The Browns have restructured the contract of QB Deshaun Watson, creating nearly $36M in 2025 cap space.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 6, 2025

• The Seahawks appear to be setting a high bar for what they want in return for DK Metcalf.
• The 27-year-old receiver requested a trade from the team on Wednesday and according to The Athletic, the Seahawks want a first and third-round pick in return.

The Seahawks are seeking a first- and third-round pick for WR DK Metcalf, per sources. Metcalf is also eyeing a new contract worth around $30M per year.

Multiple teams have inquired. pic.twitter.com/JX93XAvb52

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) March 6, 2025

• Will a team actually meet that asking price? You can at least understand why the Seahawks are asking for a first-round pick. In 2022, the Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins for the No. 29 pick in the draft along with a second-round pick, a fourth-round pick and two 2023 picks. The Dolphins then made Hill the highest-paid receiver in the NFL at the time with a contract extension.
• A week before Hill was traded, the Raiders traded a first-round pick and a second-round pick to the Packers for Davante Adams.
• Like Hill, Metcalf will get a contract extension from a team that trades for him. He’s in the last year of his current deal with a cap number over $30 million. That number would very likely go down for the 2025 season with an extension.
• Joey Bosa’s time with the Los Angeles Chargers is officially over. The team opted to release the star pass rusher on Wednesday night. He had been with them since the team selected him with the No. 3 overall pick in 2016, when they were still located in San Diego.
• Bosa had 22 total tackles and five sacks last season. The move will free up more than $25 million in cap space.
• For more on the Chargers’ split with Joey Bosa, click here.

Per source, Dolphins LB Bradley Chubb has agreed to a restructured contract.

After signing a 5-year $110M extension in 2022, he was owed a $19.45M base salary this year and represented a $28.6 million cap hit in 2025. Now, Miami gets some breathing room before free agency opens

— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) March 5, 2025

• Joel Bitonio is returning to play for the Browns. (Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
• The Cleveland Browns got some welcome good news on Wednesday.
• Joel Bitonio is coming back. The five-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowl guard is returning to Cleveland for his 12th NFL season. The Browns announced Bitonio’s decision.
• Bitonio was unclear at the conclusion of last season if he would return in 2025.

“I really want to decompress and feel it out and give myself a chance to rest the mind and the body and see where we’re at,” Bitonio said on Jan. 5, per the Browns. “The burden of playing in this league is tough. As an offensive lineman, you have to be fully committed. You’re playing 55 to 85 snaps every game. I think I got close to almost 1,200 snaps this year on offense. And that’s a big commitment.”

• Bitonio, 33, has played his entire career in Cleveland and has made the Pro Bowl after each of the past seven seasons. He’ll play next season on the last year of a three-year, $48 million contract.
• Could the trade of Joe Thuney lead to the Chiefs adding a marquee left tackle?
• According to the Athletic, Kansas City is preparing to make a run at signing Baltimore Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley when free agency opens. The Chiefs cleared $16 million in cap space earlier Wednesday when they agreed to trade Thuney to the Chicago Bears for a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

New story. Joe Thuney did everything the Chiefs asked of him — & more.What’s next for the Chiefs?

They plan to sign Trey Smith to an extension & acquire a new left tackle, targeting Ronnie Stanley.https://t.co/1cKzfqMDbu

— Nate Taylor (@ByNateTaylor) March 5, 2025

• An All-Pro guard, Thuney played left tackle for the Chiefs in the final weeks of the regular season and throughout the playoffs as the Chiefs struggled to find suitable play on the outside. The team signed former Arizona Cardinals LT D.J. Humphries late in the season, but Humphries strained a hamstring during his first game with the team and didn’t start during the postseason.
• Stanley, who turns 31 on March 18 and is one of the top free agents set to hit the open market, played in all 19 of the Ravens’ regular season and playoff games this year and made his second Pro Bowl. It was the first time Stanley had played a full regular season in his entire career after playing seven regular-season games combined in 2020 and 2021 after he was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2019.
• Baun had a breakout season in his first year with the Philadelphia Eagles. The 28-year-old Wisconsin product recorded 150 total tackles, 11 for loss and 3.5 sacks during the 2024 season.
• Read more here.

Breaking: Eagles are re-signing All-Pro LB Zack Baun to a three-year, $51 million contract, including $34 million guaranteed at signing and additional $1.5 million in incentives and escalators, per sources. The contract instantly makes Baun one of the highest-paid LBs in the NFL. pic.twitter.com/n7zkzIgwcD

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 5, 2025

The Cowboys have restructured Dak Prescott’s contract, opening up $36.6 million in cap space, per source. That’s $56.6 million created in the last two days with the CeeDee Lamb move, too.

— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) March 5, 2025

• Read more here.
• Christian Kirk spent the past three seasons in Jacksonville. He played eight games in 2024, making 27 catches for 379 yards and one touchdown.
• He was set to make $15.5 million in 2025 with no guaranteed money left on his deal. The Jaguars will end up saving $10.37 million with Kirk’s release and will eat $13.65 million in dead money, per Over The Cap.
• JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 27: Christian Kirk #13 of the Jacksonville Jaguars celebrates a first down catch against the Green Bay Packers during the game at EverBank Field on October 27, 2024 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
• The Las Vegas Raiders announced on Wednesday that they have signed Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby to a multi-year extension.
• Per ESPN, the extension is for three years and $106.5 million with $91.5 in guaranteed money, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history in terms of annual salary ($35.5 million). Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson was previously the highest-paid non-quarterback with a four-year, $140 million contract that pays him $35 million per year.
• Read more here.
• KANSAS CITY, MO – NOVEMBER 29: Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby (98) warms up prior to the game against the Kansas City Chiefs on November 29th, 2024 at GEHA Field Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by William Purnell/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
• Lockett was due $17 million in salary this season, which included a $5.3 million roster bonus that was to be paid out on March 16. His salary cap hit was set to be $30 million for 2025 and the Seahawks were reportedly nearly $6 million over the cap ceiling ahead of the free agent market opening next week.
• Read more here.
• GLENDALE, ARIZONA – DECEMBER 8: Tyler Lockett #16 of the Seattle Seahawks during warm ups before a game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on December 8, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Mike Christy/Getty Images)
• Longtime kicker Mason Crosby has announced his retirement, the Green Bay Packers announced.
• Crosby spent 16 of his 17 NFL seasons in Green Bay after being a 2007 sixth-round pick out of Colorado. He played the most total games and most consecutive games in franchise history (258) and was part of their Super Bowl XLV winning team. He is also the Packers’ leader in career points (1,918), field goals (395), 50-yard field goals (43) and extra points (733).
• Only two players in NFL history have played 250-plus regular-season games and scored 1,900-plus points with a single team: Crosby and Detroit Lions kicker Jason Hanson.
• Crosby last played in 2023 when he appeared in three games with the New York Giants.
• GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – JANUARY 01: Mason Crosby #2 of the Green Bay Packers leaves the field after the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field on January 01, 2023 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
• CINCINNATI, OHIO – DECEMBER 28: Tee Higgins #5 of the Cincinnati Bengals reacts after a 30-24 overtime victory against the Denver Broncos at Paycor Stadium on December 28, 2024 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
• This offseason, only Kansas City Chiefs OL Trey Smith and Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee Higgins were tagged by their teams.
• This marks the fewest players tagged in a year since 1994, per ESPN.

What does that mean for their futures?

• “We want Tee around here not just next year but in the future,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said at the NFL combine. “Tee’s been a big part of all the wins we’ve had and keeping defenses accountable.”
• Whether or not the Bengals will keep him together with MVP-caliber quarterback Joe Burrow and triple crown-winning receiver Ja’Marr Chase, however, is very much in question, mostly thanks to the team itself. Cincinnati failed to reach a contract extension agreement with Chase last summer, and the price has only gone up. Higgins has now received the franchise tag two years in a row, and while reports suggest the Bengals plan to negotiate a longer-term deal with him this time, they also are notorious for tightening purse strings relative to other franchises.
• Smith’s future, meanwhile, still seems to be in Kansas City, with multiple reports indicating the Chiefs want him long-term, especially given their offensive line issues. He received the non-exclusive tag, which means he’s free to negotiate with other teams, but the Chiefs also have the right to match any offer sheet he receives. So it might just have been a way of gauging his market in negotiations.
• Hubbard, 29, was a third-round pick by the Bengals in 2018 out of Ohio State. He played 104 games in Cincinnati in seven seasons and recorded 38.5 sacks, 398 total tackles and 55 tackles for loss.
• Hubbard suffered a season-ending PCL injury in December during a game where he caught his first career offensive touchdown.

pic.twitter.com/sXKKCsNksG

— Sam Hubbard (@Sam_Hubbard_) March 5, 2025

Gardner Minshew has $3.16 million in fully guaranteed money left on the two-year, $25M deal he signed with Las Vegas last March. But another new #Raiders regime is going another direction at QB. https://t.co/9W5J8iyCcp

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 5, 2025

• The Chicago Bears are bulking up their offensive line. One day after acquiring guard Jonah Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams, they are adding guard Joe Thuney from the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2026 fourth-round draft pick.
• The 32-year-old Thuney is a four-time Super Bowl winner and two-time First-team All-Pro.
• Read more here.

Sources: The #Bears are expected to trade for #Chiefs All-Pro G Joe Thuney, as the Chicago continues to load up on the offensive line.

KC gets a bit younger, plus frees up some money to use elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/P0GdAd0WtW

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 5, 2025

We have released WR Davante Adams.

— New York Jets (@nyjets) March 4, 2025

• Williams rushed for just 470 yards and two touchdowns in five starts for New Orleans these past two seasons.
• Great franchise tag stat, if you’re into that sort of thing, from ESPN:

Only two players — Tee Higgins and Trey Smith — were tagged this year, the fewest number of players tagged since 1994, when Eric Green and Henry Thomas were tagged, per @EpKap.

There were eight players given the franchise tag last year and there have been at least six players…

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 4, 2025

• The NFL’s franchise tag deadline has come and gone. Here are the players who received the tag:
• Kansas City Chiefs OL Trey Smith
• Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee Higgins
• And here’s two more that were realistic candidates for it:
• The Dallas Cowboys worked out a four-year, $80 million deal with defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, who reportedly would have been place on the tag if a deal couldn’t be reached.
• Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold, meanwhile, seemed like a straightforward candidate for the tag, so that he and the Vikings could buy more time in trying to work out a longer-term deal. But the $40.2 million number for QBs on the tag (see below) was reportedly too high for the Vikings, and would have limited their ability to build out the rest of the roster.