Welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
You better buckle up and put the kids to bed because the unofficial start of free agency is today. Will your kids look at you awkwardly if you try to put them to bed at noon when the free agency tampering window starts? Probably, but we just had a time change over the weekend and no one actually knows what time it is anymore, so they might just roll with it.
Although free agency doesn’t technically start until Wednesday, players are allowed to agree to a deal with a new team starting at noon ET today, so … You know what, why don’t I just explain this stuff in the actual newsletter. We have a lot of stuff to cover today — like everything that happened over the weekend — so let’s get to the rundown.
We’ll be covering all of today’s free agency action in our live blog and I’ll be running point on that, so you’ll definitely want to make sure to check it out here.
As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.
1. Why NFL free agency unofficially starts today
The NFL calendar says that free agency won’t be starting until 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, but don’t be fooled by that. The real action begins today: The legal tampering period opened at noon ET, which means there’s a good chance that several deals could already be in place by the time you read this.
Once the legal tampering period starts, players are allowed to agree to terms on a contract with a new team. However, the contract can’t be signed until Wednesday.
Once the tampering period starts, things usually get pretty hot and heavy. Since deals could be going down all day Monday, here’s a reminder that we’ve put together a tracker for you so that you can stay up to date on everything that has happened so far (Click here for the tracker). We also have a live blog that will cover deals AND trades as they happen, and you can follow along by clicking here.
If a signing happens after noon ET today, we won’t have it in the newsletter, but you’ll be able to see it in both our tracker and live blog.
Also, to help you get warmed up for free agency, here’s a list of Pete Prisco’s Top 100 free agents this offseason. The top guys are usually the ones who get signed first in free agency, so it won’t be surprising at all if we see multiple players from this list agree to sign somewhere on Monday.
For players who got hit with the franchise tag, the rules are slightly different. Tee Higgins and Trey Smith — the only two players who got tagged — aren’t allowed to talk to other teams until the official start of free agency, which will come on Wednesday. If another team wants to sign one of those two players, they could make an offer, but adding one of them would come at a steep price. For instance, if a team signed Higgins, the rules of the franchise tag dictate that the team would have to send two first-round picks to the Bengals, which is why you rarely ever see franchise players sign with another team.
2. Free agency eve: Winners and losers from Sunday’s wild action
If you didn’t follow the NFL over the weekend, then you are probably completely lost right now trying to catch up on everything that happened. I didn’t think the Sunday before free agency would be the craziest day of the offseason so far, but that’s exactly what happened.
There were huge contracts handed out (Hello, Myles Garrett), there were huge trades (DK Metcalf is now in Pittsburgh) and there were even a few surprising signings (Davante Adams is now a Ram). To help us digest everything that happened, Garrett Podell came up with some winners and losers from Sunday.
WINNERS
- Myles Garrett. “Garrett huffed and puffed about sitting out games if he wasn’t traded to a contender, but in the end, he got the record-setting pay day he was looking for after all. The 29-year-old is now the NFL’s highest-paid non-QB in terms of average per year salary ($40 million) and guaranteed money ($123 million).“
- Davante Adams. “After signing with the Los Angeles Rams on a two-year, $46 million deal with $26 million guaranteed on Sunday, he got paid at the age of 32, and he gets to ring chase. The Rams were the closest of any team to knocking off the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles in the 2024 postseason in a 28-22 NFC divisional-round road playoff loss. Adams and Puka Nacua will feast in head coach Sean McVay’s offense while catching passes from Matthew Stafford.”
LOSERS
- Bengals. “The Bengals were hit with a double whammy on Sunday because not only did they see the market go up for Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson, but two of their AFC North rivals heavily benefitted from the day’s moves. Cleveland retained one of the NFL’s best pass rushers in Garrett, and Pittsburgh now has a two-headed monster at wide receiver thanks to the addition of DK Metcalf.”
- Aaron Rodgers. “Rodgers is a loser after Sunday for a couple reasons. One is two potential landing spots evaporated for him. The Las Vegas Raiders needed a quarterback, and they had plenty of cap space and draft resources. However, they opted to trade for Geno Smith, which takes them off the board. The Seattle Seahawks were an appealing, potential destination for Rodgers with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. Now Lockett, Metcalf and others are gone, and Seattle has made it clear it is rebuilding. That’s not something Rodgers wants to do at the age of 41.”
You can check out Garrett’s full list of winners and losers here.
3. Bills go on $500 million spending spree: Breaking down Josh Allen’s record-setting extension
The Bills don’t have a lot of salary cap space heading into free agency, but that didn’t stop them from handing out one of the biggest contracts in NFL history on Sunday in the form of a new deal for Josh Allen.
Here’s what you need to know about the contract:
- Josh Allen is now a very rich man. The Bills tore up Allen’s old contract and gave him a new six-year deal that’s worth a total of $330 million. The deal includes $250 million in guaranteed money, which is the highest guarantee ever given to a player in NFL history. Allen’s number tops the old mark of $230 million, which is what the Browns gave to Deshaun Watson.
- Allen took a team-friendly deal. Although Allen broke a record with the amount of guaranteed money he was given, he’ll only be making $55 million per year in his contract. Allen likely could have tried to match Dak Prescott at $60 million per year, which is the highest number in the league, but instead, he left the Bills some wiggle room. By the time he gets to the third or fourth year of this deal, his $55 million-per-year number will likely be looking like a bargain for the Bills. Despite the record-setting guarantees, this is a pretty team-friendly deal. Allen’s old contract was paying him $43 million per year and the Bills decided to give him a substantial raise after watching him earn his first MVP award.
You can see the full details of the deal here.
Now that Allen’s contract is done, that means that the Bills have handed out $520 million in contracts over the past two weeks.
- Khalil Shakir got paid. The spending spree started on Feb. 25 when Shakir landed a four-year, $60.2 million extension that included $32 million in guaranteed money.
- Terrel Bernard gets big bucks. The weekend started with Bernard landing a four-year, $50 million deal on Friday that includes $25.2 million in guarantees for the linebacker.
- Greg Rousseau also gets extension. The Bills handed out another four-year extension on Saturday when they signed Rousseau to an $80 million deal that includes $54 million in guarantees.
Between those four players, the Bills handed out $361.2 million in guaranteed money, so Bills owner Terry Pegula is going to be writing some big checks.
In other Bills news, the team also released Von Miller over the weekend in a cost-cutting move that freed up $8.4 million in salary cap space. We came up with some possible landing spots for Miller, and you can check those out here.
4. Seahawks have wild weekend: Grading the DK Metcalf and Geno Smith trades
If we learned one thing about the Seahawks over the weekend, it’s that they’ve decided to blow up the foundation of their house and start building from scratch. The Seahawks started the weekend by shockingly trading Geno Smith to the Raiders on Friday and then they ended the weekend by dealing DK Metcalf to the Steelers.
We’re going to take a look at both trades, starting with Geno to Las Vegas:
Here are the trade details from the Smith deal:
- Seahawks receive: 2025 third-round pick
- Raiders receive: Geno Smith
Here’s a look at our grades from the trade (via Bryan DeArdo):
- Seahawks grade: C+. “Is Seattle embarking on a reboot or a rebuild? Either way, the Seahawks have decided to change course after enjoying moderate success with Smith under center. The issue is that the Seahawks have not only gotten rid of Smith, they’ve also parted ways with one of franchise’s all-time greats (Lockett) and just traded a two-time Pro Bowl receiver in DK Metcalf.”
- Raiders grade: B+. “Pete Carroll isn’t interested in a long rebuild, so it makes perfect sense for him to go out and acquire a proven veteran who can bring some level of stability to Las Vegas. Having Smith on board gives the Raiders a chance at being competitive in 2025. And based on how he’s played in recent years, Smith still has some good football left him.”
You can check out DeArdo’s full explanation for each grade by clicking here.
As for the Metcalf trade, here are the details on that:
- Seahawks receive: 2025 second-round pick
- Steelers receive: DK Metcalf
- Trade notes: Metcalf will also be getting a new five-year, $150 million extension as part of the trade, so the Steelers now have him under contract through the 2029 season.
Metcalf requested a trade out of Seattle last week, so the fact that the Seahawks dealt him away isn’t that shocking. As for the Steelers, it will certainly be interesting to see if Metcalf and George Pickens can coexist.
Here’s a look at our grades from the trade (via Bryan DeArdo)
- Seahawks grade: B. “Seattle now has some major spots to fill on offense, but the Seahawks have the means to address those needs as they now have over $83 million in cap space. The Seahawks can use some of that money to sign a veteran quarterback (possibly either Sam Darnold or Aaron Rodgers) and will still have more than enough money to replenish its other areas of need, receiver included.”
- Steelers grade: A. “The Steelers have never made a trade like this, so this is undeniably a statement move by GM Omar Khan, head coach Mike Tomlin and the entire organization. Pittsburgh is tired of being good but not good enough. It wants to win now while taking advantage of the final prime years of defensive stalwarts Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick.”
If you want the full explanation for our grades, we’ve got that here.
The Seahawks didn’t spent their entire weekend trading players away; they also re-signed several key defensive players. Linebackers Ernest Jones IV inked a three-year, $33 million contract while Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed agreed to terms on a three-year, $25 million deal.
5. Mock Draft Monday: Raiders take Ashton Jeanty with sixth overall pick
If you’ve been reading this newsletter since the end of the Super Bowl, then you know that the first day of every week here is known as Mock Draft Monday, and yes, we’re even going to sneak in a mock draft today even though free agency is starting.
The one thing about today’s mock draft is that Garrett Podell was able to take into account everything that happened over the weekend. WIth the Raiders acquiring Geno Smith, that means they no longer have to worry about using a first-round pick on a quarterback, so Podell has them taking the best running back in the draft.
Let’s check out his top 10:
1. Titans: EDGE Abdul Carter (Penn State)
2. Browns: QB Cam Ward (Miami)
3. Giants: QB Shedeur Sanders (Colorado)
4. Patriots: CB/WR Travis Hunter (Colorado)
5. Jaguars: DL Mason Graham (Michigan)
6. Raiders: RB Ashton Jeanty (Boise State)
7. Jets: OT Will Campbell (LSU)
8. Panthers: WR Tetairoa McMillan (Arizona)
9. Saints: EDGE Jalon Walker (Georgia)
10. Bears: OT Armand Membou (Missouri)
If you want to see how the rest of the first round pans out in his mock, then be sure to check out Garrett’s entire mock draft by clicking here.
For more draft coverage, you can hear Ryan Wilson every week on “With the First Pick,” our year-round NFL Draft podcast here at CBS Sports. You can find “With the First Pick” wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
6. Extra points: Panthers break the bank for Jaycee Horn
It was a busy weekend in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Jaycee Horn becoming highest-paid corner in NFL history. The Panthers corner has agreed to terms on a four-year, $100 million deal that includes $70 million in guaranteed money. With an average annual value of $25 million per year, Horn is now the highest-paid corner in NFL history. That title previously belonged to Jalen Ramsey, who was making $24.1 million per year, thanks to an extension he signed in September.
- Khalil Mack returning to Los Angeles (Return of the Mack). The veteran pass-rusher decided not to test free agency. Before the tampering period started on Monday, Mack agreed to a one-year, $18 million deal to stay with the Chargers, according to ESPN.com.
- Ravens keep their starting left tackle. The Ravens took a gamble by not using the franchise tag on Ronnie Stanley and that gamble paid off. Baltimore’s left tackle could have left the team in free agency, but instead, he decided a three-year, $60 million deal with the Ravens that includes $20 million in guarantees. You can get the full details on the deal here.
- Aaron Jones to re-sign with Vikings. The running back will be returning for another year in Minnesota after signing a two-year, $20 million deal. Jones led the Vikings in rushing last season with 1,138 yards.
- Patriots signing Harold Landry. The former Titans star will be reuniting with his old head coach in New England. Landry spent six seasons playing for Mike Vrabel in Tennessee and now he’s following his old coach to the Patriots after signing a three-year, $43.5 million deal (Details here).
- Hollywood Brown staying in Kansas City. During his first season with the Chiefs in 2024, Brown only played in two regular-season games due to a shoulder injury, but the Chiefs still saw enough to want him back. The receiver is signing a one-year, $11 million deal, and you can read more about it here.
- Saints restructure Derek Carr’s deal. The Saints freed up $30.9 million in salary cap space over the weekend by restructuring Carr’s deal. The Saints desperately needed the cap space, so the move wasn’t a surprise, but it does mean that Carr will definitely be staying with the Saints for at least the 2025 season. Although Carr will almost certainly be starting this year, it will be interesting to see if the Saints take a quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft with the ninth overall pick.
- Patriots trading veteran defensive tackle to Saints. New Orleans added some defensive tackle depth on Monday after making a trade with the Patriots for Davon Godchaux. The 30-year-old had been in New England for the past four seasons, but will now be headed for the Big Easy. To make the deal happen, the Saints are sending a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Patriots. You can read more about the trade here.
Go to Source
Author: John Breech
March 10, 2025 | 1:10 pm
