And Philadelphia has signed WR Hollywood Brown for 1 year, up to $6.5 million
Andy Dalton to the Eagles for slightly more than a ham sandwich (a seventh-round pick in 2027). Sam Howell signed with the Cowboys, and it sounds like the Eagles wanted a veteran backup for Jalen Hurts.
Cleveland has proposed a rule change that would allow teams to trade draft picks up to 5 years in the future, as opposed to the 3 years currently allowed.
doesn’t matter, they’re still not going to get it right 
It would let them further mortgage their future for questionable trades. 
Pretty much that. That’s longer than the average NFL career.
They want to continue to make poor decisions and let the next GM/Coach (or the ones after that or even the ones after those, given the average tenure in Cleveland) deal with the consequences
Here we go again:
Unfortunately, the Packers and Seahawks don’t face off this season.
Looking at this as a Dolphin fan, I’m increasingly happy with the outcome.
Miami has an obscene amount of dead money this year, but they do have enough left that they can sign rookies. At this point, they have 11 draft picks in the upcoming draft (including 4 3rds: how about moving up on draft day?).
Meanwhile, they give up Waddle. He’s got great upside - and I hope he thrives in Denver- but he was never a clear #1 receiver for Miami.
It appears that Miami is going to extend the contract for De’von Achane, who is their most dynamic offensive weapon. But it’s going to be a new generation of (hopefully superstar) draft picks that fills out the roster.
This year is obviously a rebuild. But it could plant the seeds of a dynasty (hope springs eternal). And next year they get back over $100 million in cap money.
Hope springs eternal!
This ESPN article notes that about 1/6th of the Jets’ total cap space for 2026 is being taken up by their last two opening-day quarterbacks – Justin Fields and Aaron Rodgers – neither of whom are still with the team. They have a total of $104 million in dead-cap money this year, which is only third in the league: Miami has an astonishing $182 million in dead cap, and New Orleans has $116 million.
Seattle gives WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba a four-year, $168.6 million contract extension, making him, for now, the highest-paid receiver in league history.
I’m impressed that Cleveland is below them. (They are reportedly 4th highest at just over $74 million.)
I was curious who was last, and apparently it is my Seattle Seahawks, who have less than one million in dead cap (actually, less than a half million).
Full list is here:
The Jets, Dolphins, and Saints are all carrying dead cap numbers over $100 million this year to get to zero in 2027 (Fins will still have about $57M in 2027, but that’s way better than $182M), which is set to be a good free agent class and a great draft class. If there’s a year to do it, it’s this one. The tank-a-thon is on!
A race to the bottom is still a race!
Joe Flacco has agreed to stay in Cincinnati for 1 year, $6 million, could go to $9 million with incentives.
Odell Beckham Jr. has indicated an interest in returning to the Giants, and John Harbaugh (who coached Beckham in his last productive season, in 2023 with the Ravens) has said that they would at least be willing to entertain the idea.
It’s highly questionable as to how much Beckham has left in the tank. He’s now 33 years old, is ten years removed from his last All-Pro season, and after only making nine catches with the Dolphins in '24, he didn’t play at all last season: he was a free agent, and wound up suspended for PEDs for the first six games of 2025, but never signed with a team last year.
And it’s been withdrawn:
There was a comment from Sean McVay earlier today basically saying the proposal had no support.
I’m guessing that NFL owners realize that, as much fun it is and how it can improve your own team, allowing some of the … less intelligently run … teams to mortgage not just a couple years, but an entire 5-10 years is not great for parity. And parity is one of the best (and revenue sharing increasing) parts of the NFL.
Does the value of draft picks change over time, as the value of money does? A million dollars right now is worth more than an ironclad promise of a million dollars one year in the future.
If I traded my third-round draft pick in 2028 for your third-round pick in 2029, who gets the better of that deal? Ignore such things as whether a given year’s draft class is considered better or worse than average.
Yes, as I understand it; all else being equal, draft picks in future years (particularly in the first few rounds) aren’t generally deemed as being as valuable as those for the next draft. Various sources I’m finding (see links below) suggest that picks for a future draft are typically seen as being worth one “lower” round than picks for the upcoming draft, due to at least two factors:
- Greater uncertainty about the future drafts (e.g., How high in the round will that pick be? How good will that draft class be?)
- A current draft pick is something that can help you win now, and all but the most successful/secure team managements knows that there’s a substantial chance that they won’t be around to capitalize on a draft pick that their team has in a year or two.