NFC Contract Details: Lions, Franklin, Cross, Cardinals, Cowboys, 49ers, Bears, Saints
Here are the latest details from contracts agreed to around the NFC:
- Cade Mays, C (Lions). Three years, $25MM. Mays secured $6MM of his $7.7MM 2027 base salary fully guaranteed, according to OverTheCap. Four void years are included in the deal, per the Detroit Football Network’s Justin Rogers, with Mays’ 2026 cap hit sitting at $2.77MM. A $7.39MM option bonus is in place for 2028; the Lions bailing before that is due would result in a $3.89MM dead money hit, Rogers adds.
- Zaire Franklin, LB (Packers). Two years, $18MM. Two years remained on Franklin’s Colts-constructed contract — initially a three-year, $31.26MM deal. The Packers reworked it. Franklin received a $3.75MM signing bonus on his post-trade agreement, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. That is the only guarantee here, though Franklin’s 2026 salary ($4.24MM) will lock in just before Week 1 due to the LB being a vested veteran.
- Nick Cross, S (Commanders). Two years, $13MM. The deal includes $6.1MM fully guaranteed, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson notes. None of Cross’ 2027 money is guaranteed.
- Neville Gallimore, DT (Bears). Two years, $10.13MM. Gallimore will see $5MM guaranteed at signing, Wilson tweets. The Bears included a $375K roster bonus due on Day 5 of the 2027 league year.
- Benjamin St-Juste, CB (Packers). Two years, $10MM. St-Juste received just $3MM at signing, Wilson adds. The signing bonus represents the guarantee, though a $1.5MM roster bonus is due on Day 3 of the 2027 league year.
- Noah Fant, TE (Saints). Two years, $8.75MM. The former first-round pick secured $4.5MM guaranteed at signing, ESPN.com’s Katherine Terrell tweets. No guarantees are in place for 2027.
- Elijah Wilkinson, OL (Cardinals). Two years, $6.25MM. Wilkinson’s contract comes with $3.1MM fully guaranteed, Wilson tweets. The veteran blocker played for less than $1.5MM during both his Falcons seasons.
- Gardner Minshew, QB (Cardinals). One year, $5.75MM. This deal comes in far south of Minshew’s two-year, $25MM Raiders pact from 2024, and the initially reported $8.25MM represented a max value. Minshew will see $5.14MM fully guaranteed, per Wilson. Minshew’s deal checks in just below Jacoby Brissett‘s for AAV; Brissett is on a two-year, $12.5MM accord.
- Larry Borom, T (Lions). One year, $5MM. Borom’s deal comes almost fully guaranteed, with Wilson noting the at-signing number is $4.9MM. This contract is double his Dolphins deal from 2025.
- Malik Hooker, S (Cowboys). One year, $5MM. Hooker’s reworking will bring a $3MM guarantee, per OverTheCap. Hooker was going into the final season of a three-year, $21MM contract.
- Olamide Zaccheaus, WR (Falcons). Two years, $4.5MM. The ex-Matt Ryan target will return to Atlanta — under the leadership of the team’s new front office boss — for $2.3MM fully guaranteed, Wilson adds.
- Cobie Durant, CB (Cowboys). One year, $4MM. Durant’s deal includes just $1.5MM guaranteed at signing, via OverTheCap, though another $1.75MM (the ex-Ram CB’s base salary) will lock in just before Week 1.
- Nate Hobbs, CB (49ers). One year, $3.5MM. The previously reported $4.5MM number represents the deal’s max value. Hobbs will see $3.11MM fully guaranteed, ESPN.com’s Nick Wagoner tweets.
49ers To Sign CB Nate Hobbs
Nate Hobbs has quickly found a new home. After getting cut by the Packers earlier this week, the cornerback is signing with the 49ers, according to Jordan Schultz. It’s one-year deal for the cornerback. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero says the deal could be worth up to $4.5MM.
[RELATED: Packers To Release CB Nate Hobbs]
After completing his rookie contract with the Raiders, Hobbs inked a four-year, $48MM deal with the Packers last offseason. The cornerback’s injury problems persisted in Green Bay, where he dealt with knee issues for much of the campaign. It started with a meniscus issue in training camp, and it concluded with a season-ending MCL injury. The 26-year-old ultimately got in 11 games (five starts) during his lone season with the Packers.
Instead of facing the second year of Hobbs’ contract, the Packers moved on from him earlier this week. The move created $8.84MM in cap savings for the Packers while generating a dead money charge of $4MM.
The 2021 fifth-round pick impressed as a rookie, including a fifth-place ranking in Pro Football Focus’ positional rankings. He struggled to reach that ceiling over the next three years, with Hobbs often finding himself in and out of the starting lineup with the Raiders. He finished his tenure in Las Vegas with 281 stops and three interceptions.
Hobbs will get another chance to show what he’s got in San Francisco. However, if he wants to serve as more than a backup, he’ll have to leap the incumbents. At the moment, the 49ers are set to return basically their entire CB corps, including Deommodore Lenoir, Renardo Green, and Upton Stout.
Packers To Release CB Nate Hobbs
Nate Hobbs‘ Green Bay future was a question mark leading up to free agency. The veteran corner will indeed be on the move after just one year with the team.
Hobbs is being cut, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. This will be designated a post-June 1 release, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky adds. Green Bay will create $8.84MM in cap savings as a result while generating a dead money charge of $4MM.
No restructure was worked out in this case as the new league year approached, leading to questions about a separation. Hobbs inked a four-year, $48MM contract in free agency last spring upon playing out his rookie contract with the Raiders. As usual, the Packers did not include any full guarantees beyond the first season of the deal, with Hobbs being owed a $6.25MM roster bonus on Friday. In advance of that date, Green Bay has elected to move on.
Hobbs joined the Packers with injury concerns, and that proved to be a problem in 2025. A meniscus issue in training camp marked the first of three knee ailments the former fifth-rounder dealt with in Green Bay. The last was a season-ending MCL injury. Hobbs had found himself out of the starting lineup by the time that took place, pointing further to a cut in this case.
The Illinois product struggled in coverage with the Packers, surrendering a passer rating of 111.1 as the nearest defender in 2025. Between that and his injuries, Hobbs will be hard-pressed to secure a long-term contract like he did last spring. Still, at the age of 26, he could be seen as a bounce-back candidate by teams seeking depth in the secondary.
The cornerback position was a sore spot for Green Bay down the stretch, as illustrated by the Trevon Diggs experiment to close out the campaign. He is no longer in the fold, and Hobbs will also be on the move in free agency. Early on Tuesday, though, the Packers lined up a CB addition by agreeing to terms with Benjamin St-Juste.
Packers Not Certain To Retain CB Nate Hobbs?
Brian Gutekunst said earlier this offseason the Packers were likely to move forward with Nate Hobbs and fellow big-ticket 2025 signee Aaron Banks. The guard just saw his contract restructured, ensuring he will be back. Hobbs’ future may be murkier suddenly.
The Packers have not turned to the Hobbs deal for cap space, and ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky notes rumblings about a quick separation have emerged. Green Bay gave the four-year Las Vegas cornerback a four-year, $48MM deal in free agency last year. The 2025 market was fruitful for a number of corners, Hobbs among them, but the ex-Raider did not end up making a big impact.
Packer contracts regularly include signing bonus money as the only guarantees, with roster bonuses also part of some such pacts — as was the case with 2024 free agency addition Josh Jacobs. As Adam La Rose’s Packers Offseason Outlook detailed, Hobbs is due a $6.25MM roster bonus on March 13. The Pack may be considering a quick departure to avoid being on the hook for that.
Hobbs’ only guarantees at signing came via his $16MM signing bonus. That represents the only locked-in money left on the deal, but $12MM in bonus prorations would bring dead money in the event Green Bay cuts bait before this roster bonus is due. If the Packers designate Hobbs as a post-June 1 release, they can save $8.84MM in 2026. Though, those funds would not be available until June. A standard release would tag the Pack with $12MM in dead money and just $838K in cap savings. Teams are allotted two post-June 1 designations each year.
The Packers benched Hobbs five games in and reduced his role. Formerly contributing as a slot and boundary corner in Vegas, Hobbs cleared 33% of the Packers’ defensive snaps just once after his Week 6 demotion. Hobbs underwent knee surgery in August, affecting his preparation for his fifth season. Not debuting until Week 2, Hobbs later missed five more games due to knee trouble and finished the season on IR.
NFL Injury Updates: Seahawks, Packers, Olave, Hall
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold heads into Week 18 with a game that could cement his team as the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the second season in a row. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, he’s also looking to earn up to $1.5MM in incentives by throwing for at least 150 yards and three touchdowns and raising his passer rating (99.2) to 100. Unfortunately, he’ll be doing so without a few key pieces.
Starting left tackle Charles Cross has missed each of the team’s last two games, and according to Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times, he’ll be out for Week 18, as well. Backup swing tackle Josh Jones has played well in Cross’ absence these past two weeks and will be relied upon again in a winner-take-all matchup with the 49ers.
Curtis Crabtree of FOX Sports adds on that, although rookie fifth-round receiver Tory Horton is eligible to be activated off injured reserve, he is not expected to play again this season. The shin injury that’s kept him out since early November has likely ended his rookie campaign. Head coach Mike Macdonald told reporters, “The best way I can describe it is just, what he has, it just takes a long time to heal…we’re not planning on having him.”
Here are a few other injury updates from around the NFL:
- Packers head coach Matt LaFleur gave updates on the two defensive backs recently placed on injured reserve earlier this week. Both safety Zayne Anderson and cornerback Nate Hobbs suffered injuries in the team’s home loss to Baltimore. According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, LaFleur told the media that he didn’t anticipate either player being able to return in time for the playoffs, so both players were put on IR to make room on the 53-man roster for players who can contribute in the postseason.
- Saints wide receiver Chris Olave was a surprise scratch for the team’s regular season finale. According to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football, a blood clot was detected in Olave’s lung, though it was caught early, “before anything bad could happen,” and the 25-year-old will be fine. ESPN’s Adam Schefter added that Olave has no prior history with blood clots and that the injury should sideline him for about four weeks before he’ll be ready for any offseason activities.
- The Bills are locked into a wild card slot in the playoffs, though their exact seeding is still up in the air. They should have a fairly easy Week 18 matchup against a tanking Jets team, but they’ll be going into it without rookie defensive tackle Deone Walker, per Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN. A fourth-round pick out of Kentucky, Walker has stepped up as a starter for nearly all of his rookie year as Ed Oliver, T.J. Sanders, Jordan Phillips, Larry Ogunjobi, and DaQuan Jones have all missed time at different points of the year.
- Speaking of the tanking Jets, already without quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver Garrett Wilson, New York has also now ruled out running back Breece Hall, according to Schefter. This means Hall may have already played his final game in a Jets uniform, as the 24-year-old is set to hit free agency at the end of the season. According to Rich Cimini, also of ESPN, the Jets are expected to at least attempt to retain him, but Hall may be tempted to test the market. Cimini doesn’t rule out that franchise/transition tags may enter the picture. With all the absences on offense, the Jets starting group will be led by Brady Cook at quarterback, Khalil Herbert and Kene Nwangwu at running back, and John Metchie III, Adonai Mitchell, and Isaiah Williams at receiver. Per Cimini, starting cornerback Brandon Stephens will miss the Jets’ final game of the season, as well.
- The Ravens have a win-or-go-home game tomorrow night against the division-rival Steelers, but they will be heading into the matchup without wide receiver Rashod Bateman after ruling him out for the weekend. Bateman missed practice all week with illness and will not travel to Pittsburgh.
Packers Claim CB Trevon Diggs
JANUARY 1: The Packers were the only team to submit a claim in this case, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones reports. Diggs could see time right away and a familiar face on the sidelines will help in that regard. As Rapoport notes, Packers defensive pass-game coordinator Derrick Ansley was Diggs’ secondary coach at Alabama. It will be interesting to see if that dynamic helps spark a rebound in play late in the campaign.
Per Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley expressed to the media that “he wants (Diggs) to play on Sunday against the Vikings.” Hafley made sure to emphasize that they “need to make sure that he’s ready to go” and didn’t make any promises, but both Diggs and his coaches seem to want him on the field this weekend.
DECEMBER 31: One day after the Cowboys cut him, cornerback Trevon Diggs will land with a playoff team. The Packers have claimed Diggs off waivers, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
In claiming Diggs, the Packers will commit to paying his $472K game check for Week 18. He’ll earn another $58,823 if he’s active against the Vikings this Sunday, per Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. Beyond that, there’s no guaranteed money left on Diggs’ contract. However, he remains under team control through 2028 on the five-year, $97MM extension he signed with Dallas in July 2023.
Diggs, a 2020 second-round pick from Alabama, scored his enormous payday after a scintillating start to his career. He made the Pro Bowl twice in his first three years, a stretch in which he intercepted 17 passes. He finished with a jaw-dropping 11 picks in 2021, the most in a season since former Cowboy Everson Walls came down with 11 in 1981, en route to first-team All-Pro honors.
Diggs’ 11-INT showing remains his only 17-game season to date. The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder has dealt with a laundry list of injuries since then. An ACL tear limited Diggs to two games in 2023. He missed six more games in 2024 as a result of a calf tear and another knee surgery. It was more of the same in Diggs’ last hurrah with the Cowboys, who placed him on IR with lingering knee problems and a concussion on Oct. 25. He played in just eight of Dallas’ 16 games this year before the team cut him.
The Cowboys opened Diggs’ 21-day practice window on Nov. 30, but they didn’t activate him until Dec. 20. It came as a surprise after Diggs indicated he was healthy enough to play the previous week. He said he was “upset“ the Cowboys didn’t activate him in Week 15. It wasn’t the first disagreement between Diggs and first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
The decision to move on from Diggs reportedly came on the heels of Schottenheimer denying the Maryland-born defender’s request to remain in Washington after the Cowboys’ Christmas Day win over the Commanders. Diggs, who wanted to stay with his family, ignored Schottenheimer’s orders and skipped the team’s flight back to Dallas. That may have sealed his fate with the Cowboys.
While Diggs and Schottenheimer clashed, a massive decline in the corner’s effectiveness was likely the main reason Dallas parted with him. The 27-year-old has gone without an interception this season, and Pro Football Focus ranks his performance 80th among 113 qualifiers at his position. Worse yet, according to Pro-Football-Reference, Diggs has yielded a 77.3% completion rate to the nearest receiver and a 157.2 passer rating over a sample of 22 targets. A perfect rating checks in at 158.3.
Although Diggs has struggled immensely this year, the Packers aren’t risking much in claiming him. The Packers will be able to move on after the season if they want, and they desperately need healthy cornerbacks right now.
Locked into the seventh seed in the NFC with one game left, the Packers are dangerously thin at corner behind Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine. Green Bay placed Kamal Hadden on IR on Tuesday and did the same with Nate Hobbs on Wednesday, per Adam Schefter of ESPN. Hobbs, who has played in 11 games and started five this year, will miss at least four contests with a knee injury.
Diggs, Shemar Bartholomew and Jaylin Simpson will provide the Packers a few more game-ready options at the position. The Packers signed Bartholomew and Simpson from their practice squad to their active roster on Tuesday.
Packers S Evan Williams Could Miss Time With MCL Sprain
Packers safety Evan Williams could miss time with an MCL sprain suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Broncos.
Williams went down on the same play on Micah Parson‘s ACL tear, per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Williams’ injury is not thought to be severe, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, but the team would rather ensure that he is healthy for the playoffs rather than risk a re-aggravation.
The 2024 fourth-round pick earned a starting role as partway through his rookie season, though he missed four games due to hamstring and quad injuries. This year, he has a 91% snap share and ranks third on the team in tackles (92) and passes defended (five).
The Packers have used Williams and Xavier McKinney for virtually all of their safety snaps this year. Third on the team is Javon Bullard with 34 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). The 2024 second-rounder has primarily lined up in the slot this season, but he does have plenty of experience as a free safety after splitting time with Williams last year.
If Green Bay puts Bullard in Williams’ role, they will likely move Nate Hobbs or Keisean Nixon into the slot. Both players have plenty of experience there, though not this season. Hobbs began the year as a starter on the outside but was replaced by Carrington Valentine by the end of October. Hobbs then missed four games due to injury; upon his return, he resumed his participation in the Packers’ dime packages. Nixon, meanwhile, has started on the boundary all year. It would make sense for him and Valentine to stay put with Hobbs returning to his past role as the Raiders’ nickel.
Williams will hope to recover quickly, if not before the end of the season, then by the playoffs. The 9-4 Packers currently sit in second place in the NFC North and own the third wild card spot in the NFC.
The Packers are expected to have Christian Watson on the field for Saturday night’s face-off with the Bears. Watson suffered chest and shoulder injuries in Week 15, but said (via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic) that he is “feeling pretty good for everything considered.”
“I think it’ll be alright for the game,” Watson added. “We’re at the point in the season where you gotta fight through some stuff, so should be good.”
Packers’ Nate Hobbs Undergoes Knee Surgery; CB Could Be Available In Week 1
Nate Hobbs will likely not participate in the remainder of the Packers’ training camp. The free agent signing underwent knee surgery over the weekend, as first reported by Sports Illustrated’s Bill Huber. 
Hobbs was dealing with a partial meniscus tear, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky adds. Playing through the issue could have been an option, but this preventative procedure has instead taken place with the aim of avoiding any missed time during the regular season. The surgery was a success, per Demovsky, who notes Hobbs is expected to miss the rest of camp.
That means the 26-year-old will be unavailable for Green Bay’s preseason contests, although he was already unlikely to take part in those. If Hobbs’ recovery goes as planned, he could still be back in time for Week 1. A clean bill of health would of course be key in this case given the investment made by the Packers on the open market.
After playing out his rookie contract with the Raiders, Hobbs was among the top cornerbacks in this year’s free agent class. He landed a four-year, $48MM pact with Green Bay. While the deal only contains $16MM guaranteed at signing, expectations are high for the former fifth-rounder as the Packers prepare for their first season since 2017 without Jaire Alexander in the fold. Hobbs could see notable time on the perimeter as well as in the slot this season while the team sorts out its best arrangement in the secondary.
News of Hobbs’ surgery and required absence helps explain the Packers’ recent decision to bring back Corey Ballentine. The veteran spent the past three years with Green Bay, making 37 appearances and seven starts. Ballentine is back in the fold as a healthy cornerback option for the time being, and he will look to earn a roster spot ahead of cutdowns later this month. Hobbs, meanwhile, will aim to recover in time for the start of the regular season.
Packers Plan To Use Nate Hobbs, Other Top CBs Interchangeably
Over the course of his four seasons in the NFL, new Packers cornerback Nate Hobbs has played more than twice as many snaps in the slot than on the boundaries. So, when the 2021 Raiders draftee left Las Vegas for Green Bay this offseason by way of a four-year, $48MM contract, our Sam Robinson noted that Hobbs had set a new high-water mark for slot defenders if the Packers indeed plan to deploy him in that capacity.
While Hobbs will surely see plenty of action in the slot in Wisconsin, the club has something of a hybrid role in mind for him, as detailed by Jason Wilde of Channel3000.com. Per Wilde, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley wants to compensate for the roster’s lack of a true shutdown corner by using Hobbs, Keisean Nixon, and Carrington Valentine interchangeably.
During OTAs and mandatory minicamp, Hobbs sometimes lined up across from Nixon on the boundary in base packages. In nickel looks, Valentine came onto the field and played outside the numbers while Nixon and Hobbs shared time in the slot and out wide.
“Nate can play outside and Nate can play inside. So we’re going to have him do both,” Hafley said. “When you’re getting ready for free agency and you’re evaluating tape, it’s one thing that you love about him. He’s had a lot of success inside, and I thought his tape outside was equally as good.”
The Packers had hoped that Jaire Alexander, who landed a then-CB-record four-year deal worth $84MM in May 2022, would serve as their No. 1 corner for the long haul. Unfortunately, Alexander’s injury problems contributed to his release last month, thus increasing the pressure on Green Bay’s current top trio.
Nixon, 28, has played nearly 2,000 defensive snaps over the past two seasons thanks in large part to Alexander’s lack of availability, and he has acquitted himself reasonably well. Last season, one year after spending most of his time in the slot, he led the Packers in snaps as a boundary corner and limited opposing passers to a 57.5% completion percentage and 78.9 QB rating as the nearest defender. He also earned First Team All-Pro acclaim for his work as a kick returner in the 2022-23 seasons.
Valentine, a 2023 seventh-rounder, has been pressed into starting duty in each of his two pro seasons, lining up almost exclusively outside the numbers. It sounds as if the club will give him a greater opportunity to show off his versatility this year, and 2024 second-rounder Javon Bullard remains an option to see extensive work as a nickel CB, just as he did as a rookie (although Bullard is not mentioned in Wilde’s piece).
Despite the impressive AAV on his new contract, Hobbs received only $16MM in guaranteed money. So, while Green Bay would take on a $12MM dead money hit if it were to part ways following the 2025 slate, such a maneuver would not be prohibitive and would actually yield a modicum of cap savings. To preserve his future earning power, then, Hobbs will need to live up to his team’s hopes for his multifaceted skill set.
For right now, that does not appear to be a concern.
“He is competitive, he’s tough, he is physical, he plays the game fast,” Hafley said of Hobbs. “You can tell he loves it. It just jumps off the tape. That versatility, where you can move him around and again, I’m a big fan of that.”
Assessing Packers’ CB Options Absent Jaire Alexander
As longtime starting cornerback Jaire Alexander‘s future with the team remains in question, the Packers have had to put together a depth chart under the assumption that he won’t be on it. With the team having to determine who starts at the outside spots, the candidates to fill the slot come into question, as well. The clear candidates for that nickel role are second-year safety Javon Bullard and free agent addition Nate Hobbs. 
Bullard, a safety drafted in the second round out of Georgia last year, was relegated to a role in the slot after Evan Williams, drafted two rounds after him, was granted the starting safety job next to Xavier McKinney. The second-round rookie led the team in snaps as the nickelback as a result, just barely outpacing veteran Keisean Nixon. Nixon, though, is not a candidate for the inside assignment, after he led the team in snaps on the outside. He is likely expected to man one of the two starting spots on the outside once again in 2025.
Hobbs spent three years of his rookie contract, including the most recent two seasons, as the Raiders primary option in the slot. His sophomore campaign, though, saw him primarily play as an outside corner, starting all 11 games that he played in that year. According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, this experience on the outside could mean that Hobbs will be asked to start across from Nixon, in the presumed absence of Alexander.
Carrington Valentine is another option to start on the outside. He’s opened both of his two seasons in the NFL coming off the bench but has found himself in eventual starting positions in both years, as well, starting 19 games over that span. Schneidman predicts that Valentine will be coming off the bench to start the season for the third time in a row, serving as the third option at outside cornerback behind Nixon and Hobbs.
While the potential absence of Alexander certainly poses a challenge, thinning the depth of the team’s secondary, the Packers certainly have options they can employ. Whether it’s as Schneidman predicts with Nixon and Hobbs manning the outside and Bullard in the slot or Nixon and Valentine starting on the outside with Hobbs continuing his nickel role, Green Bay should have the ability to field a starting unit sans Alexander.