In a perfect world, contracts are about paying players for what they will do rather than what they have done … but what players have done in the past does matter a whole lot. NFL training camps are starting in three weeks, and there are still a whole lot of players who are eligible for contract extensions who haven’t got them yet. For some teams, it’s not the biggest deal in the world, and for some teams, those players are the elite of the elite.
These are the most important contract extensions for every team going into training camps. Some of them have more immediate deadlines, and some of them have a little bit of a long shelf life.
Arizona Cardinals: OT Paris Johnson Jr.
There are only five or six elite-tier tackles in the NFL, and Paris Johnson Jr. isn’t one of them … But he’s still pretty good. When you have a guy who is as good as he is at a premium position, you have to make sure that you keep him around for as long as possible.
That’s especially true for the Cardinals, because they’re probably going to be drafting a quarterback early in the draft next year. It’s going to make that guy’s life a whoooole lot easier if he has some confidence that his left tackle isn’t a total clown, and if the quarterback’s life is easier, then everyone’s life is easier.
Arizona did exercise Johnson’s fifth-year option already, but they need to go one more step and toss a three-year extension his way to lock him down.
Atlanta Falcons: LB Divine Deablo
The Falcons have already given out some very important contracts this offseason. One went to Drake London, one went to Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson got his fifth-year option exercised. The next guy up ought to be Divine Deablo.
With Kaden Elliss leaving Atlanta in free agency, it opened up a spot on that defense for a new vocal leader in the middle, and it really seems like Deablo can (and will) be that guy for them.
In 2025, they signed him to a two-year deal for $14 million, which means he’s going to be a free agent after this season.
A deal is going to benefit both sides. For Deablo, his $14 million contract only had $7.6 million guaranteed. A new contract gets him more guaranteed money, and that’s all anyone in the world wants. For the Falcons, he’s coming off a relatively bad season, so he shouldn’t break the bank; it’s a much better spot than if he were coming off a career season.
Baltimore Ravens: QB Lamar Jackson
What are we doing here? How is this always a thing? I know that a contract is a two-way street, and that both the player and the team need to get together … But the franchise needs to pay their 29-year-old two-time NFL MVP franchise quarterback.
The guaranteed money on his contract runs out after this season, and you don’t let players like that run out of guaranteed money. The sooner this whole thing gets done, the cheaper it will be. However, there isn’t really a quarterback out there who is going to come close to a Jackson-level paycheck … but still …. Come on.
Buffalo Bills: TE Dalton Kincaid
Universal truths: The sun will rise, and the sun will set. The sky is blue, and fish swim. Josh Allen will throw to his tight ends.
When the Bills drafted Dalton Kincaid in 2023, he immediately became the second banana to Stefon Diggs. That season might not have been as balls-to-the-walls as Kyle Pitts’ and Brock Bowers’ rookie seasons, but 73 catches on 91 targets for 673 yards and a pair of touchdowns isn’t anything to shake a stick at.
The reason I’m bringing up his rookie season rather than his next two seasons is that it was the only season he’s been healthy. In 2024, he hurt his PCL in his right knee, which caused him to miss a good chunk of time. In 2025, he straight-up tore that same PCL in training camp and dealt with it (and a hamstring) the entire season.
When we’re thinking about how important Kincaid’s contract extension is going into training camp, it’s less about the contract itself and more about how healthy Kincaid looks. If he’s rocking and rolling, it’s going to be much cheaper to extend him going into the season than after a potentially awesome season.
Carolina Panthers: CB Mike Jackson
It’s totally fine that the Panthers are sitting on their hands when it comes to the Bryce Young contract. They exercised his fifth-year option, which was a great idea, and now they can wait a little bit longer to see if he’s their dude of the future … In a perfect world, it wouldn’t take that long, but hey. Whaddyagonnado?
Mike Jackson, their 29-year-old cornerback, needs to be the next guy they figure out. It stinks for the team because he’s coming off of a career year where he had four interceptions and a league-leading 19 PBUs, but if they can get him locked up before he hits the free agent market (and before Devon Witherspoon gets a massive contract), they’ll be in good shape.
Chicago Bears: OT Darnell Wright
It looked hairy there for a second when the Bears traded back for the ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft to the tenth overall pick. That allowed the Eagles to get Jalen Carter, and the Bears got Darnell Wright.
In that first year, Wright was absolutely not playing how you want a first-round offensive tackle to play. In 2024, he was the highlight of an unbelievably bad offensive line, so that didn’t inspire a whole lot of hope.
Then in 2025? Woo, buddy … He was awesome. He was a wall as a pass blocker and a weapon in Ben Johnson’s run game.
He got the first All-Pro nod of his career, and the Bears exercised his fifth-year option. He’s going to get a mondo-sized paycheck this offseason, and he’ll solidify the offensive line for Caleb Williams for a loooong time.
Cincinnati Bengals: CB DJ Turner II
DJ Turner is an above-average cornerback, which is what makes his whole situation a little hairy. He’s one of those guys who does a lot of good, but there are some blunders … it’s typically ascending-player stuff.
When you have someone with pretty high upside and defensive-changing potential, you’ve got to pay them. And just like every other cornerback, they need to get that contract done before Devon Witherspoon, or else it’ll get a whole lot higher.
Cleveland Browns: S Grant Delpit
For the record, I’m a believer that the Browns are going to trade Grant Delpit before the season starts. The Browns picked him in the second round of the 2020 draft and gave him a three-year extension during the 2023 season. That means he’s going to be a free agent after this year.
He’s still pretty awesome, and no one would blame the Browns for giving him another year or two … But when he got that extension in 2023, his defensive coordinator was Jim Schwartz, and Schwartz has a very specific type of guy that he likes as his defensive backs. He’s gone now, and Mike Rutenberg is their new DC.
To add to that, the Browns also picked Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in the draft. So all of a sudden, that safety group has some pretty solid depth, and they could afford to get a draft pick or two for a guy who probably won’t be there in 2027.
Again, they could also just pay him and be set for the near future … but something does need to happen with him.
Dallas Cowboys: WR George Pickens
This is another easy one, but it’s important for a different reason. If the Cowboys decide to pay George Pickens, they’re signing themselves up for a top-tier receiver who can be a real loose cannon. If they decide not to pay him and make him play on a franchise tag, they’ll have a real loose cannon who can be a top-tier receiver. There’s an important difference between those two things.
The Cowboys have an opportunity to have one of the best offenses in football. But if they have a disinterested/angry/despondent Pickens at any point through the season, that opportunity is going to go down the toilet.
This is the Cowboys we’re talking about here, so I imagine that this whole thing is going to get dragged out for as long as possible.
Denver Broncos: WR/KR/PR Marvin Mims
It might be wrong to say that Marvin Mims is the most important for the Broncos because Riley Moss and Ja’Quan McMillan are both options, but Mims's situation is definitely the most interesting.
If you look at Mims as just a receiver, then yeah … Paying him is dumb, especially since they just traded for Jaylen Waddle. But we’re in a world where the 2025 Seattle Seahawks traded for Rashid Shaheed, and then he changed the outlook for the future Super Bowl champions' return game.
Mims is a two-time All-Pro returner (2024 punt, 2023 kick). If you can get a guy who’s got legitimately game-changing talent like that, you don’t let them go. It’d be funky to find out exactly what that contract would look like, because you would have to have him paid as a wide receiver … but there are professionals in the front office who are paid to do exactly that.
Detroit Lions: S Brian Branch
It’s easy to say that the Lions should just buck up and throw a bag of cash at Jahmyr Gibbs's feet and pay him something close to Saquon Barkley’s $20 million per year. I’m in the old school camp that thinks first-round running backs should get their fifth-year option exercised, and then they should get franchise tagged for a couple of seasons. I know there are flaws with that line of thinking, but it’s the safest path for the position that has the shortest career.
That’s why I think Brian Branch’s potential contract is the most important for Detroit … and it’s also the trickiest because the dude is coming off of a late-season Achilles.
Achilles tears can be career-enders, and I understand wanting to make sure the dude still has every ounce of Juju Smith-Schuster face-punching juice that he had before. But the dude is turning 25 this year, so there’s definitely reason to think that he will end up bouncing back.
On top of that, if he does go through the 2026 season and look as violent and dynamic as he has been, that price tag is only going to skyrocket even more … especially when you think about guys like Cooper DeJean who will be eligible for contracts in 2027.
It’s a gamble either way they go, which isn’t what you want.
Green Bay Packers: TE Tucker Kraft
There are two options for the Packers to pay next: defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and tight end Tucker Kraft. The problem is that both of those guys are coming off 2025 seasons that ended early because of injuries.
For Wyatt, it was a jacked-up leg (fibula and torn ankle ligament) that needed surgery, but not the dread high-ankle tightrope surgery. For Kraft, it was an ACL.
Neither of those is great, but they both happened early enough in the season that they shouldn’t be too much of a problem come Week 1, let alone training camp.
Tucker Kraft is the one that they should be prioritizing. The Packers already paid Christian Watson and Jayden Reed this offseason. If they want to make sure they keep up their dynamic/young corps playmakers around Jordan Love, Kraft needs to be the third head in that monster.
The irony of that is that, in reality, he’s really the first head. He’s one of the best tight ends in the NFL and is absolutely deserving of the high target share that he gets. Keep in mind, through the seven full games that he played last year, he was averaging 6.2 targets, 4.6 catches, 70 yards, and .85 touchdowns per game. That’s disgustingly good.
Houston Texans: QB Davis Mills
If you want a backup quarterback, you could do a whole lot worse than Davis Mills. They drafted him after Deshaun Watson got hit with a whole bunch of sexual assault allegations, and Mills ended up being the starting quarterback for most of the 2021 and 2022 seasons (before they drafted C.J. Stroud in 2023).
Since then, the Texans have been giving Mills one-year contracts just to keep him around. The first one was on Sept. 4, 2024, and the second one was on Sept 2, 2025. I imagine they’ll give him another one before the season starts.
And that’s huge. Last year’s Week 10 game against the Jags was a turning point in the season for Houston. In Week 9, Stroud’s brain got turned into hummus, so Mills was named the starter, scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, and completed a 17-point comeback win.
He then went on to win the two games after that and jump-started the Texans’ nine-game win streak at the end of the season.
Yeah, you’re paying guys for what they’re going to do and not what they have done, but you know that this guy has the ability to not lose games. That's big for a team that’ll win games because of its defense.
Indianapolis Colts: OG Quenton Nelson
If you’re a team, you’re going to pay Quenton Nelson for as long as you possibly can. He’s only 30 years old, entering his ninth season in the NFL, has been a Pro-Bowler every season of his career, and has been All-Pro six times.
The dude is as good as it gets, and it’s weird that they haven’t locked him down with another contract yet.
Jacksonville Jaguars: WR Parker Washington
A lot of times, a wide receiver’s breakout season happens in their second year. Parker Washington was one of the Jags’ sixth-round picks in the 2023 draft, so it makes sense that it took him an extra season.
In his first two seasons, he had a total of 48 catches, 522 receiving yards, and five touchdowns. In 2026 alone, he had 58 catches, 847 receiving yards, and five touchdowns. And the majority of that came in the second half of the season.
He ended up being the Jags' WR1, and a lot of that came on the back of the last three games of the season, where he had 29 catches for 347 yards and two touchdowns.
Some teams fall ass-backwards into a ruthlessly effective wide receiver and don’t recognize it. For Duval’s sake, you have to hope the Jaguars understand what they have and get him a contract before he becomes a free agent next season … Unfortunately, that means paying him after a career year.
Kansas City Chiefs: WR Rashee Rice
This is another one that falls into the ‘maybe he’s not the most important, but he’s definitely the most interesting’ group because Jaylen Moore is on the team and he’s going to be their starting right tackle (probably).
But Rashee Rice has a whole lot going on: Getting hurt, getting in trouble with the law, fleeing, going to jail, getting out of jail, breaking probation and going to jail again … It’s been a whole lot.
But this is the NFL, and everyone knows that none of that will actually matter to most teams (the Chiefs are one of them). What does matter is how good a player is and/or if they are available to play.
That’s a mixed bag for Rice. He rocks, and everyone knows it. He’s easily a top-five slot receiver in the NFL, and he’s part of the Patrick Mahomes mind-meld, where he somehow finds a way to get open on those otherwise busted plays. That’s not something that everyone can do, and we’ve seen it over the past couple of seasons.
The problem is that Rice has missed more games than he’s played. Do you want to lock that kind of guy up for a couple of years with a contract? Luckily, we don’t have to make those decisions.
Las Vegas Raiders: CB Taron Johnson
You have to think potential; contract extensions are pretty far down the Raiders’ list of priorities this offseason, but don’t tell Taron Johnson that. In March, the Raiders traded a sixth-round pick to the Bills for Johnson (their nickelback) and a seventh-round pick.
He’s been a really good player in the past (All-Pro in 2023), and he has two years left on his deal … But none of that money is guaranteed, so he wants a new contract. His problem is that the Raiders drafted four defensive backs, including the second-rounder, Treydan Stukes.
Trading a sixth-round pick for a guy isn’t exactly a raving endorsement of where either team sees him, so it’s not exactly going to be an exciting contract if/when he gets one.
However, in 2026, teams are playing more and more nickel defense, and having a nickelback who's not an absolute liability is very important. Johnson is not a liability. Would I bet that he'll keep not being a liability for the next two years? No, but let’s see what the Raiders think about it all.
Los Angeles Chargers: EDGE Tuli Tupulotu
There’s something very funny going on with the Chargers right now. They drafted Tuli Tuipulotu as a 21-year-old in 2023, so at 24, he’s going to get his first real contract. This year, they drafted Ahkeem Mesidor, who is 25 years old, and by the time his fifth-year option and first real contract roll around, he will be 30 years old.
As for Tuipulotu, he had a breakout season last year. His 13 sacks, 20 tackles for a loss, and 23 QB hits landed him on the Pro Bowl roster for the first time. A young, homegrown guy who is blossoming like that is the exact kind of player you invest in … And that shouldn’t be a problem for the Chargers because they’ve got a whoooooole lot of cap space.
Los Angeles Rams: WR Puka Nacua
Man, it would’ve been a whole lot easier for the Rams if Puka Nacua didn’t do that anti-Semitic stuff and then bite that woman … If he was a straight shooter with a good head on his shoulders, dumping a pallet of gold bars on his front lawn wouldn’t even be a decision …
But he did do that stuff at pretty much the worst time he could have, and now the Rams have to figure it all out. I imagine that it won’t really matter that much, and the team will just delay to make it seem like it matters, and Nacua will end up getting $38 million to $40 million per year.
Miami Dolphins: LB Jordyn Brooks
There are two elite players on the Dolphins: De’Von Achane and Jordyn Brooks. The Dolphins already figured out an extension with Achane back in May, so now they need to hash it out with Brooks.
It’s a less-than-perfect situation for Miami because Brooks is coming off a career season where he led the NFL in tackles and earned his first-career All-Pro nod. However, the dude is cool with staying with the Dolphins … Despite the roster changes, coaching changes, and all of the bad vibes that go along with the franchise.
They’re a 3, and they found a 9 that wants to get married. You can’t let that go.
If there is one hiccup with all of this, it would be Jeff Hafley being their new head coach. He’s a defensive guy, and there’s a chance (albeit a small one) that Brooks doesn’t gel with a new system. I doubt that’s the case because elite players can be good anywhere … But you never know.
Minnesota Vikings: OT Brian O'Neill
Everyone on the Vikings roster must have been the most annoying people in the world for four months. On Jan. 30, they fired their GM, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and they didn’t hire Nolan Teasley until June 1.
If you’re a guy trying to get a new contract, I imagine the best person to ask about that contract would be a guy who is in acting/interim GM rather than an actual GM … Whether that was Kevin O’Connell or someone else, it seems like it’d be really smart to try to take advantage of someone who’s doing a job they weren’t hired to do.
Alas, Blake Cashman and Brian O’Neill still don’t have a new deal. The latter was the Vikings’ second-round pick in the 2018 draft. He got his first start halfway through that season, and he’s become a staple on their offensive line.
He’s 32 years old, doesn’t have an injury history, and he’s an overall very solid player. If he wants to keep playing for you, then you pay him and play him until the wheels fall off … especially if you're a team that has offensive line problems like the Vikings.
New England Patriots: CB Christian Gonzalez
There should be a race between the Patriots and the Seahawks to get extensions done with their 2023 first-round cornerbacks, because whichever one gets done first, it’s going to raise the price for the other one. The thing that makes this a little complicated is that New England’s Christian Gonzalez and Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon both have the same agents.
For the Pats, it doesn’t seem like there’s any sense of urgency with Gonzalez. They exercised his fifth-year option, but now they’re just being patient. The deal is definitely going to get done, but everyone is just being patient right now.
New Orleans Saints: WR Chris Olave
What are the Saints waiting for? They exercised Chris Olave’s fifth-year option so he’ll be with the team through this season, but he’s slated to be a free agent once it’s over. Just pay the dude.
You could argue that his concussion problems might be something to worry about, but did you see him last year? He was great. 156 catches, 1,163 yards, nine touchdowns, and an All-Pro. When you draft wide receivers from Ohio State, that’s exactly what you’re looking for.
New York Giants: EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux
The Giants got Kayvon Thibodeaux in the first round of the 2022 draft. Since then, he’s had three defensive coordinators: Wink Martindale, Shane Bowen, and Charlie Bullen. Now his new DC is Dennard Wilson … He’s a ways away from the guys who drafted him.
He was supposed to be this franchise-changing pass rusher. We’ve seen spurts of that potential from him, but it really just hasn’t been there with any consistency.
It kind of seems like the Giants know that too. They traded for Brian Burns in 2024, and they drafted Abdul Carter third overall in 2025. Now Thibodeaux is buried on the roster, more or less (it’s a rotational position). It’d make the most sense for them to trade him, but this is the Giants that we’re talking about … ‘Financial irresponsibility’ is the name of the game in that front office.
New York Jets: DE Will McDonald IV
It seems like the Jets are trying to make calculated decisions with this edition of their rebuild. They used a bunch of premium draft picks on high-potential offense prospects and signed defensive players who will be able to get them through the season. That’s all smart stuff.
The unfortunate part is that they’ll probably wait on giving Will McDonald an extension, and that’s a hell of a gamble. He’s had 18 sacks over the past two seasons, so we’ve seen him be a menace … But four of those sacks came against the Browns last year when their quarterback was Dillon Gabriel. That’s a perverted form of stat padding.
My point is that it makes sense to be patient with the guy because you want to see more consistency. But if they want to throw a contract his way because they’re confident in him, it’d be hard to poo-poo it.
Philadelphia Eagles: DL Jalen Carter
The Eagles were really banking on Jalen Carter having a breakout season last year so they could make him the highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL. He was an absolute menace in 2024, and he peaked in the postseason … and the 2025 season actually happened.
He started by getting kicked out of the Week 1 game without playing a single snap because he spat on Dak Prescott (#DakSpatFirst), and then he had a couple of surgery-worthy shoulder injuries that clearly affected him throughout the season. It’s more than fair to say that the entire thing ended up being a wash.
So now we’re in a spot where Carter can get paid, and he’s going to get paid … But it’s not the easy choice that Howie Roseman and the gang wanted. To make it even tougher, the Titans paid Jeffrey Simmons $35 million per year and reset the historically stagnant defensive tackle market.
It’s a tough spot for the Eagles, but the only option they have is to pay their Defensive Player of the Year-caliber player.
Pittsburgh Steelers: CB Joey Porter Jr.
You could say the Steelers’ linebacker, Patrick Queen, is the most important contract extension they could make this year, and you might be right. But it seems like those talks have kind of stalled out for the time being.
Joey Porter Jr. is the next biggest player who’s eligible for an extension. He’s not one of the elite cornerbacks in the league, but he’s the kind of young cat that you want to keep around … And it helps that he’s a legacy player with the franchise (Joey Porter is a Steelers’ Hall of Famer).
Pittsburgh and Porter Jr. can get on the same page and get a deal done before Devon Witherspoon and the Seahawks; it’s going to make life a lot easier/cheaper. That’s a big deal because the Steelers are hurting for cap space right now, and an unnecessarily big number would be rough.
San Francisco 49ers: S Ji'Ayir Brown
2023 was the last year of the Trey Lance fallout for the 49ers. In 2021, they traded every first-round pick they could to move up and get him; that included their 2023 first-rounder. They also traded their 2023 second-round pick to the Panthers as part of the Christian McCaffrey trade.
Because of that, there aren’t a whole lot of big names that are options for contract candidates. By default, we’re going with Ji’Ayir Brown, the 49ers' third-round safety from 2023.
He’s not great, but he’s not a consistent liability. Locking him down with a contract would (probably) be pretty cheap. That’s pretty much the whole upside.
Seattle Seahawks: CB Devon Witherspoon
Devon Witherspoon is going to be the highest-paid cornerback before too awful long, and it’s going to ruin everything for every other team that wants to pay a cornerback. He is coming off the best season of his career that ended in a Super Bowl win … A win that he was a big part of.
Once again, you’d rather not pay a guy coming off of a career year, but if that guy is a first-round pick and that career year ended with a championship, you should be totally fine paying him.
Like I said in the Patriots’ section: Both Christian Gonzalez and Witherspoon were picked in the first round of the 2023 draft, so they’re both eligible for an extension, and they both have the same agency.
The market for cornerbacks is going to change with whoever signs first. So it’s a race for the franchises, and the exact opposite for the players and agents. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ these get done, but a ‘when’ and ‘how much.’
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: QB Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield’s contract negotiations might be the most important negotiations in the entire NFL. He said that once training camp starts, there aren’t going to be any more contract talks until after the season… So that’s less than a month.
We saw two sides of Mayfield last season. He was an absolute stud, and that offense was rolling until their Week 9 bye, and then he got dinged up, and the offense struggled from Week 10 on … but you can’t blame that all on Baker.
He’s an above-average quarterback who plays a fun but dangerous brand of football. If that’s not what the franchise is looking for, and they don’t want to invest in a guy who’s going to find a grenade to jump on, then that’s fine … But they had better be ready to dive headfirst into quarterback purgatory.
Tennessee Titans: RB Tony Pollard
You can say that Peter Skoronski should be the Titans’ most important contract extension, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you. He was their first-round pick in the 2023 draft, and they exercised his fifth-year option this March because he’s awesome. That means he’s going to be with the team through the 2027 season.
Their running backs, on the other hand? Not so much. Right now, their running back room is Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, Michael Carter, and Nicholas Singleton (rookie). The first three guys are all set to be free agents next offseason.
Maybe Singleton, who was drafted in the fifth round, ends up being a stud and Tennessee can build on him, but I wouldn’t bank on that, would you?
Pollard, on the other hand, has been unbelievably consistent over the past four seasons. Whether he was splitting snaps with Zeke Elliott in Dallas and Spears in Tennessee, or if he had the backfield to himself … He’s rushed for over 1,000 yards.
An extension with him shouldn’t be crazy expensive, and he’ll be able to make sure that the running game stays steady through this offensive rebuild/reload that they’re going through for the next year or so.
If you don’t like the idea of paying a running back until he turns 31 years old, I get it, and I won’t argue with you.
Washington Commanders: LB Frankie Luvu
The year is 2026, and versatility on defense is big. Sometimes it’s big because linebackers like Isaiah Simmons had all kinds of hype but never panned out, and sometimes it’s big because defensive backs like Kyle Hamilton and Cooper DeJean can do everything in the backfield.
Frankie Luvu is one of the poster boys for linebacker/EDGE versatility in the NFL. Since he went to the Commanders in 2024, he’s been one of Dan Quinn’s best weapons because he can do so much on the field.
Now, the hitch with this is that they got Leo Chenal in free agency and Sonny Styles in the draft. Those are the makings for a solid linebacker room. If Luvu can rise to the top, bounce back from a down 2025, and be a real contributor, he’ll earn himself a good contract.
If you’re a Commanders’ fan, that’d be great because Luvu plays with some real stank. If you’re not a Commanders’ fan, that’d be a bummer because Luvu is a dirty player who’s going to try to knock someone out of the game.
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