tooth and nail to save thousands of dollars a year willing to make games intolerable slogs and refereed terribly!

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48298693/nfl-consider-rule-proposals-case-ref-work-stoppage

Never forget. 😞

[young guns]

The league office can claim all they want that the replacements were fine and that call was correct, however after that call, things were wrapped up very quickly to get the regular refs back.  Maybe they are hoping they can mitigate it with this plan, but I can't imagine the chaos this will cause during GameDay.

Just pay them.  It's worth it.

[nate82]

The NFL in general doesn’t have a ref problem like in MLB.  The NFL normally has a rule change that is so vague it puts the refs in a bad spot problem.  See what defines as a catch from a few years ago.

The NFL just needs to pay the refs.