Free Agency Today: Jim Harbaugh, Prince of Denmark

To cut Joey Bosa or not to cut Joey Bosa? That should be an easy question, but the Chargers have made it difficult. Plus, Colts/Titans/Lions notes.

Remember when the Buffalo Bills released Tre’Davious White, Jordan Poyer, Gabriel Davis, Mitch Morse and other veterans on the same day back in late February?

It was sudden. It was shocking, even to those of us who expected some/most of the cuts. It was also decisive. It demonstrated a clarity of vision: here’s the cap problem; here’s the solution. As a by-product, it was respectful to the veterans themselves, who got a jump on free agency. 

The Los Angeles Chargers, under the new management of Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz, opted this week for the unclear, indecisive approach. 

The Chargers achieved salary cap compliance (huzzah!) on Wednesday by releasing wide receiver Mike Williams and restructuring the contract of edge rusher Khalil Mack.

On the surface, the Chargers did well: they appear to have kept Mack, fellow edge Joey Bosa and receiver Keenan Allen on the roster, simply by cutting one oft-injured 29-year old who rarely met expectations.

“Cap compliance,” however, is a bare-minimum threshold. The Chargers entered the new league year with roughly zero dollars to spend after making two low-cost additions (Gus Edwards and Will Dissly) early in the week. They don’t have money to spend on any in-house free agents, some of whom might still be useful for a team that will need bodies to fill out its 90-man roster. (OverTheCap listed just 50 Chargers under contract on Wednesday afternoon, including Williams.) They would not have enough money to sign their rookies if the draft were tomorrow. 

The exact numbers are fuzzy, but it is almost certain that the Chargers have other moves to make to go from “compliant” to “capable of operating properly.” Allen’s job is safe, because Justin Herbert needs someone to throw to besides Quentin “Where’s the Ball?” Johnston. Cutting Bosa appears all-but necessary if the Chargers hope to do more than fill out their roster with dozens of undrafted free agents.

Flash back to the Bills for a moment. After their February purge, the Bills renegotiated Von Miller’s contract and restructured Dawson Knox’s deal. Early this week, they extended Dion Dawkins and re-signed DaQuan Jones and A.J. Epenesa. The Bills, a Super Bowl contender with no margin of error, have kept as much of their core intact as possible and bought themselves the breathing room to do a tiny bit of free agency shopping (special teams whiz and tall/fast dude Mack Hollins).

The Chargers, a rebuilding team with little reason to keep anyone over the age of 27, are doing things piecemeal and making the easy decisions look difficult.

One reason for the procrastination: the Chargers sought trade partners for Williams and Mack and are seeking them for Bosa. Suitors have been hard to come by. Williams is coming off an ACL injury. Bosa had foot surgery last year and is always banged up. Mack just turned 33. All of their contracts were backloaded, forcing would-be trade partners to take on large base salaries. Furthermore, the veteran edge-rusher market was glutted with Shaq Barrett/Danielle Hunter types. Any team that wants to invest in an aging pass rusher has probably already done so.

Another reason for the slow response by the Chargers: Hortiz and Harbaugh just inherited the team’s cap debacle weeks ago. Furthermore, Harbaugh, the team’s showrunner: a) has been out of the NFL for a decade; and b) has more authority now than he had with the 49ers.

Brandon Beane began planning his next moves for the Bills the moment Tyler Bass’ field goal sailed wide right. Harbaugh and Hortiz are still learning to work together, and Harbaugh is getting a crash course in the current state of caponomics. Still, we need to cut old/injured guys is not so hard a concept to figure out, and the Chargers could have tidied their cap issues weeks ago.

Maybe the Chargers will cut Bosa and announce some other financial machinations on Thursday. In that case, all of this will be forgotten next week. The longer the Chargers draw out their necessary cap decisions, however, the more legitimate the concern that Harbaugh has an unrealistic sense of what he signed up for.

The Chargers could probably keep all of their expensive veterans by tacking a few years onto the ends of the Bosa-Allen contracts, as they apparently did with Mack. Such a Saints-style approach would be an awful idea. The organization’s goals for 2024 should be, in order:

• Keep Justin Herbert upright;

• Soak up sublime Harbaugh wisdom;

• Enter 2025 with a clean cap. 

Future cap space should be spent on Rashawn Slater/Asante Samuel extensions and players who can help the team in 2025 and beyond, not on keeping up appearances this year. Horitz, with his Ravens front office background, knows this. Harbaugh probably does, too. But coaches aren’t great long-range planners, especially after they get used to being campus emperors. If Harbaugh is stuck on the idea of proven veteran leaders in the locker room, the Chargers rebuild will be off to a rough start.

Bosa will earn a $7 million roster bonus of the third day of the league year. This article was published on the second day. The clock is ticking. And no matter what happens, the Harbaugh administration can make life much easier for themselves in the future by emulating the organizations who know how to achieve and sustain success.

Now, let’s take a closer look at a few teams we have not talked about much this week.

The Indianapolis Colts are re-signing everyone

The Colts started pre-agency by extending the contracts of Michael Pittman (who was briefly franchise tagged, apparently because he was on vacation when the extension was finalized) and linebacker Zaire Franklin. They then re-signed cornerback Kenny Moore, edge Tyquan Lewis, punter Rigoberto Sanchez and a bunch of down-the-roster guys. The estimated cost of all these extensions runs in the $200 million range, though of course we are talking about multiple contracts with multiple structures over multiple years, making that dollar figure meaningless.

Raekwon Davis, a mammoth nose tackle who spent four so-so years with the Dolphins, was the Colts’ most notable addition. Gardner Minshew, Zack Moss and K.J. Hamler are their biggest departures to date. Joe Flacco arrived on Wednesday to replace Minshew’s grooviness with grizzledness.

The Franklin extension was the best move of the bunch: it’s always cheaper to get a deal done before a player hits free agency. Keeping Moore was also wise: reliable, consistent slot corners are hard to find. Extending Pittman, of course, keeps the Colts out of the Bengals/Tee Higgins situation. The reported Pittman figures are a notch below the elite receiver market, and that’s appropriate.

One note on Pittman: he led the NFL in targets (26), receptions (21) and yards (157) on RPOs last year, per Sports Info Solutions. Shane Steichen likes the RPO, and the Colts relied on the tactic to create easy completions for both Richardson and Minshew. Pittman is capable of much more, and he should look more like a traditional WR1 if the Colts can open their offense up in Richardson’s second year.

I like what the Colts are doing. They can get additional receiver help in the draft. They have young outside cornerbacks who could take a step forward. They will be a fun team if Richardson starts scratching his Josh Allen-like potential. And I am generally a fan of using free agency to retain players instead of just adding lots and lots of names that get fans excited but are no better than the guys who are leaving town.

The Detroit Lions are waiting on Reader

The big story in Detroit is that defensive tackle D.J. Reader plans to visit the team on Thursday. That’s right: Reader is so old-school that he’s visiting. Remember when major free agents used to visit teams, about 10-15 years ago? I even wrote about the visits for Bleacher Report back in 2015. They used to involve steak dinners, trips to NBA games, even junkets with the free agent’s wife to check out some toney real estate. Who knew that such visits would be replaced by insider reports delivered 48 hours before the start of free agency? 

Anyway, the Lions should be happy about the visit: Dan Campbell, Glenn, and GM Brad Holmes are a trio of guys who can seal the deal in a face-to-face setting. Why, I can picture Campbell’s entrance now:

I am certainly happy that Reader scheduled a Thursday visit: it minimizes the chance that this segment will be obsolete before you read it.

The Lions also signed cornerbacks Carlton Davis and Amik Robertson this week. 

Davis was part of the excellent young Buccaneers secondary. He generally played on the left side – Todd Bowles is a “cornerback sides” guy, as is Aaron Glenn when he has the manpower – and matches up best against bigger receivers. 

Robertson has gotten by as a starter for bad Raiders teams for two years. He played on the right side in 2023, but the Lions probably see him as a dime defender, with Cam Sutton on the right and Brian Branch in the slot, at least until the inevitable injury crisis.

Finally, the Lions allowed guard Jonah Jackson to sign a whopping contract with the Rams, opting to extend versatile veteran Graham Glasgow instead. 

The cornerback reinforcements were necessary, but Reader could be the player the Lions need to stand toe-to-toe with the 49ers among NFC contenders. Then again, the 49ers have been very, very busy over the last three days. But that’s a story for another day.

The Tennessee Titans signed a random assortment of skill position players

New Titans receiver Calvin Ridley caught just 62.4% of passes of 15 air yards or less thrown to him in 2023, the seventh-lowest “completion rate” in the NFL among players targeted 50-plus times. Jaguars teammate Zay Jones ranked sixth, so Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Beathard and the overall loosey-goosey state of the Jaguars offense probably had a lot to do with many of the misfires. But Ridley also dropped eight passes and was a likely culprit for some of the loosey-gooseyness.

The Titans overpaid for Ridley at $50 million guaranteed over four years, but that’s not a big deal: they need pure speed and explosiveness, and Ridley provides it. The problems in Tennessee are:

• New running back Tony Pollard is a downgrade from Derrick Henry, making him a superfluous addition;

• DeAndre Hopkins’ desiccated husk is still in the team’s plans. Hopkins still has some value as a contested-catch guy, but he’s aging, expensive and could be cut for $10 million in cap savings;

• Will Levis has been penciled in as the uncontested starting quarterback, with newcomer Mason Rudolph providing little more than a nudge and Malik Willis still undeniably a citizen of planet Earth if nothing else.

Levis threw four touchdown passes in his rookie debut, mostly by just launching 50-50 balls to Hopkins. He then spent two months getting pummeled behind one of the NFL’s worst lines, rarely showing much more than a willingness to absorb punishment.

Building around Levis makes as much sense as the Falcons building around Desmond Ridder or the Commanders around Sam Howell in 2023: it’s wishful thinking disguised as cautious player development. 

Not every team that needs a quarterback can get into position to select one, at least without trading so much draft capital that it causes another set of problems. There’s just a dreary fish-nor-foul quality to the Titans’ offensive moves. Their new skill position corps is not all that great nor all that cheap. They are surrounding Levis with an old superstar who no longer gets separation, a speedster who runs imprecise routes and suffers concentration drops, a fake Deebo whose best trait is “large” (Treylon Burks), a toolsy-but-unspectacular tight end (Chigoziem Okonkwo) and a running back so ordinary even Jerry Jones couldn’t bring himself to overpay him. And Mike Vrabel isn’t around anymore to growl everyone to two or three extra wins.

Oh well: what were the chances we would pay attention to the Titans after Derrick Henry left, anyway?