Tom Rock: NFL free agency winners and losers

The one thing almost every player on the Giants or Jets during much of the past decade has had in common is losing. A lot of it. The travails of New York’s two teams have been well-documented and over the last three seasons they are a combined 28-74.

That didn’t stop a few of them from becoming big winners in free agency this week, however, and the hot spot for them to find their riches turned out to be the only team that has a worse record in recent years: The Titans.

With former Jets head coach Robert Saleh now in charge in Nashville and former Giants head coach Brian Daboll serving as his offensive coordinator, the Titans spent the start of this league year bringing in their old players as if they were collecting stamps. They traded for former Jets first-round pick Jermaine Johnson, who has one year remaining on his rookie deal, signed former Jets defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to a three-year, $63 million contract by way of the Broncos, and traded for another former Jets lineman, Solomon Thomas, who had been with the Cowboys. All three played under Saleh in New York.

Daboll’s boys made out even better in terms of the money. The Titans gave wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson a four-year, $78 million free-agency contract, added cornerback Cor’Dale Flott on a three-year, $45 million deal, and signed tight end Daniel Bellinger for three years and $24 million. The Titans even took Austin Schlottmann, who played well as the Giants’ backup center last season, albeit on a one-year contract.

Throw in all the assistant coaches that Saleh and Daboll brought with them to Tennessee from their time in New York and there are a whole lot of folks who are trading in their city slicker sensibilities for country livin’ and kicking off their stylish shoes for cowboy boots this offseason.

At least they’ll have all that new Titans money (not to mention the lack of a state income tax that New Jersey certainly did not offer them) to make it work.

That makes them winners . . . in free agency anyway. Whether it will translate into the actual victories that none of them could achieve in the New York area remains to be seen.

Here are a few of the other winners and losers from this first week of NFL free agency:

WINNERS

Daniel Jones

The former Giant has made the playoffs just once in his career, has a 32-49-1 record as a starter, and is still recovering from a torn Achilles that ended his promising 2025 season in Indianapolis prematurely. But he may be a better businessman than a quarterback at this point. His latest contract from the Colts, despite being just a two-year deal, is for $88 million ($60M guaranteed) and could land him at around $208 million in career earnings before he turns 30.

Given that he may get two or even three new deals after that, he could one day be among the most prosperous quarterback in NFL history. That distinction is currently held by Aaron Rodgers with $380 million made over 21 seasons (and counting?) although Patrick Mahomes (now at $182 million) is still playing on a massive 10-year deal that can ultimately be worth over $500 million. The key to Jones’ riches? Much like Kirk Cousins ($321 million in career earnings, fourth most all-time), he is good enough to always be in demand but not quite successful enough to ever get a really long-term commitment that can make him look underpaid in the later years of a deal.

Only three other quarterbacks in NFL history have signed at least two multiyear contracts worth $40 million a year or more as Jones now has — Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen and Dak Prescott — and he may have a few more to come. Good for him.

Baltimore-to-New Jersey moving companies

Expect some heavier-than-usual traffic on the I-95 corridor in the coming weeks. By the latest count, the Giants will have close to 20 new employees — coaches, front office members, and now players — who are following John Harbaugh’s migration from the Ravens to the Giants. They say when you marry someone it’s not just that person you are marrying but it’s their whole family, and the same thing appears to be true for this Giants union.

Will it make the Giants better? That’s the plan. But for now it’s definitely made them bigger. They went from having one of the smallest slot receivers in the league (Robinson, who is 5-8) to signing a tight end in Isaiah Likely (6-4) to play that spot, from having no true fullback to adding Patrick Ricard (6-3, 300). And the punter Harbaugh brought in may not have the same stature but at least he has a name to fit in with the new dimensions of the team identity: Jordan Stout.

Centers

No play can start without them and now centers, the guys who snap the ball and set the game in motion, are finally getting their due. Tyler Linderbaum’s epic new three-year contract with the Raiders worth $81 million isn’t just life-changing, it’s market-altering. Teams are somewhat used to spending that kind of money on their marquee edge blockers but Linderbaum’s $27 million average annual value is more than all but five left tackles in the league are making, and his total value is more than twice the biggest tackle contract signed so far in this free agency period (the Giants re-signing of Jermaine Eluemunor at $39 million over three years, although Taylor Decker and Jawaan Taylor remain on the market and will likely top that one. 

While Linderbaum blew up everyone’s budget, other centers took advantage too: Connor McGovern re-signed with the Bills for four years and $52 million, Sean Rhyan re-signed with the Packers for three years and $33 million, and Tyler Biadasz was released from the Commanders, where he was due to earn $8.3 million in 2026 only to be quickly scooped up by the Chargers with a nice little raise (three years, $30 million). Teach your kid to snap!

LOSERS

Everyone in the Maxx Crosby Saga

Talk about a lose-lose (and lose again) situation. It’s a bad look for the league as a whole but for those actually involved in the fiasco it’s even worse. Poor Crosby, who thought he was being given a fresh start with a contender in Baltimore after the trade sending him to the Ravens from the Raiders was agreed to, had to instead fly back to Las Vegas after a failed physical to rejoin an organization that had disgusted him to the point of driving the divorce. He gamely reported on social media Thursday morning that “everything happens for a reason” and “I’m a Raider, I’m back,” but it’s clear the chagrined star no longer wants to be there after the team forced him to sit out the last few games of the 2025 season.

The Raiders? They thought they were getting two first-round picks from the Ravens and went through most of their free-agency period under the assumption that wouldn’t have Crosby’s salary on their books. Now he and what he is owed are both back and even if they can swing another trade of him, it won’t be for as much as they were getting from Baltimore. Once you drive the car off the lot it loses most of its value as the adage goes.

And the Ravens? Once they scuttled the deal, they wound up getting a veteran edge rusher in free agent Trey Hendrickson without having to surrender those picks, which is probably a better situation to be in, but there is plenty of fishiness to the way they went about it. The stink on general manager Eric DeCosta’s reputation among his peers for his handling of the situation may linger a while.

Steelers

Boy, it sure would have been nice to have a definitive answer from Rodgers regarding whether or not he intends to play this season before the start of free agency. That didn’t happen for the Steelers and so they had to sit out this period without making any moves at the most important position in the sport. They’ve made it clear they want Rodgers back to reunite him with former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy and they made the roster a little better for whoever their quarterback winds up being with the signings of Michael Pittman and Rico Dowdle.

Now it’s just a matter of waiting on the mercurial future Hall of Famer to make up his mind with no hard deadline in place from either side. If he decides to return, then it’s no harm done, but if he opts to step away from the sport, well, the Steelers will have missed out on this opportunity to find an immediate successor.

Dolphins, Raiders, Cardinals

Speaking of paying quarterbacks, at least the Colts are giving Jones money to play for them. Many teams are forking over funds while their quarterback plays elsewhere. The Dolphins cut Tua Tagovailoa and will have to pay him over $50 million in guaranteed salary this season while his new team, the Falcons, pays the veteran minimum ($1.3 million) on his one-year deal with them. The Cardinals are in the same shape with Kyler Murray, whom they cut. They will pay him over $35 million in 2026 while he plays in Minnesota for the veteran minimum. And even though the Raiders did not release Geno Smith but traded him to the Jets, they still are paying $16.2 million of the $19.5 million he is due in 2026.

Of course the Jets don’t come out as totally clean winners in this scenario either. While they do get this year’s starting quarterback on the cheap ($3.3 million), they are still on the hook for their last two: Rodgers counts $35 million in dead money against their 2026 salary cap and Justin Fields is currently taking up $23 million in cap space (it’ll be $22 million if and when the Jets release him, a move that will at least save the team $1 million in that area). That’s nearly a fifth of the entire Jets’ salary cap for 2026 devoted to players who (probably) aren’t going to play a down for them.