NFL teams have been spending more like a drunken sailor this week, thanks to a higher-than-expected 2025 salary cap. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, players have collectively signed contracts worth $4.88 billion, including $2.19 billion fully guaranteed at signing since Monday.
Once teams could officially begin contacting the agents of players with expiring contracts as the two-day negotiating window that’s a precursor to the start of free agency opened on Monday, it was a seller’s market as usual. The tide is turning since the first wave of free agency is essentially over. It’s now a buyer’s market.
The NFL annual owners meeting, which is March 30-April 2 in Palm Beach, Florida, typically signifies the end of free agency for all practical purposes. Teams will devote most of their attention to the upcoming NFL Draft held April 24-26 after the meeting wraps up.
Here are 10 contract-related thoughts and observations relating to free agency and the early part of the offseason.
The Buffalo Bills renegotiated 2024 NFL MVP Josh Allen’s contract although he had four years worth $154,554,595 remaining on the six-year, $258 million extension averaging $43 million per year (worth a maximum of $288 million through incentives) he signed in 2021. It’s extremely unusual for a team to essentially rip up a contract with four years left like the Bills did.
It’s what happened with the Cleveland Browns’ ill-fated trade for Deshaun Watson in 2022. Watson had four years totaling $136 million remaining on the four-year, $156 million contract extension averaging $39 million per year he received from the Houston Texans in 2020. The Browns gave Watson an unprecedented fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract in connection with his trade from the Texans.
Allen received a six-year, $330 million deal averaging $55 million per year. The contract has an NFL record $250 million of guarantees….
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