NFL Free Agency Today: Keeping Up with the Joneses

The Chiefs keep Chris Jones. The Patriots trade Mac Jones. Baker Mayfield stays home. Welcome to pre-pre free agency.

There’s free agency, there’s legal tampering and then there’s the foreplay which took place this weekend, when the NFL got itself in the mood to consummate some contracts with a little exploratory fondling: a renewed contract commitment here, a tantalizing trade there, the buzz of ever-building excitement everywhere. 

Too Deep Zone will be providing daily NFL transaction updates all week. The original plan was to start on Monday evening or Tuesday morning. But news kept, ahem, arriving prematurely throughout Sunday, so we had no choice but to do the same. Let’s get caught up so we are ready for action when the skyrockets take flight on Monday afternoon. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers re-sign Baker Mayfield

In the NFC South, it makes no sense to tank when a team can re-sign a bunch of its veterans, win the division for a fourth straight year and still end up in much better cap shape than the Saints (and better overall shape than the woebegone Panthers) a few years down the road.

Mayfield’s new three-year, $100-million contract is really a two-year, $60-million deal with some baloney on the back end. The Buccaneers could easily draft their quarterback of the future in 2025 and move on from Mayfield with zero obligations in 2026. The re-signing was a sound move for a team picking 26th in the draft: the Bucs had little hope of maneuvering into position to select someone with the potential to be better over the next two years than Mayfield.

What’s most interesting about the Mayfield deal is that it sets a rather high floor for Kirk Cousins’ potential return to the Vikings. Three years in the neighborhood of $100 million (but really two years around $60 million) sounds like an introductory offer to Cousins that Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah could live with, right?  That’s Mayfield money now. Upping the numbers to $110 million and $70 million won’t be enough to appease Cousins (it’s not even really a raise), but raising the stakes any further would probably prompt Adofo-Mensah to fold. 

We may know more about Cousins by the time you read this. For now, the Buccaneers are content to remain the best team in an awful division while slowly rebuilding, and why not?

New England Patriots trade Mac Jones to Jacksonville Jaguars

A bacon double nothingburger disguised as a significant transaction. Jones begins his Failed Prospect Walk of Shame in the traditional way: latching on with a team that has a “quarterback guru” head coach where he has zero chance of challenging the starter. Quarterbacks don’t actually revive their careers by taking backup’s reps, folks.

Photo by Jeff Hoffman, from Wikimedia Commons

Did Matt Patricia and Joe Judge ruin a potential franchise quarterback when they took over the Patriots offense in 2022? Or did Mutt ‘n’ Judge save the Patriots from kidding themselves into wasting a second contract and an additional two-to-five years on a prospect with C-tier talent who enjoyed a rookie hot streak against bad opponents who could barely score in the double digits against the Patriots defense? Potato, po-TAH-to.

Some colleagues think that Jones’ departure squelches the persistent rumor that the Patriots will draft Marvin Harrison Jr. with the third overall pick. My thoughts: a) I never believed that rumor anyway; and b) if it is true, then the Patriots would likely be just as comfortable rolling with Bailey Zappe, Jacoby Brissett or some day two draft pick than they would have been with Jones. 

Chris Jones Re-Signs with Kansas City Chiefs

Paying big bucks for Jones’ age 30 season makes sense because Jones is still playing well and the Chiefs could win a third-straight Super Bowl. Paying bigger bucks for his age 32-33 seasons makes sense because it’s the only way to keep him around for his age 30 season. Math just works differently on the Chiefs tier. 

The Chiefs also re-signed Drue Tranquill to a back-loaded contract during the week. They are reaching the point where they will have no choice but to trade L’Jarius Sneed (currently on the franchise tag at $19.8 million) in order to achieve sign-the-draft-picks draft flexibility. The Sneed deal is probably already done, which is why Brett Veach feels comfortable making other moves. 

I was surprised by the Jones re-signing. I thought his plan was: 

Step 1: Sign one-year deal to end 2023 holdout;

Step 2: Compete for another ring;

Step 3: Put great-grandchildren through college with Josh Harris bucks. 

Now Jones can keep pursuing rings and getting richer on Clark Hunt bucks! 

By the way, all those “F’s” that Hunt and the Chiefs got on the NFLPA report card really are impacting veteran free agent decisions, aren’t they? Jones sure thinks so.

Fletcher Cox retires

Submitted without comment, the top Philadelphia Eagles in all-time Absolute Value, per Pro Football Reference:

1. Jason Kelce: 132

2. Reggie White: 129

3. Donovan McNabb: 126

4. Brian Dawkins: 123

5. Fletcher Cox: 121

6. Randall Cunningham: 105

7. Ron Jaworski: 102

8. Harold Carmichael: 101

9. Jason Peters: 99

10. Lane Johnson: 96

The Eagles have invested significantly in both of their interior lines over the past few years. They should therefore be ready to overcome the losses of Cox and Kelce. Or at least as ready as any team can ever be to overcome the losses of two of the five best players in franchise history. 

Denver Broncos trade Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns

The Browns are quasi-contenders in a hypothetical Super Bowl window. Jeudy is a pseudo-difference maker and theoretical go-to guy. Talk about a match made in heaven.

Seriously, the Browns need to remain ever-ready for Deshaun Watson’s still-possible return to 2018-20 form, and Jeudy provides more immediate help as a WR2 than anyone they will find in the draft. Also, the Sean Payton Fire Sale price (fifth- and sixth-round picks) is right. Jason Fitzgerald at OverTheCap.com speculates that Jeudy’s $13-millionish cap hit will be turned into a bonus that will be smeared into future years, but there’s no tomorrow in Cleveland. Either Watson starts providing return-on-investment or he doesn’t, and any returns must be immediately maximized.

I don’t think the Broncos are drafting a quarterback in the first round this year. Payton has the power to authorize a tank-tastic rebuilding year. As I wrote last week, he’s the sort of fellow who enjoys wielding that power. Also, it’s not a terrible idea.

Baltimore Ravens re-sign Jason Madubuike

The Ravens issued this statement from GM Eric DeCosta to the media on Tuesday:

“We were unable to agree on a contract extension with Justin before the deadline and will use the franchise tag. Justin is a great player and person, and we will continue to negotiate a long-term deal with him.”

I love the tone of the “great player and person” remark. We just gave a 26-year old athlete $20 million guaranteed, and we cannot apologize enough for such a heinous act.

Kidding aside, the Ravens excel at signaling their respect for their players. It’s what kept the Lamar Jackson situation from going thermonuclear, and it at least kept negotiations from hitting a bump in this case.

I’m not on the Panthers media contact list, but I bet their Brian Burns email went something like this.

“We were unable to agree on a contract extension with Brian before the deadline and will use the franchise tag. He can go f**k himself.” – David Tepper.

“Boss, maybe we shouldn’t put something like that in writing. Brian’s a great guy and I want him on the roster.” – Dan Morgan.

“Are you questioning me? No one can tell Panthers ex-linebackers apart. I could replace you with Luke Kuechly in, like, five minutes.” – Tepper.

“OK, let’s not do anything rash, boss. Imma go make sure they aren’t putting the cereal on the top shelf in the team cafeteria. Bryce missed a lot of breakfasts last year.” – Morgan.

“Excellent. Now to extend some insulting offers to free agents. Wait … are you typing all of this into the email Bernice? You are fired! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA” – Tepper.