2026 NFL offseason WR market: Free agents, trade candidates

If the 2024 season was the Year of the Superstar Running Back, then the end to the 2025 NFL campaign might turn this into the Year of the Superstar Wide Receiver.

The two most productive wideouts in football, the Rams’ Puka Nacua and the Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba, are competing for a trip to the Super Bowl this weekend in the NFC Championship Game. Both of those teams made significant receiver additions in free agency this past offseason, as the Rams signed Davante Adams and the Seahawks went for former Rams wideout Cooper Kupp. The Patriots kicked quarterback Drake Maye into MVP gear with a series of additions over the past few offseasons, including Stefon Diggs, who signed a massive deal to join them in the spring. The Broncos are the exception to the rule here, but you get the idea: It sure has been helpful to have an impactful wideout or two in the lineup every week, deep into the postseason.

With that in mind, this upcoming offseason’s wide receiver market is shaping up to be fascinating. This could be the most active market for veterans since 2022, when Adams, Tyreek Hill and A.J. Brown were traded for draft picks in a matter of weeks. Some of those moves produced Super Bowls, although in Hill’s case, it was for his old team, not his new one.

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Brown is one of a number of wideouts who could be traded this offseason after a frustrating 2025 campaign. We could see a robust cap casualty market, too, with big-name stars leaving for new teams. And there are a few free agents coming off rookie deals who might land unexpectedly big contracts on the open market.

Today, I’ll run through just about every notable veteran receiver who might be changing teams this offseason. I’ll start, though, with the one wideout who should be staying put after being traded last summer. (Receivers are listed alphabetically within each section.)

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The franchise WR | Free agents
Cut candidates | Trade candidates

The franchise wideout

George Pickens, Dallas Cowboys

For all the deserved criticism Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones received for trading Micah Parsons and then using most of that draft capital to land a lesser defensive player in Quinnen Williams, there’s no arguing that sending third- and fifth-round picks to the Steelers for Pickens and a sixth-round pick was a huge victory for Dallas. Pickens was a perfect fit for the Cowboys, who needed an outside receiver with size and vertical ability to complement CeeDee Lamb’s work on the inside.

first-team All-Pro after he racked up 93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. Pickens had to settle for a second-team All-Pro nod from the voters, but either way, we’re still talking about him as one of the six best receivers in the NFL in 2025. That’s a hugely talented and valuable player when you consider Pickens made $3.7 million in 2026.

If the Cowboys decide to let Pickens test the open market and move on after one season, it would be stunning if he landed anything short of $30 million per year with a multiyear guarantee. There will be teams wary of paying anyone Mike Tomlin and the Steelers wanted to let go, but there’s no denying Pickens’ talent and ability to impact games. He doesn’t even turn 25 until March, making him one of the younger free agents this offseason.

The problem for Pickens is that the tippy-top of the wide receiver market has risen faster than the franchise tag for those players. The franchise tag for wideouts in 2026 projects to come in at $28.6 million, making it easy for the Cowboys to justify using it. Even if Dallas decides it doesn’t want to sign Pickens to a long-term deal, it could tag and trade him.

The most likely scenario should see Pickens return to the Cowboys in 2026 on the franchise tag. If he can prove that 2025 wasn’t an outlier season, the Cowboys will be more inclined to sign him to a long-term deal. If not, well, Pickens would hit the open market next season. For now, though, the tag seems like the most plausible path for one of the league’s breakout stars.

Unrestricted free agents

Romeo Doubs, Green Bay Packers

An occasionally tumultuous run for Doubs in Green Bay likely came to an end in the Packers’ wild-card loss to the Bears. The underrated Doubs was suitably impactful in his final game, catching eight passes for 124 yards and a touchdown. That goes well with a 151-yard performance in his playoff debut, a win over the Cowboys in the 2023 wild-card round, and an 83-yard follow-up the subsequent week against the 49ers.

Given how often the Packers run the ball and how willing they are to rotate a deep, flat receiving corps, Doubs has also gone missing at times. He literally did so for a few practices in 2024, leading the Packers to suspend their 2022 fourth-round pick for a game. Doubs returned and played out the rest of his Packers tenure without incident, but GM Brian Gutekunst used two of his top three picks in the 2025 draft on wide receivers and extended Christian Watson, who would have also been a free agent.

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Doubs is therefore extremely likely to actually make it to free agency, which isn’t always the case for young wideouts. And there has been steady growth in his underlying metrics. Doubs’ yards per route run has improved during his time in Green Bay, from 1.4 during his rookie and second seasons to 1.8 in Year 3 and 1.9 in Year 4. Drops can be an issue, but the 6-foot-2 wideout produced a top-30 catch score this season, per ESPN’s receiver scores.

I’ll be fascinated to see where Doubs’ deal comes in. There’s a chance teams see him as only a midtier No. 2 receiver, leaving him something in the range of $15 million per year. I suspect there will be at least one team that sees him as a player with untapped potential who could blossom in a more pass-happy scheme and with a steadier, more reliable usage pattern. That team might be willing to go north of $20 million per season.

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Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

With Evans’ streak of 1,000-yard seasons broken by a series of injuries in 2025, the likely future Hall of Famer could hit free agency under uncertain circumstances. Two years ago, Evans was a free agent as a younger player without a significant injury in his past. He landed a two-year, $41 million pact to stay with Tampa Bay, and while he looked productive when he was on the field, Evans missed 12 of 34 possible games (and most of two others) because of various ailments.

On the field, Evans is still producing at a high level. His 2.3 yards per route run ranked 14th among all wideouts over the past two seasons. ESPN’s receiver score, though, suggested a major drop-off between 2024 and 2025 on a route-by-route basis, as Evans fell from second in overall score among wideouts to tied for 94th. One-year falloffs can happen with receiver score — Stefon Diggs went from fourth in 2022 to 53rd in 2023 before jumping back to third in 2024 and tying for first in 2025 — so I would be willing to believe that Evans could jump back toward the top of the charts in 2026.

The player Evans’ camp will try to link the star wideout to is Davante Adams, who hit free agency after a frustrating age-32 season and landed a two-year, $44 million contract with the Rams, including $26 million guaranteed at signing. Adams finished with 789 receiving yards in 14 games, but he formed a connection with Matthew Stafford and scored 14 touchdowns in his first year with Los Angeles.

Would the Bucs agree to that sort of deal? It might not make sense, given that they committed a three-year, $66 million deal to Chris Godwin Jr. last offseason and used their first-round pick on Emeka Egbuka, who was excellent in the first half before fading as the season went along. Tampa Bay needs to sign Jamel Dean, Cade Otton, Haason Reddick and Lavonte David (or their replacements) this offseason, and spending more than $20 million per year on a pair of wide receivers might not be the best use of its resources.

Evans is a franchise legend, though, and the rules can be different when those types of players are involved. It would surprising if he played somewhere else in 2026.

Jauan Jennings, San Francisco 49ers

The two-year, $11.9 million deal Jennings signed before the 2024 season proved to be a bargain, as injuries opened up a role in the starting lineup for the former standout high school quarterback. Jennings delivered, racking up 132 catches for 1,618 yards and 15 touchdowns over the past two seasons. He also excelled on third down and in the red zone over that span, which adds some extra contextual value to his production. Throwing two touchdown passes on two tries in the postseason hasn’t hurt, either.

Jennings came into the league as a guy who might have profiled as a power slot option, but Kyle Shanahan has used him primarily as an outside target. Jennings took about 63% of his snaps there over the past two seasons. He has been a little more efficient working out of the slot, and I’d like to see whether the 2020 seventh-round pick could hit a new level if he joins a team that can afford him more snaps there.

Of course, that assumes he leaves the 49ers, which seems up in the air. Jennings unsuccessfully tried to hold in for a new deal last summer and wasn’t as productive while playing through shoulder and ankle injuries earlier this season, but he has been a valuable player for the 49ers in the second half and into the postseason. We’ll get to Brandon Aiyuk’s uncertain future, but Ricky Pearsall also hasn’t yet established himself because of injuries, and George Kittle’s status for the start of the 2026 season is unclear after he tore an Achilles in the win over the Eagles in the wild-card round.

At 29, this is probably Jennings’ only realistic chance of landing a multiyear guarantee. He might be worth more to the 49ers than anybody else, but if they want him back, they’re going to need to offer a significant raise to keep their homegrown wideout around.

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Christian Kirk, Houston Texans

The Jaguars were planning to cut Kirk last offseason, but at the last minute, the Texans surprisingly traded a seventh-round pick to acquire him from their divisional rivals, ensuring that they wouldn’t need to win Kirk’s affections in free agency. It was a fortuitous turn of events for Kirk, who ended up making the $16.3 million he was originally set to make in 2025, more than he could have expected to land had he actually hit the open market.

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Kirk rewarded the Texans for their largesse, although it took a while. He didn’t make much of an impact during the regular season, racking up 28 catches for just 239 yards over 13 games. In the wild-card round, though, Kirk dramatically reemerged with a big game against the Steelers, turning nine targets into eight catches and 144 yards. He added a second touchdown and 20 receiving yards in the season-ending loss to the Patriots.

As a 29-year-old receiver mostly limited to slot work, Kirk won’t have a huge market in free agency. But he’s a well-regarded teammate and has an 1,108-yard season on his résumé, so he should find some guaranteed money as a third wideout on a receiver-needy team in 2026.

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Alec Pierce, Indianapolis Colts

Last offseason, teams desperate for speed simply overpaid to sign replacement-level talent at wide receiver in free agency. The Rams brought back Tutu Atwell on a one-year, $10 million deal and got 192 receiving yards over 10 games, as the move into 13 personnel groupings and the ascension of Xavier Smith and Konata Mumpfield cut off Atwell’s access to the field as the third wideout behind Davante Adams and Puka Nacua.

The Jaguars signed Dyami Brown to an identical contract after a hot postseason in Washington, yet despite Travis Hunter’s knee injury, they essentially lost interest in Brown after a slow start. Jacksonville traded for Jakobi Meyers and promoted Parker Washington ahead of him in the lineup. Brown played single-digit snaps down the stretch and was a healthy scratch in the season-ending loss to the Bills.

If speedy receivers who barely see the field are worth $10 million deals, Pierce’s pending free agency poses an interesting question: What if a speedy receiver who was actually good hit the market? Pierce narrowly topped 1,000 yards for the first time as a pro with a 132-yard effort against the Texans in Week 18, but his breakout wasn’t really a product of better quarterback play in 2025. His rate of off-target potential receptions was roughly the same in 2024 (23.5%) and 2025 (23.8%).

Really, there has been two versions of Pierce. The 2022-23 editions were more like Atwell and Brown as low-efficiency, high-reward deep threats, as he averaged just 1.1 yards per route run — 89th out of 101 qualifying wideouts. A cast of changing quarterbacks didn’t help, but Pierce wasn’t able to command a meaningful target share.

Over the past two years, though, Pierce has upped that yards per route run figure to 1.9 in 2024 and 2.2 in 2025. The combined 2.1 figure is good for 20th among wide receivers over that span, just ahead of players such as Jameson Williams and Tyreek Hill. And it would be tough to argue that Pierce was playing with better quarterbacks than either player over that two-year span. Pierce still commands one of the lower target shares in the league given his usage pattern as a downfield threat, but he has essentially been a slightly more efficient version of Williams, who signed a three-year, $80 million deal last season.

Pierce’s stat lines are sort of a throwback to another era. This is a league in which great wideouts might average only 11 or 12 yards per catch, as Amon-Ra St. Brown has over the past couple of seasons, trading big plays for steady completions and first downs. The NFL as a whole has moved toward shorter passes going back to the West Coast offense’s arrival in the 1980s, a trend that has only accelerated over the past decade.

Pierce, on the other hand, averaged 22.3 yards per reception in 2024 and 21.3 yards per catch in 2025, leading the league both times. The last time a player had two seasons with at least 30 catches or more while averaging more than 20 yards per reception over his first four pro campaigns was all the way back in 1994, when Alvin Harper did it in his third and fourth seasons for the Cowboys. DeSean Jackson, probably the most comparable receiver for Pierce in recent memory, averaged 18.6 yards per reception and then 22.5 yards per catch in a much more pass-happy Eagles offense early in his career.

Philosophically, the NFL is leaning more into the run and away from the quick game than it has in years. In part, that’s a product of defenses daring teams to run by playing two-deep shells and light boxes and creating a more fertile environment for rushing the football. We’re seeing offenses respond by getting bigger, leaning into two- and three-tight end sets and playing sixth offensive linemen up and down the field more often than they have in a decade, hoping to force defenses into playing bigger personnel groupings or bringing a safety into the box to help against the run. The ultimate goal is to find ways to create explosive plays against defenses that are doing whatever they can to take those off the table.

Pierce is a walking explosive-play threat, which makes him a very valuable player. I’m fascinated to see how high his market gets. Just updating the Williams contract for a projected 9% increase in the salary cap would be a three-year, $87.2 million pact. Even that would be selling Pierce short, because Williams wasn’t a free agent and could negotiate with only one team when he signed his extension with the Lions. (Pierce also doesn’t have any suspensions in his past, which could have made negotiations more difficult for Williams.)

I don’t think it’s wild at all to suggest that Pierce could be looking at something in the ballpark of $30 million per year in free agency, which brings the franchise tag into play. The 2026 tag for wide receivers is projected to come in at $28.1 million. A second franchise tag in 2027 would be a minimum of $33.7 million. If the Colts want to re-sign Pierce (or if Pierce hits the market), I would expect his asking price to be a minimum of $62 million guaranteed over the first two seasons. That’s a lot of money for a player who hasn’t profiled as a No. 1 receiver over his career, but true top-end speed is hard to come by.

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Wan’Dale Robinson, New York Giants

Robinson quietly emerged in the second half of 2025 as something more than the gadget receiver he had been for most of his tenure with the Giants. Forced into the lead receiver role after Malik Nabers went down with a torn ACL and Darius Slayton floated in and out of the lineup, Robinson managed his first 1,000-yard season with a 113-yard performance against the Raiders before sitting out Week 18.

He averaged 2.1 yards per route run, way up from his 2023 (1.5) and 2024 (1.3) marks, both of which were below league average. That was driven by Robinson making his catches farther downfield. About 76% of Robinson’s targets between 2023 and 2024 were within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. In 2025, that fell to 63%, leaving more opportunities for him to make plays downfield and create significant yardage. He had four catches on passes traveling 25 or more yards in the air this season after just one over the prior three seasons combined.

At the same time, 2025 was the first time Robinson averaged more than 10 yards per reception as a pro, making it to 11 yards per catch with Jaxson Dart at the helm for most of the season. At 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, there are going to be teams that simply don’t see Robinson as anything more than a versatile player on throws near the line of scrimmage, which will limit his options in free agency relative to that of Pierce, even though they finished with similar yardage totals.

The player who comes to mind as a comparison for Robinson is Curtis Samuel, a fellow undersized second-round pick who had his best season just before hitting free agency. In 2021, Samuel signed a three-year, $34.5 million deal with Washington on the open market. That $11.5 million average salary would translate to $19.2 million with the projected 2026 cap. That might be a little high, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Robinson land a deal worth north of $15 million per year. And with the Giants wanting to surround Dart with playmakers while he’s on a rookie contract, I could see GM Joe Schoen justifying that sort of move.

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Deebo Samuel, Washington Commanders

Catch Samuel on the right week and he’s devastating. Samuel led the league in yards after catch score (in ESPN’s receiver scores) in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and he was second in 2024. He dropped off only to 10th in 2025. He’s still a special talent when it comes to breaking tackles and making something out of nothing. And while Samuel has never put together a full healthy season as a pro, he did manage to play 16 games for the second time in his seven-year career this season.

On the other hand, Samuel has consistent problems with drops and fumbles, with three of the latter coming on 89 touches in 2025. He has become less impactful as a runner, where he managed just four first downs on 17 carries this season. And with each passing year, Samuel’s 1,405-receiving yard, 365-rushing yard campaign of 2021 looks more and more like an outlier. He averaged nearly 111 yards from scrimmage that season and is at 61 yards from scrimmage per game across his six other seasons, a figure that fell all the way to 50 yards from scrimmage per game in 2025.

Samuel spent most of the season playing with various backup quarterbacks as opposed to Jayden Daniels, which obviously hurt Samuel’s chance at a big season. But even if you prorate out Samuel’s six games with Daniels under center, we end up with 99 catches for just 850 yards, which tells you how much of Samuel’s production came on screens and lateral throws around the line of scrimmage. His average target with Daniels on the field traveled just 4.5 yards in the air, which would rank 65th out of 67 wideouts in terms of target depth over a full season.

There’s a useful player here, but Samuel’s injury history, problems holding on to the football and age (he turns 30 in January) will limit his market. It would be surprising if Samuel landed a multiyear guarantee, and he’s likely to take a pay cut from the $17.5 million he made this season.

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Rashid Shaheed, Seattle Seahawks

Shaheed profiles somewhere between Pierce and the Dyami Brown/Tutu Atwell class of downfield threats at receiver. In part, that’s because he’s coming off his least efficient season as a pro, with his yards per reception mark down about 6 yards from where it was over the prior three seasons. Shaheed made his first Pro Bowl this season as a return man, which will help his value, but he hasn’t had the sort of contract year Pierce has in Indianapolis. Shaheed is also nearly two years older than Pierce, which matters in free agency.

Viewed over his first four years, though, Shaheed has been a useful second/third wideout and return man while playing on some inconsistent Saints teams. I loved the fit for him in Seattle as a deep threat off play-action in Klint Kubiak’s offense, and Shaheed had four 70-plus-yard games in six tries last season during Kubiak’s lone season in New Orleans before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Shaheed opted for his meniscus to be repaired as opposed to replaced, which cost him more time out of the lineup in 2024 but typically leads to a healthier knee down the line.

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As I wrote after this weekend’s games, Shaheed’s had one of the weirder seasons of any wideout in recent memory since joining the Seahawks. He has done virtually nothing as a wide receiver, with just 188 receiving yards over 10 games in the Pacific Northwest. And yet, he has been wildly impactful doing everything else, as he has run for 91 yards on eight carries and produced three return touchdowns, including the opening score in last week’s blowout win over the 49ers.

I would expect Shaheed to be looking at one-year deals with the hope of proving himself and earning a multiyear guarantee next offseason. The same arguments for Pierce having more value in this version of the NFL offensive meta apply to Shaheed, which will keep his floor reasonably high. An elevated version of the Atwell and Brown contracts from last season would see Shaheed land something like $15 million in 2026, which seems about right.

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Tyquan Thornton, Kansas City Chiefs

Thornton reestablished himself as a viable third wide receiver during his run in Kansas City. Playing with Patrick Mahomes obviously helped, and Thornton did experience the occasional drop, but the 2022 Patriots second-round pick was able to get open downfield on a regular basis before suffering a concussion, which eventually ended his season. He also handled kick returns for the Chiefs, taking his first snaps on special teams as a pro in the process.

Thornton profiles similarly to Dyami Brown as a Day 2 pick with a limited history of production but one who flashed when given an opportunity in a great offense during his final season before free agency. He will also be only 25 years old when he hits the market in March. There might be some sticker shock on the one-year deals given to Atwell and Brown given the meager returns, but Thornton should still be able to land a one-year deal for a significant raise on the $1.1 million he played for in 2025.

Cut candidates

Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco 49ers

If you know what’s happening here, you might be the only one. The entire Aiyuk situation with the 49ers has been weird dating back to summer 2024, when the organization was reportedly close to trading its star receiver to the Steelers. At the last moment, though, the 49ers and Aiyuk agreed to a four-year, $120 million extension, seemingly ensuring Aiyuk’s future would be in red and gold for years to come.

Since then, Aiyuk has caught 25 passes for 374 yards. The 2020 first-round pick tore his right ACL and meniscus in 2024, ending his season. The team reportedly wanted to trade Aiyuk after the 2024 season, suggesting that it had some buyer’s remorse on the deal, but no move ever transpired. The expectation was that Aiyuk would return in 2025, but that never happened, with the WR reportedly missing rehab sessions. As a result, the 49ers elected to void the $24.9 million bonus that was previously guaranteed in Aiyuk’s contract. That decision would typically trigger a grievance from the player and the NFLPA, but Aiyuk has apparently decided against filing one.

You don’t have to have a master’s degree in reading tea leaves to gain a sense of where this one is heading. And in case it still wasn’t clear, GM John Lynch said Wednesday, «I think it’s safe to say that he’s played his last snap with the Niners.»

Does Aiyuk have any trade value? The 49ers were in position to land a second-round pick for him in 2024 and wanted to get something in return for him last offseason, but it would be surprising if they were able to get anything more than a conditional pick for Aiyuk now. Even if Aiyuk’s 2026 compensation isn’t guaranteed, I’m not sure there will be many teams lining up to pay him the $27 million that’s currently due on his existing contract.

Aiyuk might be released or need to renegotiate that deal before landing somewhere else. One obvious landing spot is Washington, where the Commanders employ former 49ers executive Adam Peters and have an opening in their lineup at wide receiver with Deebo Samuel hitting free agency. Aiyuk was Jayden Daniels’ teammate at Arizona State, too. But even for a team with a quarterback on a rookie deal, $27 million would be a big ask for a player who hasn’t played since the middle of 2024.

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Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins

The clock started ticking on Hill’s tenure with the Dolphins when he refused to enter the Week 18 game against the Jets in 2024 before suggesting that he wanted to play elsewhere afterward to reporters. Hill and the organization essentially memory holed that situation and those comments over the offseason, but that was more a product of Hill’s contract being guaranteed and untradable than anything else.

His production declined dramatically in 2024 from what had been league-best efficiency in 2022 and 2023. Things then took a further turn south when Hill dislocated his left knee and tore multiple ligaments in Week 4, ending his season. Hill was also accused of domestic violence by his estranged wife, opening the wideout up to potential league discipline.

Hill is due $36 million in 2026, all of which is nonguaranteed. There is a zero percent chance he’s going to play on that deal next season. He could theoretically return to the Dolphins on a reduced salary, but with Mike McDaniel fired, the Dolphins rebuilding and whatever happened at the end of 2024 leaving a bad taste in the organization’s mouth, it seems a safe bet that Hill has played his last snap in Miami. His options will depend on whether and when Hill is healthy enough to play.

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Calvin Ridley, Tennessee Titans

There won’t be many memories of the Ridley era in Nashville. Unexpectedly signed to a four-year, $92 million deal by the Titans in free agency two years ago, he managed 1,017 yards in his first season with the team, but injuries limited Ridley to 17 catches for 303 yards over seven games in Year 2.

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Ridley ran a catch rate of just 51.2% over his two seasons in Tennessee, and while he didn’t exactly have great quarterback play for most of those targets, that catch rate ended up 4.4% below expectation, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Tennessee’s other wideouts over that span ran a collective 4.7% catch rate below expectation, so Ridley wasn’t significantly better than the Titans’ other wideouts on less expensive contracts.

Ridley averaged an even 2 yards per route run over the past two seasons, so there’s still a solid NFL receiver here when the veteran is able to stay on the field. I’m not sure we’ve seen any sort of superstar ceiling from Ridley since he returned from his seasonlong suspension during the 2022 campaign, though, and the 31-year-old is recovering from a fractured fibula.

Just $3 million of Ridley’s $21.8 million compensation in 2026 is already guaranteed, and the coach and general manager who signed off on that deal are no longer in the building. Ridley wouldn’t get anything close to that $21.8 million figure in free agency, which creates leverage for Tennessee. If the front office pushes Ridley to take a pay cut, he would have to either accede to Tennessee’s terms or fend for himself in free agency, where he might just get the same reduction in salary the Titans would be offering.

Ridley has a $1 million bonus that gets paid in mid-March, which will encourage the Titans to make a decision on Ridley’s future relatively quickly, but I expect them to push for a friendlier contract in 2026. They need all the help for quarterback Cam Ward they can get, but they might want to get a more dynamic playmaker to work alongside Chimere Dike.

Trade candidates

A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles

The decision to acquire Brown in a draft-day trade with the Titans was a coup for GM Howie Roseman, who originally attempted to sign Allen Robinson in free agency before pivoting to a much more successful Plan B. The Eagles expanded Brown’s snap share, making him an every-down receiver, and reaped the rewards: Brown had back-to-back 1,450-yard seasons, stayed on that pace over a 13-game campaign in 2024 and helped lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl last season.

Things went distinctly south in 2025. Brown managed to make it narrowly over 1,000 yards in 15 games, but he repeatedly expressed his frustration on and off the field as the Eagles struggled to find regular targets for their mercurial wideout. Brown finished the season with a disastrous postseason performance in the loss to the 49ers, as he dropped two passes and had to be separated from coach Nick Sirianni.

All of this puts Roseman in a difficult spot. The Eagles gave Brown a three-year, $100 million contract as part of his trade to Philadelphia, and unsurprisingly given his aggressiveness in negotiating new pacts, Roseman signed Brown to another three-year, $96 million extension in the spring of 2024. Brown technically still hasn’t started that second deal, although he has received a chunk of the money from that contract in bonuses.

Brown is due a guaranteed $29 million in 2026. And if the Eagles trade Brown before June 1, they would be on the hook for $43.5 million in dead money. That’s not an unfathomable or unprecedented amount in the NFL when the salary cap projects to come in north of $300 million, and it would put the Eagles on pace to have about as much dead money in 2026 ($84 million) as they did in 2025 ($85.8 million). But it’s not a scenario Roseman was hoping to deal with when he signed that 2024 extension.

The Eagles would also need to find a replacement for Brown, who remains very efficient on a route-by-route basis. Brown was still sixth in the NFL in receiver score — down from first in 2024 and second in 2023 — and it won’t be easy to replace that sort of production. The Eagles could expect to land some meaningful draft capital for Brown, but I’m not sure that would be a first-round pick given the public frustrations Brown expressed this past season. Brown also will be 29 next season, and though that’s still not particularly old by wide receiver standards, teams grow more hesitant about trading significant draft capital for veterans as they approach 30.

The easiest thing for all parties involved might be giving the relationship one more shot and revisiting this in 2027, when most of the guaranteed money in Brown’s deal will have been paid out. But if the Eagles feel the need to push the eject button on their relationship with their top wideout, Brown will have a fascinating market. He’s still one of the league’s best wide receivers, even if he didn’t show it against the 49ers.

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Keon Coleman, Buffalo Bills

Though Coleman had a 36-yard catch-and-run against the Jaguars, the 2024 second-round pick has clearly fallen out of favor in Buffalo. Coleman was both benched for disciplinary reasons and subsequently healthy scratched multiple times in 2025. When he has been on the field, Coleman managed 59 catches for 404 yards and four touchdowns, much of which came in a comeback win over the Ravens in Week 1. He had 112 yards in that win and hasn’t topped 50 yards in a game since then. It seemed telling in the wild-card round that Tyrell Shavers — who was literally playing through a torn ACL — had more snaps in the second half than Coleman.

Coleman still has two years left on his rookie deal and will make $3.8 million between 2026 and 2027, most of which is already guaranteed. That’s a pittance for a player whom teams saw as a Day 2 pick heading into the 2024 draft, which is why there will be interest if the Bills do decide that a fresh start is best for all parties involved. Given that owner Terry Pegula seemed to blame the decision to draft Coleman on fired coach Sean McDermott during an explosive news conference Wednesday, it’s safe to say that Coleman’s better off getting out of Buffalo.

The Commanders received a third-round pick (and moved a fifth-rounder) when they sent Jahan Dotson to the Eagles, while the Cowboys sent a fourth-round pick to the Panthers for Jonathan Mingo and a seventh-round selection. The Bills should be able to get something in line with the latter price for Coleman, with teams betting they can get more out of his size and contested-catch ability than Buffalo.

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Quentin Johnston, Los Angeles Chargers

It has been a bizarre career for Johnston, as the 2023 first-round pick was a rookie punchline for his hands. In Year 2, Johnston established himself as a playmaker and downfield option while still having a brutal run of drops against the Ravens. And then, this past season, Johnston’s hands … were mostly fine? Next Gen Stats still credited him with five drops, which isn’t ideal, but he also ran a catch rate 5.2% over expectation, which hints toward Johnston making more tough catches than the highlights might suggest. He was at minus-4.3% last season.

He got off to a hot start, with 22 catches for 337 yards and four touchdowns through the first four weeks of the season, but Johnston wasn’t able to sustain those numbers. As a receiver who makes his biggest impact as a downfield option, he probably suffered most among the Chargers wideouts from the injuries at tackle, which limited Justin Herbert’s time to throw.

Oronde Gadsden’s emergence as a vertical threat also seemed to mute Johnston’s impact. After topping 70 yards in each of his first four games, Johnston didn’t go over that total again until Week 16. Keenan Allen is a free agent, but the Chargers might feel as if they can move forward with Ladd McConkey in the slot, Gadsden as the move tight end and 2025 rookie Tre’ Harris as the team’s primary outside option, with the ability to add another receiver on the outside in free agency or at the draft.

Johnston can fill that role, but the Chargers have to decide on his fifth-year option for 2027 this offseason, a figure that projects at $17.5 million. That’s not going to be an unreasonable cost for a second wideout, but the Chargers have Herbert on a massive deal and also will pay McConkey before the 2027 season. Coach Jim Harbaugh and GM Joe Hortiz also inherited Johnston from the previous regime, so they’re not as attached to him as they would be for one of their own picks.

A trade might be the best thing for Johnston, who I think profiles best as a power slot receiver. With McConkey (and Allen this season) ahead of him for slot snaps, Johnston took only 13% of his snaps out of the slot in 2025. He averaged 2.6 yards per route run out of the slot, just about double what he averaged split out wide. A place where he can play in the slot on a regular basis might help unlock some untapped potential, and even if another team picks up his fifth-year option, it would be on the hook only for about $20 million combined over the next two seasons.

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Xavier Legette, Carolina Panthers

The Bills traded down twice when they drafted Coleman. The second time was with the Panthers, who selected Legette after moving up to No. 32. Like Coleman, Legette was a one-year college wonder whose size and athleticism appealed to NFL teams, but he hasn’t lived up to expectations.

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Legette hasn’t fallen afoul of the organization, which is a plus relative to Coleman, but he also hasn’t been as productive. Coleman has averaged 1.7 yards per route run, suggesting that he could be a useful contributor with steadier playing time. Admittedly while playing with a less imposing quarterback, Legette has averaged just 1.1 yards per route run over that same period. He has had issues with drops, including a potential winning touchdown against the eventual champion Eagles last season in the final minute.

The Panthers still have a spot for Legette in the lineup when they play three-wide sets, but he has fallen behind Tetairoa McMillan and Jalen Coker in terms of priorities and production for Carolina. And there’s no reason why GM Dan Morgan would keep that spot open if the Panthers can find an upgrade this offseason. Legette is owed $4.4 million over the next two years, all of which is guaranteed, and he has a potential fifth-year option in 2028 that would come up for a decision after the 2026 season.

Carolina was willing to give up on Mingo, a top-40 pick, after only 24 games when the right trade offer emerged. I suspect it would be similar for Legette this offseason.

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DJ Moore, Chicago Bears

Moore has had a strange career in Chicago. The Bears were happy to add the now-28-year-old wideout as part of the trade that ultimately gave Bryce Young to the Panthers, and Moore responded with a 1,364-yard effort in his debut season with the Bears. But his numbers have gone down dramatically in each successive season. Moore averaged 80.1 receiving yards per game in the 2023 season; by 2025, that had fallen to 40.1.

There are unquestionably strengths to Moore’s game, including his willingness to go over the middle of the field and his ability with the ball in his hands. He has also developed a reputation for, depending on who you ask, freelancing or not always having his head in games. He looked to be sleepwalking through a lost 2024 season at times, and it certainly seems as if the 2018 first-round pick didn’t run the right route or make the right adjustment on the interception Caleb Williams threw in overtime during the divisional round loss to the Rams. It seemed telling that he wasn’t in the locker room after the game or during the locker cleanout Monday.

Since the Bears acquired Moore, they’ve used significant draft capital on wideouts Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III, along with tight end Colston Loveland. They’ve also hired coach Ben Johnson, and we don’t know if Johnson really sees Moore as an essential part of the offense. The Bears could lean into more 12 personnel groupings with Loveland and Cole Kmet next season or otherwise find more reasons to get out of their 11 personnel packages. And the Bears might also want to find more opportunities for an Olamide Zaccheaus-type player as their third wideout.

GM Ryan Poles signed Moore to a four-year, $110 million extension in the summer of 2024, a deal that starts next season. Moore’s $23.5 million base salary in 2026 is already guaranteed, and if he’s on the roster in mid-March, $15.5 million of Moore’s $23.5 million salary in 2027 becomes fully guaranteed. The Bears (or any team acquiring Moore) would essentially be on the hook for a one-year, $40 million deal or a two-year, $49 million pact before revisiting his contract after 2027.

Moore is still a starting-caliber wideout, and there should be interest if the Bears do listen to offers. A middle-round pick would be a realistic return, but the real benefit might be freeing up $24.5 million in 2026 cash, which would allow Johnson and Poles to realign the offense in the coach’s preferred vision.

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Brian Thomas Jr., Jacksonville Jaguars

I made the case for a potential Thomas trade when writing about the Jaguars after their wild-card loss to the Bills. The current front office, which has been very aggressive with its roster decisions, didn’t draft Thomas. The 2024 first-rounder had an excellent rookie season, but he never really found a steady role in Liam Coen’s offense, with external concerns that he wasn’t showing the sort of physicality and commitment needed to thrive as an NFL wide receiver.

Those concerns were overblown, but Thomas was able to command targets on only 21.1% of his routes in 2025, down behind Parker Washington, Jakobi Meyers, Brenton Strange and even Travis Etienne Jr. That was up at 26.9% in 2024. Thomas lost nearly a full yard per route run, the difference between an elite campaign as a rookie and a below-average one in Year 2. He fell all the way to 157th (last place) in ESPN’s receiver scores.

I don’t believe Thomas is the worst receiver in the league. Teams won’t have trouble remembering what he did in 2024, when he seemed to glide through defenses and effortlessly separate from man coverage. Thomas is also owed just under $5 million combined over the next two seasons and has a potential fifth-year option in 2028, which would be incredibly valuable given his level of production as a rookie.

The Jaguars might prefer to keep Thomas to see if they can coax a resurgent year out of the 23-year-old, but with Travis Hunter returning to the lineup next year, Coen might prefer to move forward with Washington, Meyers, Hunter and either an outside addition or somebody like Tim Patrick (a pending free agent) as the wideout core. Critically, a Thomas trade would return meaningful draft capital for a Jaguars team that traded its 2026 first-round pick to the Browns to acquire Hunter.

There’s no reason for the Jaguars to trade Thomas unless they can land something significant in return. To me, that would be a first-round pick. And there should be teams at the bottom of the first round willing to send that sort of compensation back to Jacksonville. The Bills, who vanquished the Jaguars earlier this postseason, are an obvious fit. The Browns could justify sending Jacksonville’s first-round pick back to the Jaguars to acquire a much-needed wideout for their quarterback of the future. The Jets could put together a package that adds up to something more than a late first-rounder.

If the Jaguars do make Thomas available, there should be significant interest, even after an underwhelming 2025.

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Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins didn’t seem desperate to move Waddle at the trade deadline, and I don’t believe that they’ll operate with any sort of urgency to trade him this offseason. Waddle is still only 27, and he’ll still be young enough to play a meaningful role for the next Dolphins quarterback of the post-Tua Tagovailoa era.

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Waddle also is owed only $68.6 million over the next three seasons, which both makes him very easy to keep around and increases his potential trade value. Sure, $22.9 million doesn’t sound like a bargain, but it’s already a pretty team-friendly deal in a league in which the top of the market is north of $40 million per year — and that number is only going to go up.

On the other hand, Waddle might profile as a high-end WR2 instead of a true WR1. Though he had a 1,356-yard season in his second campaign as a pro, he has yet to post a second season remotely close, in part because of a steady run of injuries. Waddle became Miami’s top wideout by default when Tyreek Hill was hurt in September, and though he averaged just under 81 receiving yards per game over the next six weeks, that figure fell to just 40 receiving yards per game over the ensuing six, with a rib injury keeping the 5-foot-10 wideout out of the season-ending loss to the Patriots.

You could make a case for Waddle as an underrated wide receiver, given that he played with a now-benched quarterback in Tagovailoa and across from a highly targeted Hill. You can alternately make the argument that Waddle has one outlier season and won’t have Mike McDaniel scheming spaces open in 2026. I’m somewhere in the middle. Waddle’s team-friendly contract and Miami’s complete absence of other wide receivers makes me think the Dolphins would want a first-round pick to move him this offseason. I’m not sure that would make sense for most teams.