Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The 2026 NFL free agency saw over 100 players sign new contracts, reshaping rosters across the league.
- One team dramatically overpaid for a receiver coming off his best season, raising eyebrows around the league.
- Another team made a surprisingly undervalued move that could significantly boost their passing game.
Monday marked the beginning of 2026’s NFL free agency, and over 100 players got new contracts. We saw teams like the Cowboys try really hard to do a lot and come away with nothing. We saw the Raiders spend just about every cent they possibly could. And we saw the Seahawks get their Super Bowl-winning roster ravaged by everyone else.
With that much going on, it’s easy to miss everything. The best way to catch up on the big things is by looking at the best and the worst of what happened. These are seven awards and superlatives from day one of free agency.
Worst Overpay: Las Vegas Raiders
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about players who were going to get overpaid. I decided to throw Jalen Nailor in that piece because I thought, “There is going to be a general manager or front office that convinces themselves that his low use/production was because he shares a workload with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, and that the guys throwing the ball were J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer.”
It turns out that team was the Las Vegas Raiders and that GM was John Spytek.
Nailor, who is coming off a season with 29 catches for 444 yards and four touchdowns, which was the best season of his career, is going to the Raiders on a three-year, $35 million deal ($11.7 million per year) with $23 million guaranteed. That’s absurd; that number should maybe be $6-ish million.
Maybe it’s not the biggest overpay, monetarily. The Panthers were clearly still ticked off that they got out-bid on Milton Williams last offseason and paid Jaelan Phillips $30 million per year rather than a reasonable $26 million… that’s about a 15% overpay. Nailor was overpaid by about 42%.
Also, Tyler Linderbaum got overpaid too, but there are only 32 starting centers in the NFL. The market was his to break.
Biggest Bargain: New York Giants
Isaiah Likely was the belle of the ball when it came to free agent tight ends this year. He’s young, can handle a full workload as a pass catcher, and he’s a good enough blocker. There are a whole bunch of teams that need tight-end help, so free agency felt like it was going to be a little bit of a bidding war for the guy, and rightfully so.
No. Not really. He ended up reuniting with John Harbaugh and got a three-year contract for $40 million ($13.3 million per year). That’s the eighth-highest full contract and the sixth-highest annual salary.
So yes, relative to every other tight end in the NFL, it is really high… but the Giants don’t have any other pass catchers aside from Malik Nabers. That means they’re paying $13.3 million per year for what will eventually be their WR2. That’s weirdly great value.
Saddest: Quincy Williams
It’s always nice to see a good player from a bad team hit free agency. They have the world in front of them, and they're finally having a chance to see success.
Think about Saquon Barkley in 2024: He left the black hole of talent that is the New York Giants, went to the Eagles, immediately became the ninth player to rush for over 2,000 yards, and won a Super Bowl. That’s a feel-good story.
Unfortunately, there are a whole lot more bad teams out there than there are championship-level teams … And that’s what Quincy Williams found out on Monday … again.
He was drafted by the Jaguars in 2019. In the two years he spent there, the Jags went 7-25. He got waived and picked up by the Jets. In the five seasons he spent there, he went 26-59. That’s a career record of 33-84.
So he hit free agency this season, and wouldn’t you know it? He got signed by the Browns … So, probably just more of the same for him, but at least he’ll be on a good unit.
Most Forgetful: Kansas City Chiefs
It’s very clear that the Chiefs went into free agency with one plan: get a running back and make Patrick Mahomes’ life easier. Unfortunately for them, they totally forgot that they have to field a defense … and that in 2026, offenses like to throw the ball a whole lot… and you need defensive backs to stop that whole thing.
Last week, the Chiefs traded Trent McDuffie to the Rams. Then, the Rams signed Jaylen Watson. Then the Bengals signed Bryan Cook.
That left their defensive back room with Chamarri Conner, Nohl Williams, Kristian Fulton, Jaden Hicks, Christian Roland-Wallace, and Mike Edwards. Aside from Conner, none of those names should be familiar to you because they aren’t great players.
Luckily, at around 10 p.m. on Monday, Brett Veach remembered his defense and signed the safety Alohi Gilman, who’s also not very good. So … that defense ain’t looking too hot right now.
Most Humbling: Jordan Stout
Every free agency, someone is going to sign a record-breaking deal. The salary cap goes up almost every year, and players demand more money, so it happens.
And when records aren’t being broken, you’re still seeing guys like Tyler Linderbaum getting paid $60 million in guaranteed money, Alec Pierce getting $84 million in guaranteed money, and Jaelan Phillips getting a contract that says $120 million.
However, there is another groundbreaking contract that was signed on Monday: the Giants made Jordan Stout the highest-paid punter in league history… by paying him $4.1 million per year.
It makes sense that punters don’t get paid that much, but for $4.1 million to be the record-breaking number? Sheesh. Obviously, that’s a lot to us normies, but relative to the other 52 guys (maybe just 50 guys if you take away the two other specialists), that’s kind of like chump change.
Also, that $4.1 is the top. Most punters are somewhere between $1 and $3 million.
Weirdest: Mike Evans
Unless you’re the Arizona Cardinals, you have a chance to win the NFC West. So it does make sense that the 49ers decided to pay a future Hall-of-Fame wide receiver a whole heap of money. That’s not weird; it makes sense.
What is weird is that Mike Evans actually left Tampa Bay. He had been there for the past 12 seasons, and now he’s just… Gone? That doesn’t feel right. Over the past decade, the one constant thing that you knew you were going to see when you watched a Buccs’ game was Evans being a superhero.
The other weird thing about this is the contract. Evans is going to sign a three-year contract for $60.4 million ($20.1 million per year). If he played out that contract, he would be playing in California until he’s 35 years old… except only $16.3 million of that contract is guaranteed money.
A pretty solid blanket rule is that the contract is really only there until the guaranteed money runs out… and he’s guaranteed less than one year of his contract.
You’ve got to think money didn’t play a huge part in Evans’ decision, which just compounds how weird this whole thing is.
Least Self-Aware: Brian Daboll
A lot of NFL coaches have an ego. They might get fired and insulted by everyone in the world, but that doesn’t stop them from thinking they’re a football mind that was gifted to the world by the spirit of Vince Lombardi.
It’s looking like Brian Daboll might be one of those guys.
The Giants canned him halfway through last season. They kind of needed to do it, but also the way that their roster was built wasn’t conducive to actually winning football games… which is pretty important.
Daboll ended up taking the offensive coordinator job in Tennessee, and his first move at the post was to sign three former Giants: center Austin Schlottman, tight end Daniel Bellinger, and wide receiver Wandale Robinson… and they all got paid pretty decent money, too.
We all know that the Titans need talent… But dude, this was your chance to get away from that. Yeah, sometimes coaches have their guys, but Schlottman, Bellinger, and Robinson are the guys you want to hitch your wagon to? I don’t know about that, hoss.