Howie Roseman's Delivery Service*

The Eagles lock down Saquon Barkley and Darius Slay, the Chiefs choose Trey Smith over Joe Thuney, and other notes from a frenetic NFL Wednesday.

It’s time for a Too Deep Zone Emergency News ‘n’ Notes Roundup! Let’s catch up on some of the signings, trades and rumors that have kept the NFL news cycle spinning during the “down time” between the end of the Combine and next week’s pre-free agency consensual fondling period.

Eagles extend Saquon Barkley, re-sign Zack Baun, release Darius Slay

From a wet-blanket analytical standpoint, the Barkley move is highly questionable, while the Baun move is at least a little suspect. (Analytics will always approve of releasing a 34-year old cornerback after you just drafted two keepers at the position.) You probably don’t need to read another Running Backs Don’t Matter sermon, and before you argue that Barkley is immune to the running back aging curve because of #reasons, pause and ask if you said the same things when the 49ers extended Christian McCaffrey last offseason.

Now let’s check in on how my neighbors in South Jersey are reacting to the Barkley and Baun contracts:

That’s a 12-hour video, BTW. It really captures the mood here in town.**

While Howie Roseman has made an expensive, risky series of moves, he has made them decisively, with clear intent. The Eagles are acting, rather than letting attrition just happen to them.

The Eagles also just made sure that arguably the two best players on their Super Bowl team will remain on the roster through 2026. So perhaps the flurry of Eagles moves, like a pointillist painting, is best appreciated from a distance instead of through a microscope.

Oh, and if it sounds like the Barkley-Baun moves are being graded on a Boy That Parade Was Fun curve, well … yes, I would rather see the Eagles try to run it back with the players who brought indelible memories last season than see them play evangelical Moneyball and try to improve their outlook for 2027 by letting Baun walk. There may be something to be said for appealing to the wisdom of the ticket-and-memorabilia-buying fans after a magical season.

Oh, and Slay said he would be willing to come back if he doesn’t get the right offer in free agency. There are lots of younger cornerbacks on the market, so he might not get the right offer in free agency.

Chiefs franchise tag Joe Thuney, trade Trey Smith to the Bears

Whoops! That header is backwards. Gotta admit it appears to make more sense than the actual header:

Chiefs franchise tag Trey Smith, trade Joe Thuney to the Bears

The Chiefs are keeping a 26-year old who performed well at his position last year while trading the 32-year old who “saved” them by performing well enough after switching positions. A Smith extension can save them cap space; a Thuney extension would be suboptimal for a team that is already rewarding some pricey old-timers for past accomplishments (Travis Kelce will indeed be back for his Liam Neeson Climbine a Fence season). The moves make more sense when you think of Thuney as an aging left guard, not the Hero Who Was Not Kingsley Suamataia.

The Chiefs now need two tackles and a guard. No worries! I am working on my offensive lineman draft prep and have so far identified … um … zero guard or tackle prospects who can start for a contender immediately and are likely to be anywhere near the draft board at 31.

Thuney will replace outgoing free agent Tevin Jenkins, who became a capable guard after flopping as a rookie left tackle, in Chicago. What the Bears will accomplish by getting older on offense is not entirely clear.

Seahawks exploring DK Metcalf trade

Metcalf is only good at running fast in a straight line and outjumping smaller cornerbacks (pretty much all of them) for deep balls. But he remains really good at that. In fact, he may be getting better. Here are Metcalf’s statistics on passes of 20-plus Air Yards in 2023 and 2024:

2023: 27 targets, 17 catchable targets, 11 catches, 391 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 drops.

2024: 31 targets, 19 catchable targets, 14 catches, 445 yards, 5 touchdowns, 0 drops.

Metcalf tied George Pickens and Darnell Mooney for second in the NFL with 14 catches of 20-plus Air Yards in 2024; Justin Jefferson led the NFL with 15.

Metcalf has high-maintenance moments and will need a new contract, but that’s standard equipment for any wide receiver on the trade market. We’re not doing “Five Landing Spots for Metcalf” fanfic here at TDZ. But receiver-hungry contenders who have need of Metcalf’s very specific set of skills (two Neeson references!) should make inquiries.

Seahawks release Tyler Lockett

Jaxon Smith-Njigba fully overtook Lockett as the Seahawks’ top possession target last year. JSN was targeted for 42 third/fourth down passes to Lockett’s 25 in 2024, for example. Lockett also caught just 8 passes for 89 yards in his final five games. And he turns 33 in September. None of this sounds like the profile of a wide receiver likely to bounce back if he gets a change of scenery.

The Lockett cut and Metcalf trade efforts make it sound like the Seahawks are planning a soft relaunch. If they had done that last offseason, they might be half rebuilt already!

Jaguars release Christian Kirk

No human on earth is as valuable – or as worthless – as Trent Baalke perceives them to be when he’s on one of his power trips. Kirk was never good enough to pay real dividends on the $72-million contract Baalke signed him to — even in 2022, Kirk finished 24th in DYAR — but is too good to be released by a four-win team. But this is what happens to veteran receivers with $24-million cap figures coming off collarbone injuries after the bug-nuts GM who signed them is fired.

The Jaguars were incapable of getting Kirk the ball in the first two weeks of the 2024 season (2 catches on 7 targets). Then they force-fed him 22 targets in two games. Then he went back to being a role player on a dysfunctional offense before getting hurt. Doug Pederson/Press Taylor offenses often start out looking swell but degenerate into randomness after two-plus years of inattentive coaching. A healthy Kirk in a sensible slot role can probably help a good team. I’d recommend him over lots of the bigger names on the wide receiver market. Including Tyler Lockett.

Raiders make Maxx Crosby the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL

All three things are true:

• He deserves it!

• The Raiders had no choice. And

• They have nothing better to do with their money.

Maxx Crosby says that Aaron Rodgers playing for the Raiders Would Be “Legendary”

Maxx, you aren’t the GM anymore. That was last year. Tom Brady is now the GM. And Aaron Rodgers doesn’t invite fellow VIP quarterbacks to exclusive resorts for accidental meet-cutes. He broods in caves.

Tank Dell undergoes ACL surgery this week

Dell got injured in December but only had surgery on his PCL and LCL ligaments. There’s often a delay between such procedures and ACL surgery. This was a rather long delay.

I am always skeptical about wide receivers under 170 pounds. Those who choose to debate the point with me like to bring up examples of Skinny Minnies who succeeded, of which there are indeed a handful. But the conversation usually devolves into a segment like this:

OTHER PERSON: Tank Dell weighs 165 pounds and has been awesome!

ME: He hasn’t finished the last two seasons and now has a worrisome knee injury.

OTHER PERSON: Well yeah, he has had injury problems.

ME: What … what did you think my concern was when it comes to tiny receivers? That they would blow away?

Cowboys restructure Dak Prescott’s and CeeDee Lamb’s contracts

It’s encouraging to see them doing bare-minimum procedural stuff. Now they have money to spend in free agency.

Jerry Jones says that he does not see free agency as a way for the Cowboys to “fill voids.”

He’s right. But the trick is to avoid “voids.”

* Yes, Howie’s Moving Castle would have been a smoother Hayao Miyazaki reference for the title. But I wanted “Roseman” in the headline and rather like this still image for the socials:

** It’s actually sideways raining as I write this, so I didn’t really walk around town asking folks about the Saquon and Baun signings. But Facebook told me all I needed to know.