Today is one of those “almost-but-not-quite” days on the sports calendar:
- MLB Spring Training games have not quite started yet.
- The NBA is not quite to the part of the season that is interesting.
- The NHL is on hiatus while the Winter Olympics plod along.
- College basketball is not quite ready for the excitement of March Madness.
- And …
- The NFL Free Agency season is not quite open for business.
However, there are some NFL players who are slated to be free agents this year who should attract interest among several teams and among NFL observers. Rarely is a kicker in that set of NFL players but that is not the case this year; Brandon Aubrey will be a restricted free agent this year and Brandon Aubrey’s combination of range and accuracy could be transformative for a team’s offense and its offensive strategy.
As a restricted free agent, the Cowboys always have the final say about keeping Aubrey because they can choose to match any deal that his agent might forge with any of the other 31 teams in the league, but that could become difficult for the Cowboys if Jerry Jones treats his roster building in the same way that he has done it recently. Jones has a very expensive QB on the team; CeeDee Lamb has a big deal on the books; George Pickens is also a Cowboys free agent and an unrestricted one at that. If Jones does not act first – – something he has not done recently regarding free agents or potential free agents – – he could find himself in a bind to pay Brandon Aubrey what another team might offer. That could be an interesting wrinkle for the upcoming NFL free agency hootenanny.
I am not going to pretend to know the entirety of the free agent list for 2026, but there are eight more impending free agents who will either get a nice deal with their current team before the feeding frenzy begins or they could be in demand. Here is my list:
- Nakobe Dean – LB: It seemed to me that he was wherever the ball was on more than half the plays for the Eagles last season.
- Romeo Doubs – WR: The Packers got plenty of clutch plays from Doubs in games that I saw last year. He will be 26 years old at the start of next season.
- Breece Hall – RB: He is possibly the best offensive player on the Jets. However, the Jets unloaded their two best defensive players in the middle of last season; so, do they have a plan for Breece Hall?
- Trey Hendrickson – DE: Yes, he is 31 years old; and yes, he missed 10 games last year. Also, he has been to the Pro Bowl 4 times and has had double-digit sacks in 4 different seasons.
- Daniel Jones – QB: Did he demonstrate that – like Sam Darnold – he is a late-bloomer? How might that torn Achilles tendon factor into the negotiations?
- Aaron Rodgers – QB: He will find a way to have his name in the narrative at least for a while.
- Bobby Wagner – LB: Father Time is catching up with him, but he still made 143 tackles last year and has made 2000 tackles in his 14-year career. Also, he has missed only 9 games in 14 seasons.
- Kenneth Walker III – RB: At the ripe old age of 25, he is the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
One other NFL note is out there during this “almost-but-not-quite” sports season. The Seattle Seahawks are officially for sale. Those stories circulated in the days leading up to the Super Bowl but were denied by the team. That had to be nonsense and rhetorical legerdemain because when owner Paul Allen died almost 10 years ago, his estate had the team put in a trust with specific orders to sell the team and liquidate assets for the trust. It had to happen; the question was not if but when.
Now we know that “when” is as soon as someone steps forward and makes a bid that the trustees will accept in exchange for the team. The last franchise drew $6.1B as its selling price; that was the Washington Commanders deal which ushered out Danny Boy Snyder from the roster of NFL owners. There is an interesting aspect to the inevitable “sales price” for the Seahawks:
- Paul Allen’s sister, Jody Allen, is the executrix for the trust. As such, she has a fiduciary duty to maximize the value of the asset that the trust puts up for sale.
- Danny Boy Snyder had an incentive to get as much for the Commanders as he possibly could, but he did not have a legal responsibility to do so. Jody Allen does.
So, suppose I set up a prop bet here.
- OVER/UNDER the sales price for the Seahawks at $7.7B
I’ll take the OVER…
Finally, this from George Carlin:
“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………