Dan GrazianoDec 5, 2025, 06:40 AM ETCloseDan Graziano is a senior NFL national reporter for ESPN, covering the entire league and breaking news. Dan also contributes to Get Up, NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, Sunday NFL Countdown and Fantasy Football Now. He is a New Jersey native who joined ESPN in 2011, and he is also the author of two published novels.Follow on X
play0:55Matt Bowen: A.J. Brown is starting to trend up in fantasyMatt Bowen details why A.J. Brown is a low-end WR1 in fantasy for Week 14.
play2:21Can Stephen A. see the Cowboys winning the NFC East over the Eagles?Heading into Week 14, Stephen A. Smith explains why the Eagles will hold off the Cowboys for the NFC East title.
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Matt Bowen: A.J. Brown is starting to trend up in fantasyMatt Bowen details why A.J. Brown is a low-end WR1 in fantasy for Week 14.
Can Stephen A. see the Cowboys winning the NFC East over the Eagles?Heading into Week 14, Stephen A. Smith explains why the Eagles will hold off the Cowboys for the NFC East title.
Heading into Week 14, Stephen A. Smith explains why the Eagles will hold off the Cowboys for the NFC East title.
So this time of year, we like to take a look at some interesting players whose teams might — for one reason or another — move on from them when the season ends. A lot of times, these moves happen for salary cap savings reasons and are easy to forecast. But in this annual space, we like to try to look beyond the typical “cap casualty” and point to some scenarios that might have other motives behind them.
A lot of those moves from last offseason might not have felt obvious last December, but these sorts of cuts and trades happen all the time. The point here is to prepare you for some of the ones to come — or at least find some situations where things might not be as solid as you think.
Aiyuk hasn’t played in 2025 at all after tearing his ACL seven games into the 2024 season, but he did have 1,342 receiving yards in 2023.
The question is how, though. Would a team trade for Murray and that contract, knowing the 2027 guarantees would kick in shortly after the acquisition? Would Arizona have to pay down some of the money, or would Murray have to work with his new team on a contract adjustment? And if the Cardinals can’t trade him, would they just release him before the 2027 guarantees kick in? That’d mean paying him $36.8 million in 2026 to go away and absorbing $55 million in dead salary cap charges.
Murray doesn’t even turn 29 until next August, so in a league where second-chance quarterbacks have become the rage, it’s entirely possible some front office will take a chance on him if the Cardinals decide to release or trade him. He struggled in five games this season, but Murray was ninth in QBR last year at 63.4.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know this has been a turbulent season for Brown in Philadelphia. We don’t have to rehash all of that here. But despite that, it is not a certainty that Brown or the Eagles want to dissolve this relationship any time soon. It remains well within the range of potential outcomes that the Eagles repeat as Super Bowl champions and everyone decides to stay married.
However, it’s also well within the range of potential outcomes that Brown wants out and/or the Eagles decide to move on. Should that happen, it would almost certainly have to be via a trade, since Brown is owed a fully guaranteed $29 million in 2026. As such, releasing him would trigger nearly $72.5 million in dead cap charges. Trading him, meanwhile, would drop that number to around $43.5 million, which is still high but more manageable.
The Eagles and/or Brown would have to be highly motivated to separate, but depending on the way the rest of this season goes, that could end up being the case. To this point, Brown has 699 receiving yards and six scores.
Humphrey isn’t even 30 years old, yet this is his ninth season in Baltimore, spanning his entire NFL career. He will have one year and $19.25 million left on his contract after this season. None of that money is guaranteed, but $4 million of it is in a roster bonus that is due the fifth day of the 2026 league year. Presumably, the Ravens would want to decide before that date whether to extend Humphrey, move on from him or just pay him the bonus and let him play out the final year of his deal.
Taylor signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Chiefs prior to the 2023 season as part of their effort to shore up the offensive line. He has been their starting right tackle all three seasons since then. But he has also been the most penalized player in the NFL over that span, with 49 (41 accepted) in 45 games. The next-highest penalty total is 37 (Tunsil).
This one’s interesting to watch. Linderbaum was one of Baltimore’s two first-round picks (along with Kyle Hamilton, nice draft) in 2022. He has been a mainstay on the offensive line since his rookie season, and he’s a very important player the Ravens would like to keep.
However, Baltimore declined his fifth-year option in the spring, which means he is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season ends. Yes, the Ravens could franchise-tag him, but that’s probably going to cost around $27 million. Even the transition tag would cost around $25 million. The fifth-year option that they declined would have been $23.4 million, so using a tag wouldn’t make a lot of sense, given they could have kept him for less.
The flip side is that Linderbaum should hold his ground and demand no less than $59 million fully guaranteed over the first two years of a new deal, since that’s what it would cost to tag him twice. All of this is to say that this situation has a chance to get very complicated, even though the Ravens might want Linderbaum back and he might want to be back. He is second to Humphrey in pass block win rate among centers since 2022 (96.0%).
Diggs has been working his way back from injury and still has a chance to show enough over the rest of the season to convince Dallas to keep him. But at this point, it’s no sure thing that they do. Diggs had 11 interceptions back in 2021, but he has only six over the past four seasons combined and last played 17 games in 2022.
Can Stephen A. see the Cowboys winning the NFC East over the Eagles?
Now, the Seahawks are one of the best teams in the league, and Darnold is a big part of the reason why. He’s ninth in QBR at 64.3 and completing 68.3% of his throws. Odds are the Seahawks keep him for 2026. But they build these contracts this way on purpose — to give themselves maximum flexibility. If the Seahawks decide Darnold isn’t their guy — or if they find someone else they think is an upgrade — they would be in position to pivot without very much financial pain.
The Bears used the 10th pick in the draft on tight end Colston Loveland, who has become a bigger part of the offense as his rookie year has progressed. Kmet is signed for two more years at $10 million per year, but none of that money is guaranteed. The dead money hit if Chicago cut him would be just $3.2 million.
Kmet has been a useful and reliable part of the Bears’ offense and could certainly continue to coexist with Loveland in 2026 and beyond. He has 231 yards and two scores on the season. But if Chicago is looking for a place to find some cap relief next spring, Kmet’s contract could be vulnerable.
Garrett is 3.5 sacks behind the single-season record (19) with five games to play. He might be the greatest player in the NFL right now. But in his nine seasons, his teams have a combined record of 56-87-1, and he has played in a total of two playoff games. So, just in case he decides to go full Micah Parsons next offseason and force the Browns’ hand, I think it’s important to point out that his latest contract extension does not make it difficult to trade him.
I’m not saying it’s going to happen. What I am saying is that, if circumstances changed and either through Garrett’s doing or for other reasons the Browns changed their stance, the contract is tradable. What is a list like this for if not to enlighten y’all on something like that?
Last year, Deebo Samuel was listed in this space to represent the 49ers’ receivers room, but it wouldn’t have shocked to see Aiyuk’s name instead. This year, things have ramped up. The Niners having voided the remaining guarantees in Aiyuk’s deal and are seemingly at a point where both sides have some interest in moving on. There has been a belief around the league for some time that Aiyuk wants to play in Washington with Jayden Daniels (whom he played with at Arizona State before Daniels transferred to LSU), and he could get that chance if the Niners trade him there.
Murray’s contract isn’t easy to escape. He is owed $36.8 million in fully guaranteed salary and bonuses for 2026, and if he’s on the roster on the fifth day of the league year in March, his $19.5 million 2027 salary becomes fully guaranteed. Those kinds of figures tend to buy job security, but given Murray’s struggles this season even before he was injured and the way Jacoby Brissett has been able to operate the offense in Murray’s absence, the writing feels like it’s on the wall for Murray in Arizona. It wouldn’t shock many in the league if the Cardinals moved on after this season.
As of right now — with obviously some extensions still to come that could change this — Humphrey’s $19.25 million would be the fifth highest for any cornerback in the league in 2026. Is he the fifth-best corner in the NFL? Odds are something gets done with this contract or Humphrey is gone from Baltimore in 2026, even though he has five pass breakups and an interception this season. The Ravens have been getting younger in the secondary through recent drafts and could certainly continue that trend.
Darnold signed a three-year, $100.5 million contract with the Seahawks in free agency this year. He is under contract for a very reasonable $28 million in 2026 and $45.7 million in 2027. But as is the Seahawks’ policy with veteran contracts, none of the money beyond the first year was guaranteed at signing. If Darnold is still on the Seahawks’ roster five days after the Super Bowl (so, Feb. 13), then $17.5 million of his 2026 compensation becomes fully guaranteed. But if they were to cut him before that, they wouldn’t owe even one more penny and would be on the hook for just $25.6 million in dead money.