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2026-2027 NFL Thread

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Broadwell
Original poster
Super Bowl odds, looks like the Seahawks, and Rams are betting favorites. I have no idea if the Bills and Ravens will be viable contenders, given both have new coaches and presumably new systems put in place. I don't expect the Patriots to be part of the conversation until they prove 2025 wasn't a fluke due to their easy schedule. To put it another way, the proof will be in the pudding, i.e., they start beating good teams.

The Franchise Tag window has opened but so far no much has transpired The window from 02/17/26 through 03/03/26

So far here's the players who may get tagged, I think Pickens is the most likely.
George Pickens – WR, Dallas Cowboys
Breece Hall – RB, New York Jets
Kyle Pitts – TE, Atlanta Falcons
Odafe Oweh – LB, Los Angeles Chargers
Daniel Jones – QB, Indianapolis Colts
 
"This will be our year!!!" Signed insert the following teams: Cowboys, Raiders, Lions...

Coming from a Cowboys fan. 🙂
 
The Bills promoted Brady from within, with Allen as part of the hiring process, so I wouldn't expect much to change there, at least with respect to the offense.

Whether that's enough will be seen, in combination with NE having to prove what they can do against a tougher schedule and higher expectations.

But there's nothing that the GM or HC can do when your star player turns the ball over at inopportune times.

Doesn't appear that there will an effort to ban the gimmicky push play, and as far as replay officials being able to throw a flags for certain penalties, that crosses over a line that doesn't need to be crossed in my book. Remote officiating is already disruptive enough to games.

No doubt the "we weren't tampering…but kind of were" period has already begun, so once the official deadline/embargo ends, we'll see how the free agency moves shake out.
 
rhett7660 said:
"This will be our year!!!" Signed insert the following teams: Cowboys, Raiders, Lions...

Coming from a Cowboys fan. 🙂
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In all honesty, I think the window for the super bowl has nearly shut for the lions. They may be pretty good this year, we'll have to wait and see but I don't think Geoff is the man to bring them the superbowl and they're currently 10 million over the cap, so they have some work to make enough room to sign a free agent or two. Oh, and Geoff accounts for nearly 70 million dollars of that cap.

Collective Bargaining Agreement, be damned, Jerry Jones plans to speak directly with George Pickens about his next contract I'm guessing they'll tag him and Jerry will try the same tactics that drove Parsons away, funny thing is, Picken's agent is the same agent as Micah Parsons, so you know he's already prepped Pickens for what may come next.
 
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham confirms plan to release Kirk Cousins

The Falcons reworked Cousins’s contract to move the bulk of his 2026 salary to 2027 and set up a vesting date of March 13 that would guarantee him $67.9 million for the 2027 season. The size of that guarantee set the stage for Cousins to be released before that date and General Manager Ian Cunningham confirmed that is what is going to happen on Tuesday.
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I had to ask chatgpt why Cousins agreed to that team friendly change. I'm not sure I fully understand it, but here's the gist.

He isn't losing out any guaranteed money, but by reducing his salary to 2.1 million makes him more market-friendly and he'll be released on the first day of the league year, so that he has a head start in finding a team. The league year starts on March 11th. If he's on the Falcons roster as of March 13th, then the 2027 his contract becomes guaranteed, so the Falcons will have a 67 million cap hit. So its highly likely they'll not sit on this very long

Personally, I'd not be doing the falcons any favors, especially given how he was treated, throw in the fact he's 37, and most likely at the tail end of his career with inconsistent numbers, I don't think its likely he'd be a starter in 2027. If it were me, I'd push for more money up front now to make it easier the falcons to cut him, i.e., pay me to leave
 
maflynn said:
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham confirms plan to release Kirk Cousins



I had to ask chatgpt why Cousins agreed to that team friendly change. I'm not sure I fully understand it, but here's the gist.

He isn't losing out any guaranteed money, but by reducing his salary to 2.1 million makes him more market-friendly and he'll be released on the first day of the league year, so that he has a head start in finding a team. The league year starts on March 11th. If he's on the Falcons roster as of March 13th, then the 2027 his contract becomes guaranteed, so the Falcons will have a 67 million cap hit. So its highly likely they'll not sit on this very long

Personally, I'd not be doing the falcons any favors, especially given how he was treated, throw in the fact he's 37, and most likely at the tail end of his career with inconsistent numbers, I don't think its likely he'd be a starter in 2027. If it were me, I'd push for more money up front now to make it easier the falcons to cut him, i.e., pay me to leave
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Certainly at 37, he doesn't have much playing time left.......BUT there are teams that certainly need a QB now!!! And so he might have a chance to compete for a short term starting position somewhere. Or he may get a few years more as a backup somewhere.

Who knows, maybe the Vikings would have him return while they struggle to get JJ McCarthy to improve.
 
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maflynn said:
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham confirms plan to release Kirk Cousins



I had to ask chatgpt why Cousins agreed to that team friendly change. I'm not sure I fully understand it, but here's the gist.

He isn't losing out any guaranteed money, but by reducing his salary to 2.1 million makes him more market-friendly and he'll be released on the first day of the league year, so that he has a head start in finding a team. The league year starts on March 11th. If he's on the Falcons roster as of March 13th, then the 2027 his contract becomes guaranteed, so the Falcons will have a 67 million cap hit. So its highly likely they'll not sit on this very long

Personally, I'd not be doing the falcons any favors, especially given how he was treated, throw in the fact he's 37, and most likely at the tail end of his career with inconsistent numbers, I don't think its likely he'd be a starter in 2027. If it were me, I'd push for more money up front now to make it easier the falcons to cut him, i.e., pay me to leave
Click to expand...

If I were Cousins, I would be done... After having gone through the injury, the rehab, and coming back to play. Aside from taking a team to the Super Bowl, I would be happy to have the money I have and call it a career.
 
rhett7660 said:
If I were Cousins, I would be done... After having gone through the injury, the rehab, and coming back to play. Aside from taking a team to the Super Bowl, I would be happy to have the money I have and call it a career.
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Same, but I guess some of these athletes are built differently, they keep trying to hang on to their ability to play. Its not like he needs the money at this point
 
Is this the year the raiders look like a decent team?!! I'm betting we look way better than last year with young coaches
 
jeremz1ne said:
Is this the year the raiders look like a decent team?!! I'm betting we look way better than last year with young coaches
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I think 2026 is going to be a rebuilding year. I would hope the new staff will approach it that way and not try to build the team for short term successes over long term success. They need a solid foundation, swapping old, over the hill players in and out in the hopes that something will stick hasn't helped them at all, so they need to build from the ground up
 
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The league year starts March 11th and the list of teams that need to get under the cap is smaller then in prior years. One shocking entry is the saints, they've historically been over the cap for 40+ million, this year its a quite manageable 8.2 million

The cowboys have their work ahead themselves with being 55 million over, though I suspect they'll rework Dak's contract, his contribution to the cap is 74 million dollars or put it another way 22% of the cap space is going towards Dak's contract 😳
1772204904754.png
 
maflynn said:
I think 2026 is going to be a rebuilding year. I would hope the new staff will approach it that way and not try to build the team for short term successes over long term success. They need a solid foundation, swapping old, over the hill players in and out in the hopes that something will stick hasn't helped them at all, so they need to build from the ground up
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Yeah, I think that is what's going to happen, I think this young coaching staff will slowly develop a team to win long term, I don't expect to win many games this year, but I expect to look better than last year and not look so lost
 
maflynn said:
I think 2026 is going to be a rebuilding year. I would hope the new staff will approach it that way and not try to build the team for short term successes over long term success. They need a solid foundation, swapping old, over the hill players in and out in the hopes that something will stick hasn't helped them at all, so they need to build from the ground up
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How many season does a new coaching staff get before the fans turn on them?

In the case of the Raiders, I suppose it'll depend a lot on how well (or if) their new QB survives the first year.
 
2026 NFLPA Report Cards

The owners tried to suppress this from release, but there are some surprising results (Steelers dead last?), and not so surprising (MetLife Stadium aka Lower Body Injury Field = F-).

Player happiness doesn't necessarily correlate to success on the field, but if you don't win, you can at least have a nice workplace. Woe to those who don't win, and have to suffer the workplace.
 
Macky-Mac said:
How many season does a new coaching staff get before the fans turn on them?
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That's a good question, I think the leeway afforded new coaches has been shrinking. Success like Vrabel only makes it worse, given the 2025 turn around of the patriots. I would hope that any team, particularly the raiders will give the new staff 3 seasons. Chalk this year up as a loss, next year build the foundation, and year 3 have some measurable successes.
 
maflynn said:
That's a good question, I think the leeway afforded new coaches has been shrinking. Success like Vrabel only makes it worse, given the 2025 turn around of the patriots. I would hope that any team, particularly the raiders will give the new staff 3 seasons. Chalk this year up as a loss, next year build the foundation, and year 3 have some measurable successes.
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Given that the franchise in question only gave Carroll one season, I'm not sure they can handle a 3 year time frame.

I suppose a lot will depend on whether Mendoza makes a successful transition to the NFL (assuming he signs with the Raiders)
 
Macky-Mac said:
Given that the franchise in question only gave Carroll one season, I'm not sure they can handle a 3 year time frame.
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That's the issue with Raiders, they've been hiring/firing coaches like its going out of style. That franchise has not had any stability for the last 25 years.

1998–2001 Jon Gruden
2002–2003 Bill Callahan
2004–2005 Norv Turner
2006 Art Shell (2nd tenure)
2007–2008 Lane Kiffin
2008–2010 Tom Cable
2011 Hue Jackson
2012–2014 Dennis Allen
2014 Tony Sparano (interim/brief)
2015–2017 Jack Del Rio
2018–2021 Jon Gruden (2nd stint)
2021 Rich Bisaccia (interim)
2022–2023 Josh McDaniels
2023–2024 Antonio Pierce
2025 Pete Carroll
2026–present Klint Kubiak (named head coach early 2026)
 
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maflynn said:
In all honesty, I think the window for the super bowl has nearly shut for the lions. They may be pretty good this year, we'll have to wait and see but I don't think Geoff is the man to bring them the superbowl and they're currently 10 million over the cap, so they have some work to make enough room to sign a free agent or two. Oh, and Geoff accounts for nearly 70 million dollars of that cap.
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Agreed, and add the Bills to the list.
 
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Murray would be an upgrade for many teams, especially in year where the free agent QB pool is thin, as well as the draft.

But he's been hurt a lot in recent years.
 
TheIntruder said:
Murray would be an upgrade for many teams, especially in year where the free agent QB pool is thin, as well as the draft.

But he's been hurt a lot in recent years.
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There was a time when Murray was highly regarded as an up and coming power for the Cardinals....and then he's seemed to just fade out
 
maflynn said:
That's the issue with Raiders, they've been hiring/firing coaches like its going out of style. That franchise has not had any stability for the last 25 years.

1998–2001 Jon Gruden
2002–2003 Bill Callahan
2004–2005 Norv Turner
2006 Art Shell (2nd tenure)
2007–2008 Lane Kiffin
2008–2010 Tom Cable
2011 Hue Jackson
2012–2014 Dennis Allen
2014 Tony Sparano (interim/brief)
2015–2017 Jack Del Rio
2018–2021 Jon Gruden (2nd stint)
2021 Rich Bisaccia (interim)
2022–2023 Josh McDaniels
2023–2024 Antonio Pierce
2025 Pete Carroll
2026–present Klint Kubiak (named head coach early 2026)
Click to expand...

Jesus, you are right... compare them to the Steelers... doh!!!!
 
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