Your one stop for 2025 NFL offseason stuff. New league year officially beings March 12 so any transactions are not official until 4pm ET that date, but trade negotiations are allowed right now.
Other upcoming dates:
March 4: Franchise tag deadline
March 10: Free agent negotiating period begins
March 30 - April 2: Annual league meeting
April 7: Teams with new head coaches can begin their offseason programs
April 18: Restricted free agent deadline
April 21: Everyone else can begin their offseason programs
April 24 - 26: 2025 NFL Draft
May 1: Fifth-year option deadline
May 2: Rookie minicamps begin
May 20 - 21: Spring league meeting
July 15: Franchise tag extension deadline
So far, the big moves have been:
The 49ers traded Deebo Samuel to Washington for a 5th round pick (#148 overall).
The Bengals franchise tagged Tee Higgins for the second straight year. He’ll get $26.2 million guaranteed unless they can work out a contract by July 15.
Matthew Stafford re-signed with the Rams.
The Eagles released Darius Slay.
Jimmy Johnson retires from FOX Sports and presumably from broadcasting, though that was not specified.
The draft will be in Green Bay this year; the city has been going bonkers over this for the better part of the past year. There aren’t nearly enough hotel rooms in the immediate Green Bay area to handle the number of people expected to attend, so not only are Airbnb and VRBO rentals in the area insanely expensive for draft weekend, but many hotels an hour or more away from the city have been long sold out. Even hotels in Milwaukee (100 miles away) expect to be fully booked for the weekend.
If anyone was wondering, I just did my Combine measurements on the couch and I have the 3rd largest hands of any QB in the draft. Put me on your board. I think I can do some stretching and get that up to 1st before my pro day.
As the Jets continue to move on from the Aaron Rodgers era, they are parting ways with two of Rodgers’ favorite wide receivers, by releasing Davante Adams (for whom they had traded midway through last season), and informing Allen Lazard that he can seek a trade.
Man, the acquisition of Rodgers by the Jets continues to be one of the worst moves in NFL history. He completely fucked that team. Remember when all the pundits were saying that the Jets were just a QB away from the Super Bowl and that adding Rodgers made them instant contenders? I do
Saquon gets paid; the Eagles are rewarding him for his awesome 2024 season with a two-year, $41.2 million contract extension, which contains an additional $15 million in incentives and escalators.
Bears send a 6th round pick to the Rams for G Jonah Jackson, 28. Jackson had a Pro Bowl year in 2021 for Detroit. Signed a 3-year $51 million contract with L.A. last spring, and is owed $17.5 million in 2025. Played only 4 games for the Rams due to a scapula injury but has been a good player otherwise.
The Packers were able to achieve one of their priorities in free agency, by keeping kicker Brandon McManus, whom they signed to a 3-year contract today.
After moving on from veteran Mason Crosby in the 2023 offseason, Green Bay had a year-plus of really awful kicking, between Anders Carlson in 2023, and Brayden Narveson in the first part of 2024. After signing with the Packers in mid-October, McManus was perfect on extra points, and hit 95% of his field goals in '24, including hitting a game-winner in his first game as a Packer.
Bengals DE Sam Hubbard retiring at age 29 after 7 seasons in the league. Finishes with 398 total tackles, 38.5 sacks, 5 fumble recoveries for 62 yards, and 1 interception.
Seahawks release Tyler Lockett, 32. They will take a $13.895 million dead money hit this season. They saved $27 million in cap space by cutting OLB Dre’Mont Jones, DT Roy Robertson-Harris, S Rayshawn Jenkins and OT George Fant yesterday.
So the Chiefs franchise tag Trey Smith, the other guard, which prevented the Bears from overpaying him in FA. And now the Bears are trading for the other guard. A guy who has one year left on this deal.
Between Jackson and Thuney, the Bears now have spent a 4th and a 6th round pick and committed $33.5M to the 2 OGs for next year. Both guys were apparently deemed expendable by their former playoff teams. Jackson was mostly injured last year and Thuney is 32. I would have to guess that the Bears will sign Thuney to an extension, before the start of the season.
Obviously, the Bears really need to fix their OL, but this looks an awful lot like a repeat of the pattern that didn’t work last couple years. These guys are more decorated than Bates or Shelton, and Davis or Feeney the year before, but Poles has created a pattern of burning middle round picks for IOLs every year he’s been the GM. It hasn’t worked once. And now we’re paying top dollar too.
If the Bears leave Day 2 of the draft without having taken a single IOL this will be a disaster of an offseason. We’ll pray that Thuney and Jackson can revert to their Pro Bowl forms, but if that was likely their original teams wouldn’t have parted ways with them. And looking around the league, both of these trades look like overpays. We’re bailing them out on the cap trouble. A 4th rounder is too much for Thuney. I’m sure the meatballs will clap because they don’t think Day 3 picks are valuable, they are too much of a gamble, but those people are wrong. The contract math and ages are too damn important. Veteran OLs on the market are stop gaps at best.
This Barkley deal is insanity. I have no idea what they are doing. Saquon just signed a new 3 year deal for ~$13M/year less than a year ago.
CMC was the highest paid guy at $16M/year and after this past season, that contract is looking like it could be an absolute albatross for the 49ers. Now the Eagles are paying Saquon $21M/year with incentives for more? What?!?
I get that Saquon outplayed his original deal and he basically carried that team to a Super Bowl, so this obviously feels like a nice reward for the career year, but paying for past success is not a strategy you expect a savvy team like the Eagles to take. And even if they did want to give him a bonus, did that really need to overtop CMCs annual salary by 132%? That’s just wild.
The Raiders have signed the guy who is likely their best player, defensive end/edge rusher Maxx Crosby, to a 3-year contract extension, running through 2029. The contract ($106.5 million, with $91.5 million guaranteed) makes Crosby the highest-paid non-quarterback ($33.5 million annual salary) in league history, at least for the moment.
Crosby had been a first- or second-team All-Pro for three straight seasons (2021-23), before an ankle injury limited him to 12 games in 2024.
The Packers have announced that Crosby will “retire as a Packer,” which, I’m guessing, means that he and the team will agree to a contract to be in place when he formally files his retirement with the NFL.
Crosby played sixteen seasons with Green Bay, and holds the franchise records for games played and consecutive games played, as well as for points, field goals, and extra points. After he was given his free agency from the Packers two years ago, he played in three late-season games for the Giants in 2023, but did not play or sign with a team last season.
