Ravens, S Jaylinn Hawkins Agree To Deal
The Ravens have lined up another piece of business in the secondary. Having already agreed to a re-signing with Chidobe Awuzie, a notable outside addition is coming.
Safety Jaylinn Hawkins has agreed to terms with Baltimore, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. This is a two-year deal, he adds. Hawkins played his way into a relatively strong market with his Patriots performances over the past two years.
The 28-year-old was a key figure on defense and special teams during his first New England campaign. Hawkins then became a full-time starter in 2025, logging 838 defensive snaps (the second-highest total of his career). He recorded four interceptions, six pass deflections and 1.5 sacks while helping New England reach the Super Bowl.
More to come…
Commanders To Sign TE Chig Okonkwo
With Zach Ertz‘s NFL future in doubt after an ACL tear, the Commanders are landing one of the top tight ends on the market. Chig Okonkwo is headed to Washington, according to NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo.
The former Titans starter is in agreement on a three-year deal worth up to $30MM, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. While GM Adam Peters said at the Combine the door remained open for Ertz to return on a third contract, this Okonkwo addition may remove that from the equation.
PFR’s No. 37-ranked free agent, Okonkwo brings intriguing upside as a receiving tight end. Paired with bottom-tier quarterback play for most of his Titans tenure, Okonkwo has two 500-yard receiving seasons on his resume. This will also mark a return to the mid-Atlantic region for Okonkwo, who played collegiately at Maryland.
Clocking a 4.52-second 40-yard dash time at the 2022 Combine, the former fourth-round pick started 42 games with Tennessee. He is coming off a career-best 560-yard season, helping No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward during a season in which the Titans were low on reliable weaponry. Despite Tennessee being flush with cap space and wanting to re-sign Okonkwo, he is heading out of town. Although the Titans reunited OC Brian Daboll with Daniel Bellinger on Monday, they will likely be hunting for a receiving TE to replace Okonkwo soon.
Isaiah Likely also defected to the NFC East, following John Harbaugh from Baltimore, and two of the market’s other top TEs — Dallas Goedert and David Njoku — are a few years older than Okonkwo. The first-time free agent is 26, giving Washington a promising option to pair with Jayden Daniels after Ertz played out an age-35 season in 2025.
This contract falls just short of the three-year, $30MM (base value) deal the Saints gave Juwan Johnson last year. It is not known what the base value of Okonkwo’s deal is, but it will be outside the top 12 at the tight end position. The Commanders will pair Okonkwo with high-level blocking tight end John Bates and 2024 second-round pick Ben Sinnott.
At nearly $10MM per year, though, Washington will expect quality production from Okonkwo. Ertz became a solid security blanket for Daniels. The two-time Kliff Kingsbury charge may be in free agency for a bit, as he is rehabbing a major injury. Ertz, however, is hoping to play an age-36 season.
Commanders To Sign S Nick Cross
The Commanders have agreed to a deal with safety Nick Cross, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. It’s a two-year pact worth up to $14MM, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Cross spent his first four seasons in Indianapolis, which grabbed him in the third round of the 2022 draft. The former Maryland Terrapin went down as a quality pickup for the Colts. Cross only missed one game in his first two years, but he saw more action on special teams than as a defender.
Cross’ role changed significantly in 2024, when he became a full-time starter. He went on to conclude his Colts tenure with 34 straight starts over the past two years. The 6-foot, 212-pound box safety combined for a whopping 266 tackles (11 for loss) during that span. He also pulled in four interceptions, including a career-high three in 2024. While ranking third among safeties with 16 pressures last season, Cross recorded personal bests in QB hits (six) and sacks (2.5).
The durable Cross played 99.91% of the Colts’ defensive snaps in ’24 and followed it up with a 95.53% mark last year. Between his track record of availability and solid production, Colts general manager Chris Ballard wanted to keep the 24-year-old. The Colts and Cross were in talks on a new deal as of late February, but agreement never materialized. Indianapolis will now see another defensive starter exit, having already waved goodbye to Kwity Paye and Zaire Franklin in recent days.
Meanwhile, for the Commanders, Cross is the latest noteworthy addition to a defense that was among the NFL’s worst in 2025. The Commanders finished 27th in the league in points allowed and last in yardage. Along with Cross, they have picked up edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson, linebacker Leo Chenal, DT Tim Settle and cornerback Amik Robertson at the outset of free agency.
Browns Place Second-Round RFA Tender On S Ronnie Hickman
MARCH 11: Hickman has now officially been tendered, per a team announcement. His Browns tenure will continue for at least one more season.
MARCH 6: Three years ago, the Browns signed safety Ronnie Hickman as an undrafted free agent out of Ohio State. Fast forward three years and Hickman has established himself as a starting safety in Cleveland. With Hickman becoming a restricted free agent this offseason, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that the Browns plan to place a second-round tender on the 24-year-old safety. 
Restricted free agents are free to negotiate and sign with other teams, but the original team can assign a tender that affects what needs to happen for the restricted free agent to be moved. With a second-round tender, the Browns have committed Hickman to at least a one-year, $5.81MM deal to stay in Cleveland.
Hickman will still be able to negotiate with other teams and potentially get a bigger deal, though. If he does find a better deal, Cleveland will get the option to match the new team’s offer sheet, If the Browns choose not to match the new team’s offer, they will be granted a second-round pick from the new team. As long as the transaction takes place more than two days before the draft, the second-round pick must be exchanged in the same offseason.
Hickman immediately found a role on the Browns as a rookie. His ability to fill in at safety allowed for Grant Delpit to roam around the defense and serve as a bit of a Swiss Army knife. In the two years since, Hickman has established himself as the team’s stalwart in the defensive backfield. His continued constancy as a deep safety in the past two years has helped the Browns defense establish itself as one of the league’s better units.
On fewer rotations in his first two years, Hickman combined for 70 total tackles, an interception, and four passes defensed. In 2025 alone, Hickman’s 103 total tackles was good for third on the team, and he saw career highs in interceptions (2) and passes defensed (7). The second-round tender is a fairly strong endorsement from the Browns who clearly wish to retain their young starting safety moving forward. We’ll now wait to see if any other teams decide to risk their second-round pick for the opportunity to lure Hickman away from Cleveland.
Dolphins To Sign DB Lonnie Johnson Jr.
Lonnie Johnson Jr. has lined up his next NFL gig. The veteran defensive back has agreed to a one-year deal with the Dolphins, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports.
Miami will be the latest in a long line of stops for Johnson, who entered the league as a second-round pick in 2019. The Kentucky product spent his first three years in Houston, where he logged 19 of his 22 career starts. Johnson has since gone through one-year stints with the Titans, Saints, Panthers and Raiders. He also had brief offseason runs in Kansas City and another in Houston along the way.
Johnson posted his most productive season in 2021, a 55-tackle, three-interception effort over 14 games with the Texans. In 48 games since then, Johnson has recorded just 56 tackles and one pick.
Johnson’s year in Las Vegas got off to an inauspicious start when he suffered a broken fibula in an August practice. When the Raiders assembled their season-opening roster later that month, they placed Johnson on IR with a designation for return. The Raiders activated Johnson toward the end of October. He wound up starting in two of nine games and making 25 tackles. The 30-year-old worked as a free safety for the majority of his snaps (243 of 321).
Johnson is the third depth signing of the day for Miami’s defense. The Dolphins previously agreed to deals with edge rusher Josh Uche and linebacker Willie Gay.
Connor Byrne contributed to this post…
Vikings, RB Aaron Jones Agree On Rework
Aaron Jones will not be a Vikings cap casualty, after all. The sides agreed on a reworked deal that positions the veteran running back to play a third season in Minnesota, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport report.
The adjustment will lower Jones’ 2026 base salary to $5.6MM. Of that total, $5MM will be guaranteed (per ESPN’s Adam Schefter). Jones delivered a 1,000-yard rushing season in his Vikings debut, leading to a 2025 re-signing (two years, $20MM). But injury trouble intervened in 2025.
Ceding time to trade acquisition Jordan Mason last season, Jones rushed for just 547 yards — his fewest since his 2017 rookie season — and missed five games because of a hamstring injury suffered in Week 2. The Vikings dangled Jones in trade talks and were prepared to move on via release if no swap came to fruition, but barely an hour before the NFL’s cap-compliance deadline, the team found a way to retain the aging back.
Jones, 31, initially came to the Twin Cities after declining a Packers pay cut. The former fifth-round pick had already accepted a trim in 2023, but a bigger cut proved too much for the productive veteran to accept. Jones landed with the Vikes on a one-year, $7MM deal and totaled 1,546 scrimmage yards — the second-most of his career — and seven touchdowns in 2024. The seven-year Packer played a central role in the Vikings’ 14-3 season with Sam Darnold at the helm, and the team circled back on a deal that provided $11.5MM guaranteed at signing.
Jones was to earn a $9MM base salary this season; if the Vikings were to cut him, they would have saved nearly $8MM in cap space but taken on nearly $7MM in dead money. Kevin O’Connell‘s team looks set to move forward with a second season with the Mason-Jones RB tandem. The ex-49er infiltrated Jones’ backfield stranglehold, leading the Vikings with 758 rushing yards. Mason averaged 4.8 yards per carry to Jones’ 4.2.
Previously tied to a four-year, $48MM Packers deal agreed to just before the 2021 free agency period, Jones has done well to extend his career. He has four 1,000-yard rushing seasons on his resume. Mason, who backed up fellow 2017 RB draftee Christian McCaffrey in San Francisco, is signed for one more season. His two-year, $10.5MM contract calls for a $4.73MM base salary in 2026.
Patriots To Sign S Kevin Byard
The Patriots are not resting on the laurels of their elite defensive performance in 2025. Instead, they are continuing to upgrade the unit with veteran safety Kevin Byard. He is expected to sign a one-year, $9MM deal, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
In New England, Byard will reunite with Mike Vrabel, who was his head coach for much of his time in Tennessee. The 2016 third-round pick earned a starting job in his second year and received a first-team All-Pro nod after le Vrabel was hired the following offseason, and Byard was a key part of his defense for the next five years. He was named an All-Pro again in 2021 and put up another strong campaign in 2022, but he was sent to the Eagles at the 2023 trade deadline after the Titans’ 2-4 start. That was also Vrabel’s last year in Tennessee.
Byard signed a two-year, $15MM contract to join the Bears in 2024 and started every game. He was one of many players to see a big jump in performance under the new coaching staff in 2025 with seven interceptions and his third first-team All-Pro selection. Chicago worked to retain him, but Byard preferred to join his former head coach and the reigning AFC champions, per The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson.
In New England, Byard will replace Jaylinn Hawkins in the Patriots secondary after his departure to Baltimore. Hawkins started 15 games in 2025 with a team-high four interceptions, production that the veteran ballhawks should be able to replace. Byard will slot in next to rookie standout Craig Woodson, where his decade of NFL experience could foster the development of the 2025 fourth-round pick.
Falcons To Sign DL Chris Williams
The Falcons have agreed to a one-year contract with defensive lineman Chris Williams, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. It’s a $2MM deal.
Undrafted out of Wagner in 2020, Williams caught on with the Colts and spent his rookie season on their practice squad. The 298-pounder went on to play sparingly with Indianapolis from 2021-22, during which he appeared in 13 games and made six tackles.
After the Colts cut Williams in the spring of 2023, he had brief runs on practice squads in Kansas City and Cleveland. Although he did not play a snap for the Browns, they got some value from Williams in an August 2024 trade. The Browns sent Williams and a 2025 seventh-round pick to the Bears for a ’25 sixth-rounder. Ian Cunningham, now the Falcons’ general manager, was the Bears’ assistant GM when they acquired Williams.
During his two-year run in Chicago, Williams played in 31 games and clearly impressed Cunningham along the way. In 2024, his lone 17-game season, Williams racked up 23 tackles, seven QB hits and three sacks on 367 defensive snaps. The 27-year-old was on the field for 14 games and 219 defensive plays last season. He finished the year with 14 tackles, two QB hits and a sack.
The Falcons’ defensive line took an obvious hit when David Onyemata left for the Jets on Monday. They have since added Williams and Cameron Thomas in low-cost moves.
Ravens To Re-Sign CB Chidobe Awuzie
Chidobe Awuzie was key member of the Ravens’ secondary in 2025. The veteran corner will remain in place for Baltimore moving forward, with NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reporting a new deal has been agreed to. 
This is a one-year, $5MM pact, Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic adds. Per Garafolo, that figure will be guaranteed in full. Awuzie, 30, played for $1.26MM in 2025, but his Baltimore showing has resulted in a considerable raise this spring.
The Ravens have Pro Bowler Marlon Humphrey and 2024 first-rounder Nate Wiggins atop their cornerback depth chart. Both players had rough patches in 2025, however, something which was compounded by the failure of the Jaire Alexander experiment. That resulted in a notable workload for Awuzie, who logged five starts and handled a 59% defensive snap share during his debut Baltimore campaign.
The former Cowboy, Bengal and Titan was held with an interception over that span. Awuzie did, however, notch seven pass deflections and he allowed a completion percentage of 55.6% in coverage (the best figure in that respect since 2022). Another good season would be welcomed on a Baltimore defense seeking needed improvements against the pass in 2026 under new head coach Jesse Minter.
The Ravens underwent a slew of coaching changes following the 2025 campaign, which ended without a playoff berth. John Harbaugh will not return, nor will Zach Orr after two seasons as the team’s defensive coordinator (and further time in the organization as both a player and a position coach). Anthony Weaver is back in Baltimore and he will handle DC responsibilities, although Minter – whose stock has risen sharply as one of the league’s top defensive minds – will call plays on that side of the ball.
Orr’s unit ranked 31st against the pass in 2024 and 30th last year. Shoring up the secondary will be a priority for Baltimore, a team which is set to lose safety Alohi Gilman in free agency. Awuzie remaining a steady presence for another year would be welcomed by the Ravens, whose cornerback room could of course benefit from improved play up front. Expectations will be high in that regard, and it will be interesting to see if a stronger edge rush will aid Baltimore’s level of play against the pass.
49ers Plan To Release Brandon Aiyuk; Commanders Most Likely Landing Spot?
The Brandon Aiyuk saga is nearing an end in San Francisco. The 49ers plan to release the wide receiver, Nick Wagoner of ESPN reports. The team could cut Aiyuk as early as today, per Wagoner, who points to the Commanders as his most likely landing spot.
A 49er since they spent a second-round pick on him in 2020, Aiyuk immediately became a key part of head coach Kyle Shanahan‘s offense. During his best season, 2023, Aiyuk hauled in 75 passes for 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns to earn second-team All-Pro honors. A lengthy contract standoff between Aiyuk and the 49ers occurred during the next offseason.
Unable to reach a deal, San Francisco had an Aiyuk trade in place with Pittsburgh in August 2024. However, after the Steelers’ extension offer for Aiyuk fell short, he agreed to stay with the 49ers two weeks later.
The 49ers kept Aiyuk around with a four-year, $120MM proposal that included $76MM in guarantees, but they will end up receiving little to nothing from the investment. Over his first seven games in 2024, Aiyuk caught just 25 of 47 targets for 374 yards and no scores. His season ended with a torn ACL and MCL in Week 7. Aiyuk has not suited up since then.
While Aiyuk was recovering from his injury last July, the 49ers voided the remaining guarantees on his contract. The team had issues with his rehab effort, and Shanahan revealed that Aiyuk was “extremely distant” during the process. Aiyuk could have filed a grievance against the 49ers through the NFLPA, but he let the 50-day window expire and lost over $26MM.
With Aiyuk still on the reserve/PUP list at the beginning of December, general manager John Lynch expressed hope that he would return down the stretch. Any chance of that vanished when the 49ers put the 27-year-old on the reserve/left squad list on Dec. 13. Lynch said in late January that the 49ers would move on from Aiyuk this offseason, though he has held out for a trade. With the new league year commencing Wednesday afternoon, it does not appear Lynch will find a taker for Aiyuk.
If the 49ers designate Aiyuk a post-June 1 release, they will spread almost $35MM in dead money over the next two seasons ($13.33MM in 2026, $21.25MM in ’27). The team will save $1.32MM on next year’s cap, though those funds will not be available until June.
Once he reaches the open market, Aiyuk will immediately become one of the most talented players available. However, considering the bizarre turn his 49ers tenure took, the 6-foot, 200-pounder will likely have to settle for a short-term contract.
For multiple reasons, Washington has stood out as an obvious Aiyuk fit for months. The team is cognizant of how much he wants to play there, according to John Keim of ESPN. Aiyuk would reunite with Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels seven years after the two established a rapport at Arizona State in 2019. Adam Peters, now the Commanders’ GM, was in the 49ers’ front office when they drafted Aiyuk a year later.
With the Commanders in need of receivers beyond No. 1 option Terry McLaurin, Peters has been aggressive on this year’s market. Peters tried to sign Alec Pierce and Romeo Doubs before they reeled in lucrative paydays elsewhere. Having come up empty in those pursuits, Peters could turn his attention to Aiyuk soon.