R Mason Thomas Sets Up Several Visits
After earning first-team All-SEC honors in 2025, Oklahoma edge defender R Mason Thomas may have a chance to come off the board late in the first round of this year’s draft. Several teams are showing interest in the 6-foot-2, 241-pounder. In addition to the previously reported Browns, Thomas has lined up visits with the Dolphins, Seahawks, Buccaneers and Patriots, per Arye Pulli of SI.com.
Thomas had a quiet first two seasons at Oklahoma, where he combined for 1.5 sacks in 19 games from 2022-23. His production increased dramatically during his junior season, in which he totaled 12.5 tackles for loss, nine sacks and two forced fumbles in 13 contests. Thomas added another two FFs last year, though his TFLs (9.5) and sacks (6.5) understandably dipped during a 10-game season.
Thomas missed three games after suffering a quad injury on a 71-yard fumble return touchdown in a win over Tennessee on Nov. 1. He returned to make three tackles in a 34-24 loss to Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
With his Sooners tenure in the rearview mirror, there are questions on how high Thomas will go in the draft. Anywhere after the second round would come as a surprise. Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com ranks Thomas as this year’s 49th-best prospect, calling him “an instinctive and physical edge defender” while dinging him for a lack of “ideal height/length/bulk.” Jeremiah expects Thomas to turn into a solid starter, which is something most of the teams eyeing him could use.
The Browns have the best edge defender in the NFL, Myles Garrett, but could make an addition there after backing out of an agreement with A.J. Epenesa. Having released their 2025 leader in sacks, Bradley Chubb, the Dolphins are lacking high-upside complements to Chop Robinson. The reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks lost Boye Mafe to the Bengals in free agency. The Buccaneers are thin on the edge beyond YaYa Diaby and Al-Quadin Muhammad. Meanwhile, after winning the AFC, the Patriots essentially swapped K’Lavon Chaisson for Dre’Mont Jones in free agency. With both Jones and Harold Landry nearing the age of 30, making a notable investment in a younger pass rusher via the draft could be in store. Thomas, who will turn 22 in August, may end up as the Patriots’ answer.
Minor NFL Transactions: 4/7/26
Several teams made minor moves Tuesday. Here’s a look:
Arizona Cardinals
- Signed ERFA tender: K Joshua Karty, DL PJ Mustipher
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed ERFA tender: DL Elijah Garcia
Cincinnati Bengals
- Waived: C Matt Lee
Las Vegas Raiders
- Signed ERFA tender: DE Charles Snowden
- Signed RFA tender: C/G Jordan Meredith
New York Giants
- Signed ERFA tender: WR Ryan Miller
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: WR David Sills
A four-year veteran, Meredith logged a career-high 11 starts in 13 appearances in 2025. Meredith played center and right guard (mostly the former) before landing on IR with an ankle injury in late December. The Raiders have since added blockbuster free agent pickup Tyler Linderbaum, meaning Meredith will not factor in at center in 2026. He could, however, compete for one of the Raiders’ guard jobs.
After a year in Atlanta, Sills is staying in the NFC South on a deal with the Buccaneers. With 36 targets, 18 catches, 191 yards and two touchdowns in 17 games last season, Sills set across-the-board career highs. The 29-year-old finished third among Falcons receivers in offensive snap share (51.55%). He will now attempt to carve out a role on a Bucs team that lost franchise icon Mike Evans to the 49ers in free agency and has not re-signed Sterling Shepard. Tampa Bay still has Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan and Tez Johnson as its top four receivers.
Buccaneers Sign OT Justin Skule
Following a one-year stop in Minnesota, Justin Skule is heading back to Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers announced today that they’ve signed the veteran offensive tackle. Greg Auman of FOX Sports passes along that it’s a one-year deal for Skule.
The 2019 sixth-round pick out of Vanderbilt spent the first chunk of his career in San Francisco. He got occasional looks in the starting lineup, starting 12 of his 31 appearances through his first two NFL seasons. His 2021 campaign was wiped out due to a torn ACL, and he was cut by the 49ers at the end of the 2022 preseason.
He caught on with the Buccaneers and proceeded to spend the next three seasons with the organization. He only got into one game during his first year in Tampa Bay, and he mostly played special teams in 2023. However, he saw a more significant role in 2024, starting five of his 17 appearances while getting into about one third of his team’s offensive snaps.
The Vikings brought him on last offseason, and the veteran proceeded to start a career-high nine games in Minnesota. Pro Football Focus graded him 45th among 84 qualifying offensive tackles, with the site preferring his pass-blocking ability to his run-blocking prowess.
Skule would have come in handy last year in Tampa Bay, as starting OTs Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke both missed time with injuries, forcing Charlie Heck to start six games. Skule will once again serve as a key backup to those two starters, although he’ll face some competition from 2025 UDFA Ben Chukwuma, who started two games as a rookie.
G Kenyon Green To Work Out For Bucs
Former first-round pick Kenyon Green‘s four-year NFL career has not gone according to plan, but a fourth organization could soon give the free guard another chance. Green will work out for the Buccaneers next Thursday, Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 reports.
Although Green was a two-time consensus All-American at Texas A&M, his dominance with the Aggies has not transferred to the pros since the Texans chose him 15th overall in 2022. The 6-foot-4, 323-pounder started 14 of 15 games as a rookie, but Pro Football Focus rated him the worst full-time guard in the league during a penalty-happy debut in which he struggled to protect quarterback Davis Mills.
The rest of Green’s Texans tenure didn’t go any better. After missing his entire second season with a torn labrum, a dislocated shoulder limited Green to 12 games (nine starts) in 2024. At the time the Texans placed him on IR, Green had allowed the most pressures (27) and sacks (five) among guards.
Houston pulled the plug on Green when it traded him to Philadelphia for safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson as part of a late-round pick swap a year ago. The move was a swing and a miss for both sides. The Eagles cut Green before the season, while the Texans released the mercurial Gardner-Johnson last September after he groused about his role and feuded with teammates. Green caught on with the Ravens’ practice squad at the end of September, but they did not elevate him for any games.
Hoping to play his age-25 season in 2026, Green could compete for a backup spot in Tampa Bay if the team signs him. Green has played all his snaps at left guard, where the Buccaneers have a full-time starter in Ben Bredeson. Meanwhile, Cody Mauch is entrenched at right guard, though he and Bredeson missed a combined 21 games with injuries last season. With that in mind, it is no surprise the Buccaneers are eyeing guard depth. The Bucs brought back reserve interior lineman Dan Feeney last month, but backup guard Michael Jordan remains unsigned on the heels of an 11-game, nine-start season.
DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches Reunites With Buccaneers
After a three-year stay in New York, veteran defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches has agreed to a deal that will bring him back to Tampa Bay. According to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, the Buccaneers are bringing Nunez-Roches back on a one-year contract.
Originally a sixth-round pick for the Chiefs out of Southern Miss, Nunez-Roches maintains the honor of being the first ever player born in Belize to get drafted into the NFL. After seeing minimal field time in seven games as a rookie, Nunez-Roches lost his rookie deal when the Chiefs waived him shortly into his second campaign and he went unclaimed. He signed with Kansas City’s practice squad but was signed back to the active roster a month after getting cut. Upon returning to the 53-man roster, Nunez-Roches started five of 11 game appearances to close the year. After a 2017 season in which he started 11 of 16 game appearances, the Chiefs re-signed him after placing an original-round restricted free agent tender on him, but they waived him a second time about nine days later.
Nunez-Roches spent the offseason in Indianapolis after getting claimed by the Colts, but he was waived again a week before the regular season. It wasn’t until October, a month later, that Nunez-Roches landed in Tampa Bay, where he appeared in just three games over the closing stretch of the season. He returned on a new one-year deal in 2019, coming off the bench as a rotational lineman behind Ndamukong Suh, Vita Vea, and William Gholston. When injury limited Vea to just five games the next season, Nunez-Roches stepped up, starting 11 regular season games and all four postseason games en route to the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl LV victory.
Nunez-Roches’ efforts that season earned him a two-year stay with the team on a $5MM deal. He returned to his rotational role off the bench in 2021, only starting one game, but he returned to a bigger role in the second year of his contract. In 2022, the last season he played in Tampa Bay, he started 10 of 17 games, notching then-career highs in sacks (2.0), tackles for loss (5), and total tackles (33).
Upon becoming a free agent, Nunez-Roches landed a three-year, $12MM contract with the Giants. After serving much of his first year in New York back in that rotational role, he earned his first full season as a full-time starter, logging 52 total tackles, six quarterback hits, and two sacks. Coming off the bench in Year 3 with Big Blue, Nunez-Roches got off to a hot start in 2025, recording a new career-high with three sacks and adding three tackles for loss and four quarterback hits in just nine games (with only five starts). Unfortunately, ankle and toe injuries landed him on injured reserve for the remainder of the season.
Coming into his age-33 season and coming off a season-ending injury, Nunez-Roches’ deal with the Buccaneers will probably be a relatively safe one for Tampa Bay, though they may offer him decent incentive opportunities to reward a return to health. Per ESPN’s Jenna Laine, head coach Todd Bowles had made it a goal this offseason to “get bigger and more physical along the defensive line.” Nunez-Roches joins fellow free agent signees A’Shawn Robinson and Al-Quadin Muhammad in adding size, strength, and experience to the Tampa Bay defensive line, reuniting with Vea to set a good example for recent draft picks like Elijah Roberts and Calijah Kancey to learn from.
Minor NFL Transactions: 4/2/26
Thursday’s lone minor transaction…
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Waived: WR Jaden Smith
Smith signed with the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent from Nevada last July, but he wound up spending the season on IR with an undisclosed injury.
LB Anthony Walker Announces Retirement
After playing a career-low two games in 2025, linebacker Anthony Walker is hanging up his cleats at the age of 30. The nine-year veteran took to Instagram on Thursday to announce his retirement.
A former Northwestern standout, Walker entered the NFL as a fifth-round pick of the Colts and then-rookie general manager Chris Ballard in 2017. Walker mostly worked as a backup in an injury-limited rookie year, but he put together a productive run in Indianapolis from 2018-20. Playing alongside star linebacker Shaquille Leonard during that 47-game, 46-start stretch, Walker averaged 107 tackles per season while totaling 3.5 sacks and three interceptions.
Walker did not stick with the Colts after his rookie contract expired in 2021, and he never inked another multiyear pact. He signed his first one-year deal in Cleveland, where he piled up 113 tackles despite missing four games with a hamstring injury. It proved to be the last season with triple-digit tackles for Walker, who continued battling injuries for the rest of his career. The 6-foot-1, 230-pounder appeared in just 31 of a possible 68 games from 2022-25.
Walker was a starter in all 12 of his contests in 2023, his last year in Cleveland, and notched another eight over 14 appearances with the Dolphins in ’24. While Walker reunited with the Colts last September, he did not see any action before the Buccaneers plucked him off Indy’s practice squad in mid-December. Walker went on to play just 15 snaps (14 on special teams) in a pair of appearances with Tampa Bay.
Over a combined 101 games and 83 starts with four teams, Walker recorded 581 tackles, 5.5 sacks and four interceptions.
2027 NFL Fifth-Year Option Tracker
NFL teams have until May 1 to officially pick up fifth-year options on 2023 first-rounders. The 2020 CBA revamped the option structure and made them fully guaranteed, rather than guaranteed for injury only. Meanwhile, fifth-year option salaries are now determined by a blend of performance- and usage-based benchmarks:
- Two-time Pro Bowlers (excluding alternates) will earn the same as their position’s franchise tag
- One-time Pro Bowlers will earn the equivalent of the transition tag
- Players who achieve any of the following will receive the average of the third-20th top salaries at their position:
- At least a 75% snap rate in two of their first three seasons
- A 75% snap average across all three seasons
- At least 50% in each of first three seasons
- Players who do not hit any of those benchmarks will receive the average of the third-25th top salaries at their position
PFR’s Offseason Outlook series examined each of these decisions in-depth, and weeks remain until this year’s deadline. In the meantime, we will use the space below to track all the 2027 option decisions from around the league:
- QB Bryce Young, Panthers ($25.9MM): To be exercised
- QB C.J. Stroud, Texans ($25.9MM): To be exercised
- DE Will Anderson Jr., Texans ($21.51MM)
- QB Anthony Richardson, Colts ($22.48MM)
- CB Devon Witherspoon, Seahawks ($21.16MM): Exercised
- LT Paris Johnson Jr., Cardinals ($19.07MM)
- DE Tyree Wilson, Raiders ($14.48MM)
- RB Bijan Robinson, Falcons ($11.32MM)
- DT Jalen Carter, Eagles ($27.13MM)
- RT Darnell Wright, Bears ($19.07MM)
- G Peter Skoronski, Titans ($19.07MM)
- RB Jahmyr Gibbs, Lions ($14.29MM)
- DE Lukas Van Ness, Packers ($13.75MM)
- LT Broderick Jones, Steelers ($19.07MM)
- DE Will McDonald, Jets ($13.75MM): To be exercised
- CB Emmanuel Forbes, Rams ($12.63MM)
- CB Christian Gonzalez, Patriots ($18.12MM): Exercised
- LB Jack Campbell, Lions ($21.93MM)
- DL Calijah Kancey, Buccaneers ($14.48MM)
- WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks ($23.85MM): Exercised*
- WR Quentin Johnston, Chargers ($18MM)
- WR Zay Flowers, Ravens ($27.3MM): To be exercised
- WR Jordan Addison, Vikings ($18MM): To be exercised
- CB Deonte Banks, Giants ($12.63MM)
- TE Dalton Kincaid, Bills ($8.16MM): Exercised
- DT Mazi Smith, Jets ($13.93MM)
- RT Anton Harrison, Jaguars ($19.07MM): Exercised
- DE Myles Murphy, Bengals ($14.48MM)
- DT Bryan Bresee, Saints ($13.93MM)
- DE Nolan Smith, Eagles ($13.75MM)
- DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Chiefs ($13.75MM)
* = Seahawks gave Smith-Njigba four-year, $168.6MM extension
Bucs Confident Extensions With Baker Mayfield, YaYa Diaby Will Be Finalized
The 2026 offseason has long loomed as the likeliest point at which a Baker Mayfield Buccaneers extension would be worked out. General manager Jason Licht expects an agreement to indeed be reached this spring. 
“Baker is a true pro. He’s a leader for this team. We love Baker,” Licht said at the league meeting (via Rob Maadi of the Associated Press). “Baker is still our quarterback. He’s one of the toughest guys on the team. He’s a great leader. Everything kind of revolves around the quarterback spot. At some point, I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
Licht confirmed there is no timeline in place for a Mayfield deal to be finalized. The surprisingly effective 2023 free agent signing played his way into a long-term commitment during his debut season in Tampa Bay. The sides agreed to a three-year, $100MM pact which allowed Mayfield to remain the team’s starter. He is owed $40MM for 2026 as things stand, a figure which is almost the same as his cap charge. The Bucs acted early when locking in $30MM of that compensation.
A long-term pact would of course be the next logical step. Mayfield, 31 next month, was unable to match his production from 2023 and ’24 during this past campaign, but particularly early in the year he thrived in the QB1 role. Much of Tampa Bay’s offense will remain in place from last season, with the rather notable exception of wideout Mike Evans. Mayfield’s latest offensive coordinator will be Zac Robinson, whose hire he pushed for during the winter.
Licht also said a new deal for pass rusher YaYa Diaby should be in place ahead of next season. Diaby immediately carved out a large role for himself upon entering the NFL three years ago. The Louisville product has been a full-time starter since then, posting 32 pressures in each of the past two seasons. Diaby has never topped 7.5 sacks in a single campaign, but he has been a mainstay on a Tampa Bay defense lacking in established edge rush producers.
Entering his age-27 season, Diaby is currently a pending free agent for next spring. It comes as little surprise an extension is being targeted in his case. Mayfield’s new pact will no doubt be the higher priority, but Diaby is a strong candidate to open the 2026 season with a new deal of his own based on Licht’s optimism.
Buccaneers To Make CB Addition
So far this offseason, the Buccaneers have seen cornerbacks Jamel Dean and Kindle Vildor depart in free agency. To no surprise, finding replacements remains a priority for Tampa Bay. 
“We definitely need another cornerback,” head coach Todd Bowles said on Monday (via ESPN’s Jenna Laine) when speaking to the media at the league meeting. “Whether it’s a veteran or whether it’s a draftable pick remains to be seen and we’ll kind of go from there. But we like to add one or two to the mix.”
Vildor was a depth presence on defense and special teams, but losing Dean deprived the Buccaneers of someone who served as a starter for much of his seven-year tenure with the team. Tampa Bay has Zyon McCollum in position to remain a core presence at the CB spot moving forward. He inked a $16MM-per-year deal last offseason.
The Bucs also invested second- and third-round picks during last year’s draft in Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish. Those two combined to make eight starts as rookies, and it would come as no surprise if their workloads increased in 2026 and beyond. Adding depth through the secondary waves of free agency and/or the draft represents a logical goal, though.
Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tykee Smith are set to remain starters at the safety position. After the Buccaneers ranked just 27th against the pass in 2025, though, there is certainly room for improvement in the secondary. It will be interesting to see how the team approaches the matter of bringing in one or more corners as the rest of the offseason progresses.
Tampa Bay currently has roughly $14MM in cap space, so a modest move on the free agent market or via trade could be feasible. The team also has one pick in every round of next month’s draft, including No. 15 overall. Bowles and Co. will have plenty of opportunities to make an addition or two over the coming weeks.