Colts, QB Daniel Jones Agree To Deal
The Colts will move Daniel Jones‘ transition tag off the books. The sides are in agreement on a two-year, $88MM extension, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports.
It is the largest two-year contract in NFL history, Schultz adds, noting the deal could balloon to $100MM via incentives. The contract includes $50MM fully guaranteed and another $10MM guaranteed for injury, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
The $50MM fully guaranteed far exceeds where the Seahawks went for Sam Darnold last year or where the Buccaneers closed with Baker Mayfield in 2024. The transition tag and a few recent Colts developments brought strong leverage for Jones, as he secured more guaranteed than either more accomplished QB despite only agreeing to a two-year deal.
We heard earlier today the Colts and Jones were moving toward a two-year contract. This is another monster deal for Jones, who played last season on a one-year, $14MM pact. Three years after Jones scored a win — via a four-year, $160MM deal — with the Giants, he cashes in after an injury-shortened Colts campaign.
In moving Jones’ $37.83MM transition tag off the books before the start of the 2026 league year (3pm CT today), the Colts will save considerable cap room. Jones will score a huge raise from his 2025 pay, and the two-year term length will allow for another prime-years bite at the apple — should Jones sustain his form this time around. The former No. 6 overall pick famously did not do so on his $40MM-AAV Giants accord, which Big Blue jettisoned during the second year of the contract.
The soon-to-be 29-year-old quarterback will see $50MM in Year 1, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. Jones had targeted a deal in the $50MM-per-year range; that ask was out of step with what the Colts desired. Indianapolis’ first offer was believed to come in near the Darnold range (three years, $100.5MM). But Jones, as he did with the Giants in 2023, again stood in commanding leverage position thanks to Indy trading two first-round picks for Sauce Gardner. The Colts had made no secret of their interest in re-signing Jones, and another player-friendly accord will emerge for the inconsistent QB as a result.
Each game the Colts win will result in a $500K bump for Jones, so long as he plays at least 50% of the team’s offensive snaps (per Rapoport). Notably, $10MM of Jones’ 2027 salary is guaranteed. That represents the injury guarantee, with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio noting that amount vests in March 2027. Jones received two fully guaranteed years from the Giants, but it took a four-year commitment to secure those terms. That March 2027 date gives the Colts a potential out in case Jones flops on a big-ticket deal again. Indy can escape the contract before that guarantee vests.
Jones certainly would have been the top free agent available, value-wise (an area where the QB has specialized), but the Colts were far apart on terms and did not leave it to chance by transition-tagging him. No team had unholstered a transition tag on a quarterback since 1996, with ex-Colts first-rounder Jeff George being cuffed by the Falcons. That relationship combusted months later, with Atlanta cutting the ex-Indianapolis bust after three games. The Colts will be hoping Jones can stop their QB carousel, one that helped strengthen the eighth-year veteran’s leverage.
The Colts have used eight different Week 1 starting quarterbacks over the past nine seasons. The carousel has defined Chris Ballard‘s GM tenure. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon brought back both Ballard and Shane Steichen for a fourth season, largely giving them a mulligan for Jones’ injury-shortened 2025 slate. While Jones was playing well in guiding the Colts to an 8-2 start, he now has a checkered medical sheet. Jones has missed time due to ACL and Achilles tears, along with multiple bouts of neck trouble. Before sustaining the Achilles tear last season, Jones was playing through a fractured fibula.
Jones’ struggles on his lucrative Giants deal moved Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen to the hot seat in New York, and while the QB has a chance to prolong Ballard and Steichen’s Indy tenures, their futures likely ride on this contract working out. Having Jones at $14MM represented a good value play for the Colts. With Alec Pierce now at $29MM per year and Jones on another player-friendly deal, will Indy be able to sustain its first-half form from last season?
The Duke product averaged more than eight yards per attempt for the first time last season, finishing at 8.1 with a career-best 68% completion rate. Jones posted a 19:8 TD-INT ratio and ranked eighth in QBR. The Colts were on a torrid pace, but they could not sustain it. The team going 8-4 with Jones available and 0-5 without him — though, Philip Rivers’ comeback was among the most memorable re-emergences in modern sports history — brought another negotiating point for the QB’s camp. The Vikings, who have not landed on their veteran QB option to compete with J.J. McCarthy, were also believed to be monitoring this situation.
Jones had turned down Minnesota despite receiving a better offer last year, correctly determining he had a better chance for a starting job in Indianapolis. While Anthony Richardson is still a Colt, he has been given permission to find a trade partner. Jones’ deal effectively ensures the former No. 4 overall pick will not be back.
Expected to be back for Week 1 after another round of rehab, Jones will not have Michael Pittman Jr. to target any longer. The Colts traded their $24MM-per-year receiver to the Steelers in a salary-dump move, as they now have Pierce on a WR1 deal. The team also traded Adonai Mitchell in the Gardner swap, leaving Pierce, Josh Downs and Tyler Warren as Jones’ top 2026 targets — as of now. The team also lost right tackle Braden Smith in free agency, though four O-line starters are returning to help Jones and All-Pro running back Jonathan Taylor.
Averaging 5.7 and 6.1 yards per attempt during the two seasons on his second Giants contract, Jones will face considerable pressure to stick the landing this time. Though, his Kirk Cousins-like negotiating savviness has removed any incentive on the financial side. Still, Jones playing well in Indy will position him for a lucrative extension or a 2028 free agency foray. The Colts will hope this pricey contract can bring an end to the post-Andrew Luck period of QB instability.
Packers To Sign DL Javon Hargrave
Another offseason, another eight-figure-per-year Javon Hargrave contract. Released today by the Vikings, Hargrave will set up shop with one of Minnesota’s rivals.
The Packers will bring in the veteran interior defensive lineman, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets. Hargrave agreed to a two-year deal worth $23MM. This marks the third time in four offseasons the well-traveled D-lineman has inked a deal averaging more than $10MM per year. That is rather impressive considering Hargrave has now been cut twice in two years. This will reunite Hargrave and Jonathan Gannon, the Eagles’ defensive coordinator from 2021-22.
Hargrave, 33, may have been a 49ers and Vikings cap casualty but still carries respect around the league (as evidenced by this quick agreement). The Packers traded Kenny Clark to the Cowboys in the Micah Parsons blockbuster last year; they will now add another 30-something veteran to complement Devonte Wyatt up front.
After helping the Eagles make a run at the 1984 Bears’ single-season sack record, Hargrave commanded a four-year, $84MM 49ers deal as a 2023 free agent. Starting for San Francisco’s Super Bowl LVIII team, the former third-round pick suffered a pectoral injury early in the 2024 season. The 49ers cut him soon after, leading to a two-year Vikings pact worth $30MM. Hargrave started 15 games last season but joined fellow Minnesota 2025 FA addition Jonathan Allen in being released today.
Enjoying a strong sack stretch from 2021-23, Hargrave peaked with 11 in 2022 to help the Eagles to Super Bowl LVII. Playing in Super Bowls in back-to-back years, Hargrave also produced 7.5 sacks and a career-high 18 QB hits under Gannon in 2021. The Steelers draftee earned a Pro Bowl nod as a 49er in 2023. The interior rusher has toggled between 3-4 and 4-3 schemes during his career, as such differences have mattered less and less thanks to the proliferation of nickel and dime packages.
One season remains on Wyatt’s rookie contract; the Packers picked up his fifth-year option and declined Quay Walker‘s last year (Walker is now a Raider). Trading Clark just before the season, the team used Karl Brooks as a seven-game starter in 2025. As Gannon puts his stamp on Green Bay’s defense, the ex-Cardinals HC will turn to one of his former charges to help do so.
OLB Bradley Chubb To Join Bills
Designated a post-June 1 cut by the Dolphins, Bradley Chubb intends to join one of their rivals. The Bills are bringing in the former top-five pick, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Chubb is signing a three-year, $43.5MM contract with Buffalo. Of that total, $29MM is guaranteed. The deal can max out at $52.5MM. This signing could point Joey Bosa out of Buffalo, but with a new defensive system being implemented, the Bills are making changes to that unit early in free agency.
Miami officially designated Chubb a post-June 1 release, per NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero. This long-rumored cut will create $20.23MM in cap space for a Dolphins team that made history with its other post-June 1 designation today. Tua Tagovailoa‘s release will tag Miami with an NFL-record $99.2MM in dead cap. That money will be spread over two years, but it still smashes the record Russell Wilson‘s Broncos release set in 2024.
Long deploying a 4-3 defense, the Bills are switching to a 3-4 scheme under new DC Jim Leonhard. Chubb is a career-long 3-4 outside linebacker, beginning in that role with the Broncos and moving to the Dolphins via a blockbuster 2022 trade. The former Denver Von Miller sidekick has battled major injuries — two ACL tears — during his time as a pro, but he bounced back with a healthy 2025 season. Still, the Dolphins’ new regime moved on.
Drafted two spots before Josh Allen in the 2018 first round, Chubb pursued the rookie-year sack record and reached 12 alongside Miller that year in Denver. He missed most of the 2019 season with an ACL tear and battled more injury trouble in 2021, seeing Denver unload him at the ’22 deadline. Chubb signed a Dolphins extension in 2022 but suffered a second ACL tear late in the ’23 season and missed all of 2024. This led to a reworked deal in 2025.
Returning to play his age-29 season last year, Chubb started in all 17 of the Dolphins’ games and recorded quality counting stats. Chubb finished the campaign with 47 tackles (eight TFL), 20 QB hits and 8.5 sacks. On the other hand, Pro Football Focus was unimpressed with the two-time Pro Bowler, whom it ranked 103rd among 119 qualifying edge rushers.
With Bosa and A.J. Epenesa among their free agents, it was obvious the Bills would need to add at least one established edge rusher this offseason. Those two combined for 1,000 defensive snaps and 7.5 sacks in 2025. Bosa led the league with five forced fumbles, though his impact dropped off to a noticeable degree as the season progressed.
The Bills were involved in the free agency sweepstakes for Trey Hendrickson, but he agreed to a four-year, $112MM deal with the Ravens on Wednesday. They also factored into the initial round of trade talks for Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby. While Crosby could become available again after the Ravens backed out of a trade with the Raiders, the Chubb signing may take the Bills out of the running.
Connor Byrne contributed to this post.
Eagles Discussing Trade, Extension For Vikings OLB Jonathan Greenard
Jonathan Greenard remains one of the top edge rushers who could be on the move soon. To little surprise, the Vikings Pro Bowler is still on the radar of the Eagles.
Philadelphia continues to make trade calls on Greenard, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports. Crucially, she adds conversations are ongoing with Greenard’s agent about a potential extension. Minnesota is open to a trade in this case with a raise being sought out.
The Eagles pursued Trey Hendrickson and Maxx Crosby but came up short on both high-profile edge rushers. Greenard’s push for a new contract, after a 2025 season that was not as good as his 2024 slate, emerged recently. But it sounds like the Eagles are open to accommodating the former Texans draftee here.
Philly tried multiple in-season fixes last year, bringing Brandon Graham out of retirement and trading for Jaelan Phillips. This came after Za’Darius Smith‘s in-season retirement. Philly, which also saw Nolan Smith spend time on IR in 2025, was viewed as close to re-signing Phillips. But the Panthers came in with a four-year, $120MM deal. It would surprise if Greenard fetches that, especially with the Eagles not deeming Phillips worth that price. But a lower-cost alternative looks to be available — and GM Howie Roseman is an aggressive trader.
Prior to the Greenard talks heating up, Russini reported the Eagles were eyeing EDGE help. The team still rosters Smith but has not quite seen him justify his first-round cost. Jalyx Hunt led the Eagles with 6.5 sacks, but the first-year starter registered a promising 24 QB hits. Philly lost auxiliary rushers Josh Uche and Azeez Ojulari today in free agency.
Greenard, 29 in May, became an attractive free agency piece in 2024 after a 12.5-sack season in his Houston contract year. The former third-round pick followed that up with a 12-sack Minnesota debut; both Greenard and teammate Andrew Van Ginkel earned original-ballot Pro Bowl acclaim that year, as the Vikings went 14-3. Greenard only notched three sacks in 12 games last season, however, making this contract crusade curious.
He is tied to a four-year, $76MM deal. That contract runs through the 2027 season, but the Vikings have been seeking a Day 2 pick to move on. (The Eagles traded a third-rounder for Phillips and, after letting Milton Williams and Josh Sweat walk in 2025, received four compensatory picks — one of them a third-rounder — in this year’s draft.) Minnesota has Van Ginkel and 2024 first-round pick Dallas Turner rostered at the position. As it stands, Turner is blocked from a starting role thanks to the veterans’ presences. But Turner broke through for eight sacks and 15 QB hits in 2025, providing Minnesota optimism in the event it can collect a notable asset for Greenard.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
Vikings Release DLs Javon Hargrave, Jonathan Allen
Both the veteran defensive linemen the Vikings gave eight-figure-per-year contracts to in 2025 are now out. After releasing Jonathan Allen, Minnesota is now cutting Javon Hargrave.
Dangled in trades recently, Hargrave (via ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter) has been informed he will be released. The move will save the Vikings more than $10MM in cap space while bringing nearly the same amount in dead money. The rumored Allen release is now official as well.
The dead cap amount stems from signing bonus proration and a $4MM guarantee on Hargrave’s 2026 salary. Minnesota gave the former Steelers, Eagles and 49ers D-lineman a two-year, $30MM contract in 2025. This is quite the overhaul for the Vikings’ D-line over the past year. After free agency in 2025, they rostered Hargrave, Allen and Harrison Phillips. With Phillips traded to the Jets last August, all three are now gone.
Minnesota has not made a move to add a D-linemen, but it can be assumed some are in the works. Hargrave, 33, started 15 games last season; Allen, 31, started 17. Hargrave bounced back after an injury-shortened 2024 in San Francisco, but this is the second straight year he has been released. The 49ers designated Hargrave as a post-June 1 cut last year; it is not known if the Vikings are making the same move.
A standard Allen release would bring more than $17MM in dead money, and NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero indicates a post-June 1 designation will indeed be used. This designation saves $11.2MM this year while moving more than $12MM in dead cap on to the Vikings’ payroll. Minnesota is designating Harrison Smith as a post-June release (for procedural purposes); teams are only allotted two each year.
This also marks Allen’s second straight year being released. The Commanders cut their former first-round D-tackle after eight seasons, and he generated a promising market as a street free agent. The Vikings gave him a three-year, $51MM deal that came with $23.26MM fully guaranteed. That contract has come back to bite the team, one that fired GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah weeks into the offseason. Allen was to see $8MM of his $16.75MM 2026 salary guaranteed. As Adam La Rose’s Vikings Offseason Outlook reminded, Allen’s $23.87MM was the highest figure on Minnesota’s cap sheet.
Allen, 31, and Hargrave each registered 3.5 sacks last season. Both players recovered from 2024 injuries on time; Allen fared better as a pressure artist, recording 11 QB hits to Hargrave’s six. Both players being cut in back-to-back years stands to significantly reduce their earning potential in 2026.
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.
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.
Colts To Add DE Micheal Clemons
Another of the Jets’ Joe Douglas-era defenders is relocating. Rather than reunite with Robert Saleh or Jeff Ulbrich, Micheal Clemons is heading to Indianapolis.
Clemons is signing a three-year, $17.5MM deal with the Colts, NFL insider Jordan Schultz tweets. The deal can max out at $18.5MM. The Colts were in the Trey Hendrickson market, but the Ravens prevailed there. Losing Kwity Paye to the Raiders, the Colts will bring in the former Jets contributor to be part of their edge-rushing corps.
The Colts just checked the Daniel Jones deal off their to-do list, freeing up cap space after a cap-clogging $37.83MM transition tag number was on the payroll. Some of those savings will go toward Clemons, a full-time starter in 2024 but more of a depth piece in his other three New York seasons.
One of the Jets’ many trade candidates at last year’s deadline, Clemons started six games during a disastrous 3-14 Gang Green 2025 season. Mostly playing behind Will McDonald and Jermaine Johnson last season, Clemons totaled just one sack and five QB hits in 16 games. In 2024, the former fourth-round pick posted a career-best 4.5 sacks.
Clemons, 28, has never posted more than eight QB hits in a season. Although the Texas A&M product was not a regular starter last season, his snap share (55%) outpaced his 2024 number (54%). Last season, DC Steve Wilks used Clemons inside more frequently than Saleh and Ulbrich did. The Colts have regularly turned to their DEs (notably Dayo Odeyingbo and Tyquan Lewis) as hybrid players, though that was under Gus Bradley. Lou Anarumo enters his second season as Indianapolis’ DC.
The Jets, who lost Johnson for the year in 2024 to clear a path for Clemons, are rebooting on their D-line. After trading Quinnen Williams at the 2025 deadline, New York dealt Johnson to Tennessee for T’Vondre Sweat. Ex-Bengal Joseph Ossai is now Big Apple-bound, being set to play opposite McDonald while Sweat takes over as the nose tackle in Aaron Glenn‘s 3-4 front. A career-long 4-3 D-end, Clemons will join Laiatu Latu, JT Tuimoloau and free agency addition Arden Key in Indy.
Giants’ Steve Tisch Requesting To Transfer Ownership Stake
Giants co-owner Steve Tisch was named in the Epstein files recently. No NFL investigation has commenced, but the longtime Giants leader is preparing to step out of his role.
Team co-owners Steve, Laurie and Jonathan Tisch have sent a request to the NFL’s finance committee to transfer their ownership stakes into their children’s trusts, according to ESPN.com’s Seth Wickersham and Jordan Raanan and The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. Steve Tisch and his two siblings have co-owned the Giants since 2005.
Tisch’s name is mentioned at least 440 times in the files connected to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Those ranged from casual to problematic. As a result, Tisch is taking a Giants exit ramp after 21 years alongside John Mara atop the organization.
If/when the NFL finance committee approves the transfer, the family’s memo states Tisch would “no longer own any interest in the Giants.” This will mark the third and final transfer of the Tischs’ trusts, with Raanan indicating previous transfers to his children’s trusts occurred in 2023 and 2024.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,” Tisch said earlier this year, discussing his relationship with Epstein. “I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
The emails show Epstein connecting Tisch, 77, to a number of women. Most of the duo’s correspondence appears to have taken place in 2013. Epstein had already served prison time for sex crimes by that point, beginning that sentence in 2008. Several execs and an owner informed Wickersham and Raanan they expected a Tisch update at this month’s owners meetings. While the controversial emails are undoubtedly at the root of Tisch’s Giants exit strategy, he has not been accused of any crimes. Authorities arrested Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. He was found dead in a jail cell in August 2019.
The Mara family founded the Giants in 1925; John Mara serves as the team’s president at CEO. Working in the team facility and speaking on the team’s behalf, Mara has the far more active Giants owner during his partnership with Tisch. Described previously as a silent partner, the latter is part of the Giants’ decision-making structure. Though Tisch has not spoken publicly about the Giants since 2020, he did sit in on coaching interviews during the franchise’s effort to lure John Harbaugh earlier this year. Tisch was believed to be the strongest Harbaugh proponent within the organization.
Among a number of high-profile figures mentioned in the Epstein files, Tisch is a partner at Escape Artists, a film production company, and has produced several movies — including Forrest Gump and Risky Business. The New Jersey native has sat as the Giants’ chairman of the board; his brother, Jonathan, is the team’s treasurer. One of Jonathan’s sons, Charles, works in the Giants’ football ops department as an administration manager.
The Maras and Tisches each own a 45% stake in the Giants, according to NJ.com’s Darryl Slater. The other 10% was sold, as the NFL began to allow private equity investments in teams, in 2025. The Tisches’ stake is valued at $2.31 billion, Slater adds.
Dolphins To Re-Sign LB Willie Gay
The Dolphins just saw K.J. Britt agree to terms with the Patriots, but another of their role players on defense is staying. Veteran linebacker Willie Gay is coming back to Miami on a one-year deal, The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson tweets.
Formerly the Chiefs’ top Nick Bolton sidekick, Gay never signed a second Kansas City contract. The Chiefs ended up preferring Drue Tranquill, re-signing him in 2024 and letting Gay walk. Gay joined the Saints that year and played last season with the Dolphins. Today marks his third straight one-year contract.
Miami had Gay on a one-year, $1.34MM deal in 2025. That represented a pay cut from his Saints rate ($3MM); it is safe to say Gay’s stock has dropped from when he was a three-time Chiefs Super Bowl starter.
Although Gay played 17 Dolphins games last season, he only started two. This came after 47 Chiefs starting assignments and eight with the Saints. Gay, 28, played just 12% of Miami’s defensive snaps in 2025.
Jordyn Brooks resides as the Dolphins’ linebacking centerpiece, and Tyrel Dodson is also under contract. A former first-round pick, Brooks is entering the final season of his three-year, $26.25MM contract. As I discussed in PFR’s Dolphins Offseason Outlook, the prolific tackler should be an extension candidate. But the Dolphins have hired new decision-makers, clouding that matter to a degree. But Jeff Hafley will use Gay as a defender/depth piece next season.