The Dolphins' offseason plan for Tua Tagovailoa translates to “Please, someone, take him.”
The Dolphins' offseason plan for Tua Tagovailoa translates to “Please, someone, take him.”Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
Last Tuesday at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis was basically “media day” for the 2026 offseason, with coaches and general managers from 28 of 32 teams holding press availabilities to preview free agency and the draft.
Thousands of words were spoken, but in a strange language called “NFL-speak,” which is often dry, lacking context, and difficult to understand. Fortunately, I am fluent in this language and am here to translate:
▪ Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan on trading quarterback Tua Tagovailoa: “Everything’s on the table, including the potential of a trade. We don’t know which way that’s going to go.”
Translation: “Please, someone, take him.”
The Dolphins want to move on, but Tagovailoa has a $54 million fully guaranteed salary acting as a giant anchor. Miami will end up eating most of it, and the only question is if it trades him for peanuts or simply releases him. The likeliest scenario is a post-June 1 release for cap purposes. The Dolphins are a popular pick to sign Malik Willis, but I doubt they’ll want to splurge for $25 million to $30 million per year after paying out Tagovailoa.
Cheaper options are trades for Anthony Richardson, Mac Jones, and Davis Mills.
▪ Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort on the future with QB Kyler Murray: “I’d say all options are on the table for us.”
Translation: “Anyone out there want him? Hello, is this thing on?”
The Cardinals shut down Murray for the final two months of the season, and it wasn’t to bring him back. Murray has $42 million fully guaranteed this year which, like Tagovailoa, is making it difficult to drum up a trade market. Plus, Murray is not really someone a team brings in as a backup or for competition. Murray is only a starter, and the only teams that need one are the Jets, Dolphins, and Steelers.
The Dolphins actually make sense if both teams just pay out the contracts and get the other guy for league minimum for a year. The Jets are the only other realistic destination, and trading for Murray isn’t the worst idea, since it would only be a one-year commitment, and they don’t have great options.
▪ Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell on bringing in competition for J.J. McCarthy after handing him the job the last two years: “It’s just the timeline is in a different place for all of us than it was at that point.”
Translation: “We’re under a lot more pressure to win.”
The Vikings have egg on their face after missing the playoffs and watching Sam Darnold win a Super Bowl for Seattle. GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah just got fired, and O’Connell might be feeling some heat, too. They will give McCarthy a chance to win the job, but need a better contingency plan, like Jones, Richardson, or Kirk Cousins.
▪ 49ers GM John Lynch on trading backup Jones: “He’s really good for us and we value that. And so somebody would have to come with something fairly strong for us to consider.”
Translation: “For a second-round pick, he’s yours.”
Jones was terrific in 2025, going 5-3 in place of Brock Purdy. He could be useful for a team like Minnesota or Miami looking for a cheap starter in 2026. The 49ers do like Jones, but they’re a quarterback factory, and can find the next one.
Maxx Crosby recorded his first sack of 2025 when he took down Drake Maye in the Raiders' Week 1 win over the Patriots.
Maxx Crosby recorded his first sack of 2025 when he took down Drake Maye in the Raiders' Week 1 win over the Patriots.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
▪ Raiders GM John Spytek on if he anticipates Maxx Crosby being a Raider in 2026: “I do, yes.”
Translation: “Let the bidding begin.”
Spytek was asked several questions about Crosby, and all of his answers were short, lacked specifics, and easy to walk back in the future. Considering the Raiders are in rebuild mode, Crosby will be 29, is entering the final year of his contract, will want a new deal paying top of the market ($46 million per year), and can fetch the Raiders at least one if not two first-round picks, it seems a slam dunk for them to trade him. I’d watch out for the Lions.
▪ Browns GM Andrew Berry on whether his starting quarterback will be Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders: “Right now it’s what, February 24th? So we don’t have to make that decision anytime soon.”
Translation: “We know, but the fans probably won’t like it.”
Watson has one more year at $46 million guaranteed. Here’s betting the Browns start the season with Watson then turn to Sanders, which is better for Sanders than the other way around.
▪ Steelers GM Omar Khan on Aaron Rodgers: “The door is open to have Aaron back.”
Translation: “What, you thought we had a better idea?”
Though the ceiling is limited, Rodgers is still a decent option, especially given his familiarity with new Pittsburgh coach Mike McCarthy. Fans want a franchise quarterback, but you can’t will it into existence. The Steelers aren’t in range with the 21st pick, free agency doesn’t have much, and I wouldn’t blame them for not trading for Murray or signing Willis. The best course is to sign Rodgers and either draft a mid-round QB, or trade for Richardson as a reclamation project.
▪ Colts GM Chris Ballard on whether he sees a future in Indianapolis for Richardson: “I see a future, yeah. Kind of like with any player, you never know what’s going to happen, and things change. But, yeah, I mean, we like Anthony.”
Translation: “No.”
The next day, it came out that Richardson has been given clearance to seek a trade, with the Colts moving forward with Daniel Jones. Richardson has been erratic in three NFL seasons, but he’s still big, athletic, strong-armed, not yet 24 years old, and making only $5.3 million this year. Teams should be lining up to bring him in as a backup.
▪ Bills GM Brandon Beane on chasing the Patriots: “Yeah, I mean, it’s every year, we’re 0-0 at this point. And that’s how you view it, whether you won the Super Bowl or whether you won two games. When we come here, it’s not usually like, ‘Hey, we own the AFC East’ or whatever. I know we had a run there. We’ve got a new team that we have to build, and everybody’s 0-0.”
Translation: “I will spend every waking moment, every fiber of my being, trying to take down the Patriots in 2026.”
Maye and the Patriots did in two seasons — make a Super Bowl — what Josh Allen and the Bills have been unable to in eight. With Sean McDermott out and Allen not getting any younger, the pressure is now squarely on Beane.
▪ Ravens GM Eric DeCosta on if they need to renegotiate Lamar Jackson’s contract first before proceeding in free agency: “Not necessarily. We never have as much cap room as we’d like to have, but we feel like we can start at the beginning of the new league year and conduct business.”
Translation: “Are you new here? Our negotiations with Lamar are never easy.”
Eventually, Jackson and the Ravens will get to the right place to give him a raise from $52 million and lower his cap number from $74.5 million. But Jackson doesn’t have an agent and his negotiations with the Ravens have always drawn out.
▪ Jets coach Aaron Glenn on calling defensive plays in 2025: “Playcalling is my superpower, really. Doing it for four years in Detroit and, man, just look at the maturation of those four years of how we improved every year, and how I improved as a playcaller. I really miss doing that.”
Translation: “It’s the only way [Jets owner] Woody Johnson let me keep my job.”
Glenn survived despite looking clueless during a 3-14 season. Now that he’s calling defensive plays, it will make it easier for Johnson to pin blame on and, eventually, fire Glenn.
Players weighed in on the Patriots, including the teams' Gillette Stadium facilities.
Players weighed in on the Patriots, including the teams' Gillette Stadium facilities.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
REPORT CARDS
Player surveys go public anyway
The least surprising news of the week came Thursday when the NFL Players Association’s anonymous player surveys for 2026 were reported first by ESPN and later by the Globe.
The NFLPA was not allowed to officially release the contents of the survey to the public, as it had the past three years, after an arbitrator recently ruled that doing so violates the collective bargaining agreement. But the arbitrator said the NFLPA can still conduct the exercise and share the results with the players as long as it doesn’t do so with the public.
What do you know (wink, wink), the surveys somehow made it out to the media, just not from official PA sources.
The owners, naturally, weren’t happy.
“We will review the developments in light of the Arbitrator’s decision,” the NFL’s top lawyers wrote Thursday in a memo to executives from all 32 teams. “We further recommend that Clubs refrain from commenting or engaging publicly on the alleged survey and Report Card results. Doing so only provides credibility to the union’s media campaign.”
Naturally, the one time the owners get a little honest feedback and public criticism, they throw a hissy fit and try to shut the project down.
Ironically, the owner who led the charge is the Jets’ Woody Johnson, and his team improved from 32nd to 18th in this year’s survey. I’m sure he doesn’t mind having that out there.
But the good owners have listened to their players, and the surveys have brought about significant upgrades to team facilities, travel and treatment of families.
“Feedback is a gift,” Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, the only owner to get an ‘F’ grade from his players, said last week at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Cardinals’ new training facility.
ETC.
Broncos untangle OC Webb
Broncos coach Sean Payton put a good face on it, but he did not seem thrilled that Bills general manager Brandon Beane spilled the, um, beans during his press conference that Denver offensive coordinator Davis Webb will be taking over playcalling duties in 2026. Beane had interviewed Webb for the Bills’ head coaching vacancy.
“I saw him in the hallway. I thought, ‘You can come on, you can do my presser, too,’ ” Payton said.
It’s an interesting development considering Payton is considered an offensive and quarterback guru, and has been calling plays for more than 20 years. Webb, 31, was a backup quarterback for six NFL seasons, and is a rising coaching star who took head coaching interviews this offseason.
“I think it will help us, and certainly I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was going to help our team win,” Payton said. “I’m going to have opinions with plays. Mine will be the bad ones; his will be all the good ones. But I want to support him in that.”
But it wasn’t so much Payton magnanimously giving his pupil a bigger opportunity as it was Webb having the juice to negotiate for playcalling responsibility in his contract. A source in Denver said Webb turned down more money from the Eagles to be offensive coordinator, and had significant interest from the Bills for their head job. Instead, he chose to stay in Denver for a fourth season, but only if he could call plays.
Though Payton put a good face on the move, it has to make him nervous. He has a tendency to wear people out, and if things go a little sideways in 2026, the Broncos now have a clear head-coach-in-waiting in Webb.
Dealing with a tragic loss
The NFL was hit by tragedy last week when Vikings receiver Rondale Moore took his own life at 25. Moore missed the last two years with separate knee injuries suffered in training camp.
“This is a young man who was incredibly well-regarded with everyone who had been around him, and had an incredibly bright future,” Browns GM Andrew Berry said. “And I was just thinking that what people don’t realize is how hard the rehab process is on professional athletes, especially when you have major injuries. And it’s not just the grueling process of getting healthy, but it’s the isolation that comes with it a lot of times.
“And for people in their mid-20s, where it may be the first time that they’ve experienced a professional setback, or they don’t have maybe the communal aspect that normally comes with college, and it’s frustrating. I do think that as a league that we can do a better job resourcing clubs to make sure that we have that touch point.”
Jacoby Brissett played for new Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland, one of the two-time Patriots quarterback's six stops in 10 NFL seasons.
Jacoby Brissett played for new Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland, one of the two-time Patriots quarterback's six stops in 10 NFL seasons.Jim Davis/Globe Staff
Extra points
While the Cardinals are struggling to find a taker for Kyler Murray, they should have an easier time trading Jacoby Brissett. Two teams who need a bridge quarterback have shown interest. One is the Jets, whose offensive coordinator, Frank Reich, coached Brissett in Indianapolis. The other is the Falcons, who likely won’t have Michael Penix (knee) back for the start of the season, and whose coach, Kevin Stefanski, coached Brissett in Cleveland. Brissett set career highs with 3,366 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2025 … The Cardinals, meanwhile, have their eye on free agent Jimmy Garoppolo, 34. Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort helped draft Garoppolo for the Patriots in 2014, and new coach Mike LaFleur and Garoppolo spent the last two years with the Rams … Since Patriots receivers DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte both played at least 35 percent of snaps in two of three seasons, the CBA states that their 2026 base salary automatically jumps from league minimum ($1.145 million) to the original round restricted free agent tender, expected to be about $3.6 million. That’s more than each of them made in their first three seasons combined (about $2.9 million) … Boston College alum and Norwell native Ozzy Trapilo had a great season for the Bears, starting six games down the stretch plus a playoff game at left tackle. But he tore his patellar tendon during the wild-card win over the Packers, and Bears GM Ryan Poles said Trapilo will miss the 2026 season. “Pretty significant injury that he’s got to get through, but in terms of affecting his overall career or next year, I don’t see that being an issue,” Poles said … The Bears keep flirting with Northern Indiana for a new stadium, but I’ll believe it when I see it. A Chicago institution, the Bears headquarters and all the executives live on the Northside … The Jaguars are playing at a reduced capacity at Everbank Stadium in 2026 as they undergo two years of renovations, and were happy to raise their hand to host two London games this fall instead of one. The Patriots are an option to play one of those games, but I put my fake money on them facing the Lions in Munich. I bet the Krafts want a mulligan for that debacle against the Colts in Frankfurt in 2023. The Patriots could also face the Bears in Madrid … Speaking of the Jaguars, they didn’t send their head coach, GM, or team president to the NFL Combine, on the premise that they don’t want personal interactions with players to mess up their evaluations. If the Jaguars are successful, there are going to be a lot of angry coaches and GMs who no longer get a yearly trip to St. Elmo’s Steakhouse.
After making it to the Super Bowl, it’s time to debate what the best moves for the Patriots are in the offseason.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.