Seahawks Exercise Fifth-Year Options for WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, CB Devon Witherspoon
The Seahawks knocked it out of the park on the first night of the 2023 NFL Draft, taking Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon with the fifth overall pick of the draft and adding Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba 15 picks later. Both players were huge contributors in the team’s 2025 Super Bowl-winning season, and while extensions continue to be worked towards, Seattle has officially announced its decision to exercise the fifth-year options on both players’ rookie contracts. 
Witherspoon established himself as an immediate star as a rookie, starting 13 of 14 game appearances and logging 16 passes defensed, a 97-yard pick six, and three sacks en route to the first of three straight Pro Bowl seasons. Pro Football Focus (subscription required) graded Witherspoon as the sixth-best cornerback in the NFL. Starting all 17 games in Year 2, PFF’s 16th-best cornerback that season finished second on the team with 98 total tackles, adding on a sack, six tackles for loss, and nine passes defensed. This year, five missed games near the start of the year led to decreased stat total, but Witherspoon’s excellence when he got back on the field was apparent as he earned second-team All-Pro honors and graded out as PFF’s best cornerback in the NFL.
Smith-Njigba didn’t start nearly as hot as Witherspoon, but he’s taken major leaps in each new season. Playing in every game his rookie year, Smith-Njigba only made three starts and finished behind D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett in all three receiving categories with 63 receptions, 628 receiving yards, and four receiving touchdowns. Playing in every game of Year 2, as well, Smith-Njigba established himself as the new WR1 in Seattle, surpassing Metcalf and Lockett with 100 receptions for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns, earning his first Pro Bowl honors. Benefitting from the departures of Metcalf and Lockett and the arrival of Sam Darnold, Smith-Njigba once again led the team in all three categories with 119 catches for a league-leading 1,793 receiving yards and ten touchdowns, securing Pro Bowl, first-team All-Pro, and Offensive Player of the Year honors.
In the days since the season ended with confetti in San Francisco and parade buses in Seattle, the Seahawks have begun the work of attempting to extend Smith-Njigba. The 2025 OPOY disclosed recently that he does believe he deserves “to be the highest paid” wide receiver in the NFL, but at this exact moment, with two years now remaining on his deal, he was “not too pressed” to work out an extended deal. We haven’t seen the same reports concerning Witherspoon, but that surely doesn’t mean the Seahawks won’t be doing everything they can to land both big fish on huge, long-term deals.
According to Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic, the value of Smith-Njigba’s fifth-year option is projected to be about $23.8MM while Witherpoon’s projects around $21.1MM. Witherspoon’s fifth-year option was inflated to its maximum possible value due to the pair of Pro Bowls he made in his first two seasons. With the top of the receiver market currently set at $40.25MM per year and the cornerback market topping out at $31MM per year, the Seahawks are likely content with those fifth-year figures. There’s a chance neither player sees those options, though, as Seattle will likely continue to push for extensions in the months to come.
NFL Teams Higher On DL Rueben Bain Than Draft Pundits?
Miami defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. stirred up headlines at the NFL Scouting Combine when his arms measured at 30 7/8 inches, the third-lowest recorded arm length for an edge at the combine since 1999. According to Jason La Canfora, though, NFL teams and top personnel evaluators seem to care far less about the measurement than the media does. 
A source that La Canfora described as “a top personnel evaluator with a proven track record” claimed that Bain’s arm length doesn’t tell the real story of his body type. Another evaluator asserted his focus on Bain’s wingspan differential or ape index, a measurement that focuses on arm length in proportion to the rest of a player’s body by subtracting their height from the combined length of their arms. Another stated plainly that “his arms are not going to be a problem.”
Multiple evaluators La Canfora communicated with thought Bain stood as good a chance as any of the other top few picks at landing in the No. 2 overall slot. They pointed to Bain’s maturity while at the same time valuing how much younger he is than other top pass rushers who utilized the transfer portal in college. There appears to be a growing sense that the people making Draft Day decisions prize Bain more than those who specialize in mock drafts, as La Canfora puts it.
One of those mock draft, college football experts in the media, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, had Bain far from the No. 2 overall pick in his most recent mock draft two weeks ago. Brugler continues to push the media narrative that Bain “remains a polarizing prospect among NFL teams,” claiming “he’s got a lot of fans and plenty of critics.” Brugler has the Hurricanes pass rusher going ninth overall to the Chiefs, with whom he would have a golden opportunity to learn alongside stellar defensive lineman Chris Jones.
With just over a month to go until the 2026 NFL Draft, utilizing only the two sources above, the NFL-media disconnect on Bain spans seven draft picks — from No. 2 to No. 9. Regardless of the potential for varying opinions, it seems even his biggest detractors don’t have Bain falling very far past the top 10, if that far at all. Somebody will be taking a chance on the Miami product on Day 1 of the draft. It only remains to be seen how far into the first round that will happen.
Steelers Add OL Brock Hoffman
The Steelers saw a good chunk of their offensive line depth hit the free agent market earlier this month. According to Steelers beat writer Mark Kaboly, Pittsburgh restocked that depth a bit today by signing interior offensive lineman Brock Hoffman to a one-year contract. 
Hoffman went undrafted in 2022 after two years at Coastal Carolina and three at Virginia Tech. He initially signed with the Browns, failing to make the initial 53-man roster and getting cut from their practice squad in early November. Nine days later, Hoffman was signed to the Cowboys’ taxi squad. He was brought up to the active roster by the end of the year and appeared in three regular season games and one postseason game, playing only special teams snaps.
Hoffman’s responsibilities increased in Year 2 with Dallas. He appeared in all 17 games, getting regular offensive snaps and even logging two starts at center. He continued with his usual special teams contributions over the past two seasons, getting frequent opportunities to contribute on offense, and he started 14 games in that span, eight at center, five at right guard, and one at left guard.
The Steelers will be replacing starting guard Isaac Seumalo, who signed with the Cardinals in free agency, and backup linemen Calvin Anderson and Andrus Peat, who saw their contracts expire after seeing time on offense for the Steelers in 2025. The team re-signed backup center Ryan McCollum, as well, today. Pittsburgh has plenty of work to do to fill out the depleted group, but signing Hoffman is a strong start.
WR D.J. Chark Announces Retirement
After spending the entire 2025 NFL season as a free agent, veteran wide receiver D.J. Chark Jr. has opted to hang up his cleats for good. Chark took to Instagram today to “share a proper farewell as (he navigates) retirement.” 
A three-star prospect out of Alexandria HS (LA), Chark opted to commit to nearby LSU — a short, two-hour drive away — after receiving interest from Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and Tulane. Through his first two years in Baton Rouge, Chark saw barely any playing time but appeared in too many games to redshirt either season. He found a role in the offense as a junior and led the Tigers in receptions (40), receiving yards (874), and receiving touchdowns (3) as a senior.
With lackluster numbers failing to establish a high draft stock, Chark took part in the 2018 Reese’s Senior Bowl and led all receivers in the game with five catches for 160 yards and a touchdown. His strong Senior Bowl, combined with a stellar performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, raised Chark’s draft stock to the point he was bordering the first round.
Ultimately, Chark was drafted by the Jaguars near the end of the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He joined a young group of receivers catching balls from Blake Bortles in his final year as the quarterback in Jacksonville, but Chark didn’t see much action through 10 games before sitting for five of the final six of the season. In Year 2, Chark established himself as a leader in the Jaguars receiving corps. Catching balls from rookie starter Gardner Minshew, Chark led the team’s receivers in receptions (73), receiving yards (1,008), and receiving touchdowns (8), earning Pro Bowl honors for the first and only time of his career.
Things in Duval evened out a bit in 2020. Minshew (and two backups who combined for eight starts) peppered targets across a trio of Chark (53 receptions-706 receiving yards-5 touchdowns), Keelan Cole (55-642-5), and Laviska Shenault (58-600-5). Chark’s final season in Jacksonville was limited to four games after he suffered a fractured ankle and spent the rest of the year on injured reserve.
In the years that followed, Chark struggled to find the same highs and success that he enjoyed in Jacksonville, most notably in that Pro Bowl sophomore campaign. He landed a one-year, $10MM contract with the Lions in free agency, but after only logging 30 catches for 502 yards and three touchdowns as ankle injuries plagued him, his one-year deal with the Panthers the next year was worth only half as much. Chark showed one more solid campaign in Carolina, with 35 receptions, 525 receiving yards, and five touchdowns, before a hip injury would limit Chark’s time with the Chargers in 2024 to seven games, four receptions, 31 yards, and a single touchdown.
After a bid for another one-year stint with a fifth new team in as many years fell short at the roster cut deadline, Chark didn’t find any other opportunities in the NFL this year. As he prepares for the future, Chark pledged his commitment “to being an active pillar in (his) community, empowering the youth through charitable work.”
Eagles’ Marquise Brown Considered Ravens Reunion
Yesterday, we saw veteran wide receiver Marquise Brown join his fourth NFL team as he heads into the eighth year of his professional career. In an appearance on the Speakeasy talk show with Emmanuel Acho and LeSean McCoy, Brown disclosed that, before he signed with the Eagles, he considered reuniting with the team that drafted him in Baltimore. 
Appearing on the show yesterday for a short interview, Brown was asked what other teams he considered signing with. He explained that, in his second experience in free agency, his agent was the person communicating with any interested teams and that he didn’t get involved until it came down to the few teams that really seemed to want him, based on how much interest they showed his agent. He did mention, though, that he “was really considering going back to Baltimore.”
Of all the wide receivers Baltimore has drafted in its 30-year tenure as the Ravens, only three have eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving in Baltimore. In 1999, they found a fourth-round gem in Brandon Stokley, who would go on to see that success with Peyton Manning in Indianapolis after failing to surpass 360 yards in Baltimore. The team would have to wait another 12 years before finding another 1,000-yard receiver in the draft. In 2011, they drafted Torrey Smith in the second round, and he became their first ever drafted receiver to record 1,000 yards with the team, doing so in his third season. Brown, arriving eight years later, was the fourth first-round wideout in the team’s history and the first to record a 1,000-yard season. Zay Flowers has since joined him in that honor as the Ravens have now seen two of six first-round receivers reach that milestone.
Like Smith, Brown reached that threshold in his third year with the Ravens, but unlike Smith, Brown didn’t get another year with the team after accomplishing the feat. Despite having recorded the Raven’s first 1,000-yard season since 2016, Brown was reportedly unhappy with his usage in Baltimore and asked to be traded. the Ravens paired him with a third-round pick and sent him to Arizona, getting the Cardinals’ first-round pick in return.
Since leaving Baltimore, Brown has failed to build on the success of his 2021 season. He seemed to be on pace to continue progressing in his first year with the Cardinals, amassing 485 yards in just six games, but he would miss the next five games due to injury and struggle to get that production back, ending the year with 709 yards. His second year in Arizona saw him record 574 receiving yards in 14 games. As a free agent, Brown signed with the Chiefs, but a preseason injury would hold him out until the last three weeks of the season. In 2025, he played in 16 games for the first time since he left Baltimore and recorded 587 yards and five touchdowns in a semi-resurgent season in Kansas City.
After four years of failing to reach the heights he reached in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson, one can hardly fault Brown for considering a return to Baltimore. Doing so hints that Brown may now be able to look past the issues he had with his usage in the past, which should benefit him as he heads to Philadelphia, where A.J. Brown has had some similar complaints in recent years. With Jahan Dotson departed in free agency and Brown, perhaps, on his way out the door, as well, Hollywood is set to headline a retooled group of receivers behind WR1 DeVonta Smith.
Annual League Meeting Topics Coming Into Focus
In a week and a half, the NFL will undergo its annual league meeting in Phoenix. Preparations seem to be under discussion in NFL circles because a number of potential meeting topics were reported by the media today. 
For starters, the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Referees Association is due to expire at the end of May. According to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, the league is doing its homework on the idea of “hiring replacement officials” for the year, in case a new collective bargaining agreement cannot be reached by then. The last time replacement officials were utilized was during a 2012 lockout of officials. Starting in the offseason, it lasted over 100 days, requiring the use of replacement officials for the first three weeks of the season.
While the NFL declined to comment on the matter, Seifert claims that emails detail a plan to set “a list of about 150 mostly small college officials by the end of this weekend.” If the plan moves forward, the replacement officials would “begin onboarding as early as April then attend a four-day clinic in May.” They would then continue training until it becomes time for them to work at training camps, preseason games, and eventually, regular season games, if necessary.
Frustration has reportedly been mounting on both sides as the owners seek methods to improve performance and increase accountability of officials in order to make sure the “highest-performing officials are officiating (the) highest profile games.” The officials, though, want to keep things as they are or even, perhaps, reduce the league’s access to working with game officials.
The NFL also announced today that only two teams proposed resolutions for the 2026 season. One is a proposal from the Browns for “a rule change that would allow NFL teams to trade draft picks five years into the future instead of three.” Cleveland asserts that the change “would lead to a more active trade market and greater roster flexibility.”
The second proposal came from the Steelers, concerning NFL teams’ abilities to contact players during the free agent negotiating period. Pittsburgh’s proposal would make permanent a team’s ability to conduct up to five phone or video calls directly with players on other teams during the two-day free agent negotiating period before the start of the league year, something the NFL allowed on a trial basis this year.
Mark Maske of The Washington Post pointed out that, with these being the only resolutions proposed, that means no team chose to continue trying to ban the tush push and that the Rams opted not to propose anything in relation to the controversial two-point conversion scored against them by the Seahawks in Week 16 last year. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk claims the Rams withdrew their proposals on the topic.
Additionally, touching back on a couple of topics from the start of the offseason, there doesn’t appear to be any continuation of last year’s discussions on revisiting playoff seeding, per Maske. Florio touched on this topic back then, as well, reporting that it is expected to be brought back to the table once/if the regular season actually expands from 17 to 18 games.
Former Bengals, Cowboys LB Logan Wilson Retires
Early this afternoon, linebacker Logan Wilson took to Instagram to bid farewell to his brief NFL career. After only six years of play at the professional level, the 29-year-old defender has announced his retirement. 
Growing up in Wyoming, Wilson was an All-State athlete starting in his sophomore year of high school. By his junior and senior seasons, Wilson was earning All-State honors on offense (WR), defense (S), and special teams (P). Even though he was an All-State athlete, the fact that that state was Wyoming limited the amount of interest he received from colleges. He only received scholarship offers from Weber State and Wyoming and chose to stay in-state with the Cowboys. After redshirting his freshman season, Wilson was a full-time starter as a redshirt freshman and continued in that role for three years after that. His 421 total tackles are the fourth-most in school history.
The Bengals drafted the first-team All-Mountain West linebacker in the third round of the 2020 NFL draft. Though he only started two games as a rookie, he was constantly rotating in, and by the midpoint of the season, he was on the field for over half team’s defensive snaps. By the start of Year 2, Wilson had replaced Josh Bynes as a starting linebacker, and he finished the season as the team’s leading tackler, a feat he would repeat in each of the next two years, earning a four-year, $37.25MM extension. He likely would’ve accomplished the feat for four straight years, but a season-ending knee surgery ended his 2024 campaign after just 11 games.
Injuries had needled Wilson over the course of his NFL career, but that season-ending injury was the first time he had missed more than three weeks in a row. He only ever participated in every game of a season once, in 2023. That year he recorded career highs in total tackles (135), tackles for loss (5), passes defensed (9), and interceptions (4).
In 2025, Wilson started the season as a starter at inside linebacker, but as the team started limiting his time and giving more opportunities to Clemson fourth-round rookie Barrett Carter, Wilson requested a trade, and Cincinnati moved him to the Cowboys to honor that request, receiving just a seventh-round pick in the process. While he didn’t regain a starting role in Dallas, he was able to retain a decent rotation. In the aftermath of the season, the Cowboys waived Wilson to free up a considerable amount of cap space from the remaining years of his extension.
Over the course of his brief career, Wilson proved to be an effective, versatile linebacker when healthy. He finishes his NFL career with 565 total tackles, 11 interceptions, 26 passes defensed, seven forced fumbles, 5.5 sacks, 19 tackles for loss, and 18 quarterback hits. In his retirement post, Wilson expressed thanks for getting to live out his NFL dream as a kid from Wyoming.
Minor NFL Transactions: 3/18/26
Wednesday’s minor transactions from around the league:
Arizona Cardinals
- Signed: TE Teagan Quitoriano
Chicago Bears
- Signed: DT James Lynch
Cleveland Browns
- Re-signed: OLB Julian Okwara
- Signed: S Daniel Thomas
Denver Broncos
- Signed: S Tycen Anderson
San Francisco 49ers
- Re-signed: DE Sam Okuayinonu
Seattle Seahawks
- Re-signed: WR Cody White
Okwara returns to Cleveland after spending the entire 2025 season on the practice squad. The former third-round pick has 10.0 sacks in his six years of NFL play with five coming in his sophomore campaign. The addition of Thomas provides the Browns with a veteran special teams contributor.
The 49ers are bringing back Okuayinonu after the fourth-year defender filled in for 12 starts and two postseason starts with San Francisco last year. He’s recorded three sacks in each of the past two years for the 49ers.
Ravens Not Done Adding To OL; Any ‘Huge Moves’ Weeks Away
As the Ravens sat for days under the assumption that defensive end Maxx Crosby was going to be on their books, while simultaneously pursuing free agent pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, the rest of the roster got decimated in free agency. As the team watched key contributors like tight end Isaiah Likely, fullback Pat Ricard, safeties Ar’Darius Washington and Alohi Gilman, and even punter Jordan Stout exit left and right, the biggest hit came in the middle, when the Raiders — whom Baltimore would soon spurn — drew first blood, signing center Tyler Linderbaum to a market-setting deal. 
The Ravens already had work to do along the offensive line as the perception entering the offseason was that improvements were needed at the interior guard spots. Baltimore spent most of the season starting Daniel Faalele and Andrew Vorhees at offensive guard, and by the end of the season, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) graded them out as the 52nd- and 59th-best guards, respectively, out of 79 players graded at the position. Vorhees is still under contract for another season, but Faalele’s contract expired alongside Linderbaum’s.
So far, the Ravens have responded to the losses by reuniting with veteran guard John Simpson and signing little-used, rotational interior lineman Jovaughn Gwyn. As it stands right now, Simpson could slip into the guard spot opposite Vorhees while Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten man the bookend tackle roles. Per PFF, Simpson is only a slight upgrade over Faalele, grading as the 51st-best guard last year. Second-year third-round pick Emery Jones Jr. could also compete for a starting role along the interior. At center, though, without Linderbaum, the team currently only has Corey Bullock, an undrafted signee from two years ago.
Clearly, more additions are needed to build a full offensive line. Unfortunately, the market for effective interior lineman has risen to a point of stagnation, where no one is making any moves at the current price. According to Jeff Zrebiec, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta relayed plans to bring a few offensive linemen in over the next couple of weeks. He followed up that comment a couple days later by telling the media that the team “won’t make any huge moves in the weeks ahead.” DeCosta felt more opportunities to improve the roster could surface over time, though the team might be slowing down their processes a bit so that any additional free agent signings won’t be attributed to the team’s compensatory draft formula.
LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin Re-Elected As NFLPA President
While he’s yet to find a home in free agency, veteran linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin received some good news tonight as the NFL Players Association announced his re-election as NFLPA president. 
This will be Reeves-Maybin’s second term in the role after taking over in 2024. NFLPA presidents serve two-year terms and are elected by the board of player representatives from around the league. A nine-year veteran, Reeves-Maybin has spent the majority of his career as a depth linebacker and special teamer, though he did start 11 games for the Lions in 2021. He earned Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors in 2023 for his play on special teams.
Reeves-Maybin’s election two years ago made him the first black NFLPA president since Dominique Foxworth served from 2012-14. His re-election makes him the first black NFLPA president to serve multiple terms since Troy Vincent did so from 2004-08. Foxworth was succeeded in 2014 by Eric Winston, who filled the role for six years before turning it over to J.C. Tretter.
Retiring from play after four years as NFLPA president, Tretter continued to work with the union as chief strategy officer and was considered a leading candidate to step in as interim executive director amid the recent controversy with former executive director Lloyd Howell, but he instead chose to resign from his position. Reeves-Maybin has also been praised for his leadership during a rocky period in the union’s history as the NFLPA has dealt with financial impropriety and a collusion coverup.
Joining Reeves-Maybin in re-election were NFLPA executive committee members Oren Burks, Cameron Heyward, Ted Karras, Case Keenum, Brandon McManus, and Thomas Morstead. The group also saw four new members elected to serve on the executive committee. Tanoh Kpassagnon, Jonathan Greenard, Harrison Phillips, and Zaire Franklin will be filling the seats left vacant by outgoing executive committee members Calais Campbell, Austin Ekeler, Ryan Kelly, and Thomas Hennessy. Kpassagnon was named treasurer.