Ben SolakMar 11, 2026, 06:30 AM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.Multiple Authors
play0:48Panthers add Jaelan Phillips to the defenseDavid Newton reports on the Panthers agreeing to a four-year deal with Jaelan Phillips.
play1:28Schefter: Mike Evans is veteran presence 49ers were looking forAdam Schefter tells Pat McAfee how Mike Evans ended up signing with the 49ers.
Schefter: Titans pay up for Wan’Dale Robinson (0:45)Pat McAfee and Adam Schefter react to the Titans signing Wan’Dale Robinson. (0:45)
Panthers add Jaelan Phillips to the defenseDavid Newton reports on the Panthers agreeing to a four-year deal with Jaelan Phillips.
Schefter: Mike Evans is veteran presence 49ers were looking forAdam Schefter tells Pat McAfee how Mike Evans ended up signing with the 49ers.
The ‘No, don’t get closer to the electrical substation!’ Award: Mike Evans
The Arch Manning Seat Warmer Award: Jacoby Brissett
The 1,001st Annual Classic Overpay Award: Zion Johnson
The Don’t Cry Because It’s Over Award: Maxx Crosby to the Ravens
The More Than That Guy Award: Bryan Cook and Isaiah Likely
Most Likely to Flip Door Hinges and Handles in the Facilities: Atlanta Falcons
Well, not really. It actually starts on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET — but as ESPN’s Adam Schefter rightfully bemoaned earlier this week, let’s just start calling the legal negotiation period (which began Monday) the real opening of free agency. Almost all of the significant dust has settled on major movers and new deals.
I like to hand out awards after the early parts of every free agent period. These aren’t awards for biggest winners (your favorite team, surely) and biggest losers (the team that stole your favorite free agent targets, surely). My colleague Bill Barnwell hit all those on Tuesday. This is for the sillier stuff. The Market Buster Award. The Friendship Award. The Arch Manning Seat Warmer Award.
Jump to an award for … Edge rush class | Titans | Linderbaum Evans | Brissett | Z. Johnson | Crosby trade B. Cook and Likely | Falcons
The Panthers got beat out at the 11th hour on Milton Williams during last year’s free agency; that was not going to happen again. This time, they got their ex-Eagles defensive lineman, signing Jaelan Phillips to a jaw-dropping four-year, $120 million deal with $80 million guaranteed.
By average per year (APY), Phillips is the eight-highest-paid edge rusher in football. He’s the 11th-highest-paid defensive player overall and the 18th-highest-paid non-quarterback. His $80 million in guarantees ranks ninth among all pass rushers, too. This is one of the bigger contracts — and, accordingly, bigger shocks — of the cycle. ESPN’s Dan Graziano had Phillips forecast for $92 million over four years — an APY of $23 million, not $30 million.
After Phillips’ deal came through, the rest of the edge market followed. Odafe Oweh signed a four-year, $100 million deal with the Commanders ($25 million per year), well above the Graziano projection of $19 million annually. After Oweh was Boye Mafe, who left the Seahawks and joined the Bengals on a three-year, $60 million deal — $4 million more annually than our projection.
Even on an ever-growing cap, these deals are staggering. Mafe was a rotational player for Seattle, often seeing the fourth-most snaps at the position behind DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu and Derick Hall. Mafe had a nine-sack season in 2023 as a starter and fell out of favor in the Mike Macdonald era, so there’s certainly reason for optimism. I don’t dislike the move for the Bengals at all.
But Mafe, who is already 27, got the same APY that Greg Rousseau (Bills) and George Karlaftis (Chiefs) got on their extensions despite being three years younger with comparable production. The belief is that Mafe’s great pressure numbers will stay sticky and lead to increased sack totals in an expanded role, which is the sort of inevitable bet acquiring teams have to make in free agency.
Phillips is a consistent pressure player and has been since he entered the league. He is not, however, a sack artist. Too many of his pressures come because he goes through the opposing tackle instead of beating him cleanly around the corner, and as such, he can’t come to balance at the passer. His 8.5-sack season as a rookie is his best single-season mark, though missed time in 2023 (Achilles tear) and 2024 (ACL tear) robbed him of potentially superior seasons.
Still, first pressures that become cleanup sacks are valuable, and the Panthers desperately needed that reliable winner who could also contribute to their floundering run defense. Phillips should unlock better play from promising rookies Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen, much as he did for Hunt and Smith.
The second tier of edge rusher contracts has been in an unhealthy spot for years now. Before Phillips, Oweh and Mafe shook up the market, the deals for Montez Sweat ($24.5 million per year) and Rashan Gary ($24 million per year) stood out as oversize. With three more deals tossed into the mix, there’s a chance that the second tier really starts to collapse, as teams refuse to pay inflated figures for less-than-elite production.
David Newton reports on the Panthers agreeing to a four-year deal with Jaelan Phillips.
Free agency is always a time to celebrate the power of friendship. As coaches move from one team to another, their favorite players follow them. Better still, we see the reunions of close pals who have drifted apart over the years. The NFL is a league of connections, and those connections are strongest during offseason movement.
It’s easy to clown on friendship, as the league often suffers from its lack of cross-pollination and experimentation. But for a rebuilding team like the Titans, friendship is a viable path to competency.
Last year’s winner of “The Friendship Award” was the Commanders, and they did not benefit from the bond of companionship. They retained many of their internal veterans and made big moves for players like Deebo Samuel and Javon Kinlaw, who had previously played for GM Adam Peters’ teams. The injury bug bit Washington badly last season, but the play of aging veterans like Samuel and Bobby Wagner also contributed to the letdown season.
But that was coach Dan Quinn and Peters’ second offseason with the Commanders. In their first offseason, friendship quickly revitalized the roster. Washington brought in Wagner, Tyler Biadasz, Dante Fowler Jr. and Dorance Armstrong. Vets who know the playbook do more than just hit the ground running; they help install culture.
When the Raiders signed Linderbaum to a three-year, $81 million deal Monday, they reset the center market in a way that markets simply don’t get reset in the NFL. The then-biggest deal at center was Creed Humphrey’s deal at $18 million per year. Linderbaum’s $27 million per year represents a 50% increase at the top. Unfathomable.
Here’s a current look at the biggest contract at every position in the NFL by APY and what a new contract would have to hit in order to create a proportional increase to the “Linderbaum Leap” (copyright Ben Solak 2026, nobody else is allowed to use that without my written consent).
It’s very easy to look at the Raiders, who entered the period with over $100 million in cap space, and shrug at the Linderbaum deal. Why not sign him for whatever exorbitant figure ensured he took his services to Las Vegas and nowhere else? (This, of course, was a much easier argument to make before Maxx Crosby’s $30 million cap hit was suddenly catapulted back onto the Raiders’ cap when the Ravens failed his physical and backed out of the trade. But it’s the best Las Vegas knew at the time!)
This perspective is fine, but it doesn’t change the fact that $27 million is an enormous number. Linderbaum is the sixth-highest-paid offensive lineman in all of football on this deal — below only four left tackles and one right tackle. We’ve simply never seen an interior offensive lineman valued like this.
It’s a trend to watch. But who knows what’s really going to happen. We’re in uncharted waters here — $27 million worth of uncharted waters.
I promised myself I wouldn’t do electrical substation bits. I don’t want to encourage ridiculous theories. But when a 32-year-old receiver with a bad hamstring leaves the team he thought he’d play for until he retired to join the most injury-prone team in football … well, I’m not a tall man. I can’t say no to low-hanging fruit.
Schefter: Mike Evans is veteran presence 49ers were looking for
Adam Schefter tells Pat McAfee how Mike Evans ended up signing with the 49ers.
It’s likely a combination of all three. I admire how well the Buccaneers did him on the way out, lauding him with organization statements of gratitude even as he evidently chose another team over them. I, like all NFL fans (save for some Falcons and Saints and Panthers haters), will be sad to see Evans suit up for another team come September.
The Cardinals were one of many teams to enter the free agent period with a moderate to severe quarterback need. Determined to release Kyler Murray and start the next era of Cardinals football, Arizona was willing to take a big dead cap hit in 2026. Would it look for immediate relief in the form of Malik Willis or Tua Tagovailoa? Would new head coach Mike LaFleur lure Rams backup Jimmy Garoppolo to Arizona for one last chance to start in a familiar system?
As it turns out, the Cardinals signed Gardner Minshew. And not just Minshew, the longtime spot starter who has floated from the Eagles to the Colts and the Raiders to the Chiefs. They signed Minshew, the longtime spot starter who has floated from the Eagles to the Colts and the Raiders to the Chiefs off a season-ending leg injury!
It was a year for overpays, as the ballooning cap has kept top-tier talents from ever hitting free agency, which means only second- and third-tier talents are available, and the bad teams have even more cap space to entice them to sign. I’ve already covered players like Mafe, Oweh, Linderbaum and Phillips, all of whom came in multiple millions above my expectations.