Key players in their contract year
 

There are 3 players I hope are here next year.

Nick Cross
Alec Pierce
Daniel Jones

They could all be free agents at year's end.

There are a couple more that need addressed:

2026 Unrestricted Free Agents - Folks who start or give quality minutes - listed by length of NFL service:

TE Mo Allie-Cox - 9 years
RT Braden Smith - 8 years
CB Xavien Howard - 8 years
DE Samson Ebukam - 8 years
QB Daniel Jones - 6 years
OC Danny Pinter - 6 years
DE Kwity Paye - 5 years
WR Alec Pierce - 4 years
FS Rodney Thomas - 4 years
FS Nick Cross - 4 years

Others:

LB Jacob Phillips
LB Joe Bachie
RB Salvon Ahmed
DT Neville Gallimore
TE Andrew Ogletree
DL Eric Johnson
LB Cameron McGrone
LB Chad Muma

We currently have about $75m in free cap space for 2026 and would save an additional $10.8m if Anthony Richardson is not on the 2026 roster.

I think they move on from both Smith and Paye after this season. I realize Paye was under contract for this season but I’d rather have kept Dayo and released Paye.

Would be ecstatic to see all three extended immediately.

I liked Dayo as a rotational piece, but I think the Colts made the right decision not to match the contract offer from the Bears.

$16M AAV for 3 years...Dayo currently has the 18th highest AAV contract for Edge Rushers.

The Bears are trying to up his usage rate to see if his stats follow higher...so far, he has 1 sack and 3 QB hits through 3 games.

What kind of numbers are you talking about?

For Daniel Jones...if he continues to play well...I guess they could look at Sam Darnold's Seattle contract as a blue print.

Darnold's contract looks like:

Sam Darnold signed a 3 year, $100,500,000 contract with the Seattle Seahawks, including $32,000,000 signing bonus, $55,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $33,500,000. In 2025, Darnold will earn a base salary of $5,300,000, a signing bonus of $32,000,000 and a workout bonus of $200,000, while carrying a cap hit of $13,400,000 and a dead cap value of $37,700,000.

Potential Out after 2 years: spending $65,000,000; with $19,200,000 DEAD CAP hit

$37.5M guaranteed at signing (signing bonus + 2025 salary/bonus)
2026 Roster Bonus: $15M (guarantees the 5th waiver period day of 2026)
$2.5M of of 2026 salary guarantees the 5th waiver period day of 2026
2027 Roster Bonus: $10M (5th league day of 2027)
2028-29 years automatically void 23 days before the 2028 league year

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_...98/sam-darnold

I don’t care about the contract numbers, especially if it’s not quarterback money. I think people get way too caught up in worrying about the salary cap.

I care about keeping good players. The cap can be worked around.

And I think Dayo would have been one of our best pass rushers this season.