Commanders 

The Commanders have made some marquee moves in free agency, like signing edge rushers Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson, along with TE Chig Okonkwo. Before the opening of free agency, GM Adam Peters said they are in the process of building depth after taking a short-term contract approach in his first two years in Washington. 

“We’re still building depth, and due to the nature of how we’ve done a lot of shorter-term contracts, we will have to turn over until we can keep building and building a foundation through the draft and through longer-term contracts,” Peters said, via John Keim of ESPN. 

Peters thinks free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft can provide them “what we’re looking for.”

“This draft and free agency kind of lines up with what we’re looking for,” Peters said. “We’ll have a chance to really get a lot better.”

Peters said their goal is to be younger and faster, but he is still open to bringing in veteran players. 

“That’s still going to be a goal,” Peters said. “But there is a lot of value in having a good mix of youth and experience — that’s not lost on us. If there’s a tiebreaker, you want to try to get younger and faster. You lose some experience and leadership, but you also get a few things in other categories. That doesn’t mean we’re just going to go all young guys, either. If there’s good players that can help us that are a little older, then certainly consider those guys too.”

• Keim cites one team source who didn’t think Washington would spend recklessly, but they would spend for players they consider to be good fits. 
• Another team source told Keim that Washington’s current regime’s first offseason in 2024 was about adding players to “lay the foundation” for their new team culture, which led to the signings of veterans like LB Bobby Wagner, TE Zach Ertz, and RB Austin Ekeler. 

Cowboys

The Cowboys used the second-round tender on restricted free agent K Brandon Aubrey, which will cost them $5.76 million. Aubrey remains hopeful to sign a long-term deal that will make him the league’s highest-paid kicker. 

“It’s not something that I have control over as the term restricted applies there,” Aubrey said, via Tommy Yarish of the team’s site. “Obviously, Dallas is my home. I’d like to keep it that way, so it would be nice to get a long-term deal going. Just need to sit down and have that conversation.”

Aubrey admits that Dallas still has a lot of other contracts to work through before turning attention to his situation. 

“There’s a lot of moving parts with the Cowboys at the moment,” Aubrey said. “There’s players that aren’t restricted that they’ve got to sort through first, because with that restriction, movement is significantly more difficult. So they go through and there’s more important fires to put out. And then they can circle around when things calm down and talk to me.”

The Texans signed K Ka’imi Fairbairn to a league-high two-year, $13 million deal. Aubrey was pleased to see another kicker sign a new record contract and see the market increase at his position. 

“That’s always a positive,” Aubrey said. “Anytime the market goes up as a whole, every kicker makes money. When he signs a new record contract, that makes the guy whose signing number 32 contract, whether that’s the rookie contract, I’d say anybody that’s signing a new deal, the prices go up.”

Eagles

• Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice points out that there may be some contention within the Eagles about the acquisition of CB Jaire Alexander from the Ravens, who notably retired just 10 days after being traded from Baltimore. Kempski notes that Philadelphia never listed Alexander on the transactions page of its website, while Baltimore and the NFL did. 
• Kemspki writes that it feels like the Eagles expect the Alexander trade to be rescinded, and that they have a case for it to do so. 
• Kempski brings up the Alexander situation after the Ravens backed out of their trade for Raiders DE Maxx Crosby, and that Baltimore may have been acting in bad faith.