Just an open page for me to drop notes/ideas/things I'm hearing/seeing/working on or just caffeinated or lack of sleep thoughts on football items to start the days with.
2/23 MON
(6:09amET)
Today
-- Ross Jacobs debut 2026 1st-round mock.
The first wave of early grades on the consensus top RB-p.
I used this weekend to crunch a lot of Dynasty rankings trying to get them done, version 1.0, to be published before month’s end...with rookies integrated. Made great progress and charging hard to be done by end of month. We’ll see.
This Week’s Agenda…
-- Holy series ‘QBs 1.0’ published last week. The RB position group will be after that...working on that now. Holy RB Handcuffs after that.
-- Working on the next wave of full scouting reports...as I start to knock more of the full reports down now.
-- The next early/pre-Combine positional grades and rankings boards are underway and 2-3 more of them will be out this week.
-- Any FFM News & Notes or Special Reports during the day as I get them.
-- My Jacksonville daily diary at the very end for me recording this journey for future reading/memory and sharing how things are going with everyone.
-- New coaching staff hire’s analysis series...going through the entire staffs...I am working on the framework of how I want to present that. This will be a first ever series (for me) where I go beyond ‘just the new head coaches’. ETA in March.
== NEWS & NOTES & Xs ==
-- Combine Week...long weekend of events ahead of measurables and drills.
I’m gonna go ahead and agree with what Sean McVay set in motion a long time ago (and Liam Coen and James Gladstone are taking up as well)...attending the Combine, watching it live to see who runs fast -- it’s a waste of precious time, and we’re (me and McVay and others) are not doing it anymore.
The information is not a waste of time, not at all...I need that information -- but we all don’t have to watch it live to get said info. It’s not like global events happening and it affects the stock market, and we need to trade on that info immediately/next day market opening. We got days and weeks and weeks to digest this info.
PLUS...the top prospects are more and more not participating in any on-field anything, and if I were advising them they would definitely not (why risk injury?). Most of them will wait until their Pro Day.
The Combine relevance is falling, as a watch event...but the data from it is ultimately still very relevant, which makes it frustrating when the top guys can skip that. They could’ve found the fraud Marv Harrison Jr. issue if he had to run and get timed, etc. He conned every single man, woman, and child in an entire industry. Except for one...
-- ESPN’s Kris Rhim believes the Chargers could “make a push” to sign Ravens C Tyler Linderbaum in free agency.
This one little line/speculation may have come and gone in the breeze, but if LAC can pull this off somehow...it’s not a bomb dropped on the NFL and a massive ‘win’ for the LAC outlook for 2026, it’s an arsenal of nuclear bombs headed towards LAC’s 2026 opponents.
LAC has the 4th most CAP space in football right now. They’ll have the $$. This may be the single biggest watch item of free agency.
-- ESPN’s Nick Wagoner believes “it’s reasonable” to think George Kittle (Achilles) could return in Week 5 “or so.”
Kittle is still talking Week 1. Maybe...but this news and situation increases the value of Jake Tonges more and more if the rehab is slower than hoped...or slower than Kittle is hoping. Tonges as viable out of the gates, for a pinch.
-- A loaded and bloated free agency class leads to my new daily segment...
(*same intro every day) A new daily segment that will take us up to near the beginning of free agency. I’ll go team-by-team, alphabetically, and list the key players who have contracts that are begging or almost assuredly are gonna get them cut. I’m going to list more of the FF ones of interest, but I will list any interesting IDPs or OLs.
We’re looking at players who...
*Still have some life/name appeal but are late/last year into their contracts and they will either make an excessive amount of money in 2026 or would only cost a minor hit to just outright cut them.
*I will also include guys who are not logical, contractually to cut, but they are hated and expensive and getting cut.
*Some of these guys might work out a new/reasonable deal before getting released, but I want to show the explosion of guys that might hit the market...and there is already a surge of talent in natural free agency, especially at RB...which is gonna turn FF upside down when all these guys have nowhere to go and sign cheap in places that will FF-piss us off.
We’ll list by position, and I’ll put in order of most likely in-demand after getting cut. We’ll build the list daily. You and I might be shocked by the time we complete this exercise...
(intro end)
---------------------------------
Today’s look: Tampa Bay
(other notes)
-- The Bucs are running middle of the pack on CAP space as of this writing...but the situation is worse than that for them because they have no real natural way to get more space, but they could redo some deals...but the big thing is that they have a LOT of issues to deal with in terms of good free agents wanting more money.
Mike Evans is a free agent. Vita Vea is in the final year of a cheap deal; he’ll want more money. Jamel Dean was a top CB performer in 2025; he’s now a free agent. Rachaad White is definitely going in free agency.
I assume they’ll pay Dean and Vea, but then that pretty much forces Evans out the door. They’d love to have Cade Otton back, but they likely can’t afford him...but they’ll try because he is beloved.
QB:
Joe Flacco (free agent)
Geno Smith ($26.5M to pay, $18M hit to release)
Malik Willis (free agent)
Russell Wilson (free agent)
Kyler Murray ($47M post-June 1st hit, and $7M hit in 2027)
Kirk Cousins? ($24.6M pay or cut for $25M hit post-June 1st)...wouldn’t be surprised if he retires either.
Justin Fields (likely cut)
RB:
Kenneth Walker (free agent?)
Rachaad White (free agent)
Rico Dowdle (free agent)
Travis Etienne (free agent)
David Montgomery? ($8.4M pay to play 2026 or cut for $4.9M hit, split in half on a past-June 1st cut)
Brian Robinson (free agent)
Najee Harris (free agent)
James Conner ($10.3M keep, $2.3M cut post-June 1st)
Kareem Hunt (free agent)
Jerome Ford (free agent)
Aaron Jones (likely cut, then a free agent)
Devin Singletary ($6.5M to pay to play, $1.3M to cut)
Nick Chubb (free agent)
Justice Hill (3.9M keep for 1-yr or cut for $667k)...enjoy New York.
Joe Mixon ($10M pay to play 2026, or $2M hit to cut)...can he ever play again anyway?
WR:
George Pickens (free agent or available in trade)
Wan’Dale Robinson (free agent...he will go to highest bidder/the Titans)
A.J. Brown (available in trade)
Tyreek Hill (free agent)
Michael Pittman or Alec Pierce
Christian Watson (free agent...but doubtful GB lets him go)
Mike Evans (free agent)
Rashid Shaheed (free agent)
Jordan Addison (available in trade?) or Jalen Nailor (goes if Addison stays).
Jauan Jennings (free agent)
Stefon Diggs ($26.5M to play this year or $8M to cut)
Romeo Doubs (free agent)
Curtis Samuel ($8M pay for 2026, cut for $3.5M)
Christian Kirk (free agent)
Keenan Allen (free agent)
Kendrick Bourne (free agent)
Brandon Aiyuk (?)
Tutu Atwell (free agent)
Marquise Brown (free agent)
Jahan Dotson (free agent)
TE:
Kyle Pitts (free agent)
Isaiah Likely (free agent)
Evan Engram? ($14M pay for 2026 or cut for $10M hit, which they can maneuver easier on it with a post-June 1st cut)
Jonnu Smith ($10.8M to play or cut for $3.9M)
David Njoku (free agent)
Dallas Goedert (free agent)
Daniel Bellinger (free agent)
Hunter Henry ? ($11.8M to play in 2026, $2.5M to cut)
Cade Otton (free agent)
Taysom Hill (free agent)
Tommy Tremble ($8M pay for 2026 or cut for $2.2M hit post-June 1st)
Darren Waller (free agent)
Tyler Higbee (free agent)
Mike Gesicki ($7.7M pay or cut for $4.3M)
Other (that there is possible-to-good-to-great likelihood they won’t get an extension or tag):
OT Rasheed Walker (free agent, but I cannot imagine GB lets him get here...but it’s up in the air)
OL Braden Smith (free agent)
CB Greg Newsome (free agent)
EDGE Trey Hendrickson (free agent)
CB Rasul Douglas (free agent)
CB Adoree Jackson (free agent)
EDGE Jaelan Phillips (free agent)
EDGE Odafe Oweh (free agent)
CB Tariq Woolen (free agent)
DL Cam Jordan (free agent)
LB Nakobe Dean (free agent)
SAF Reed Blankenship (free agent)
-- RC Daily JAX Diary...
(same intro every day)
At the very end of RC’s NOTES, for the next 50-60 days...I will share my little diary of my time in Jacksonville (for those who don’t know) getting radiation treatment for my battle with prostate cancer that I am winning -- I am figuratively off to a big 1st-quarter lead and looking strong into the 2nd-quarter of this football game analogy/cancer battle...but just like the Packers-Bears playoff game...it’s not over ‘til it’s over/we got a ways to go.
I am keeping these daily notes so that I might look back over time at this odd, unplanned event in my life. 40 straight weekdays of radiation scheduled, weekends off, unknown side effects ahead...some short-term, with a somewhat scary risk of long-term effects. It’s gonna be a wild ride.
I’m trying to treat this like a vacation, of sorts. Some people save up for a special trip to Hawaii or a European excursion...I could care less about those things. I saved for a rainy day for my protection...and, well... https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLdSXQWUapDe0CcQznO8Kuqzht631AnEz?si=MqnycTkzVD5mzPnF
(end of intro)
2/22/26, Day 30 in JAX
19 of 39 radiation treatments done so far. No radiation on weekends.
4 weeks down, 4 more to go.
This will be known as the day that I...
Watched the Olympics Men Hockey Finals and got to watch a great American sport moment...the boys did it! They won the gold medal for the U.S. for the first time since the ‘Miracle on Ice’ group in 1980.
Hats off to Canada, the dominant force in world hockey...they played the better game, on a judge’s scorecard -- but the U.S. threw the knockout punch to steal the gold.
There is just something about playoffs and/or meaningful hockey games. One of the greatest sports watch events there is...when you’re into the result/tension.
When the U.S. team won in OT and all went into a group hug frenzy, I teared up a little. But when they took their team photo and went and got the small children of one of the players who had died in an accident, and they had them in the group photo and had their dad’s jersey in hand and on display for the photo -- I cried like a baby.
I’m also having my hormones messed with, so I’m an extra sensitive soul these days.
Everything else about this day, I put aside...and I just want to remember it for the great moment for USA sport...and I’m so fortunate that I got to see it! I’m so glad I can look back on this diary, or my kids or kids’ kids and they can see this entry and perhaps go watch a recap on YouTube or something.
https://youtu.be/8c47m212Mkk?si=lr8wtheNvj2y_25c
Still, nothing will ever match the greatest single sport moment in U.S. history...that ‘Miracle on Ice’ victory in the semis over Russia (spoiler alert: and then they’d go on to win the finals). If you haven’t watched the movie ‘Miracle’ with an outstanding job by Kurt Russell in that...please go do that.
Wait? How did I not know this was just released: https://youtu.be/40ZWbeMFJ6I?si=m5wkC-Ka1e4ojTOZ
My daily food diary...
Day 30 food spend = $0
BREAKFAST = Eggs/Bacon/Cereal breakfast in my hotel room.
LUNCH: Mexican food leftovers
DINNER: Cereal, fruit, chips
Month #2 (through 2 days) = $66 total spend...so yesterday’s bad start cut in half to a $33 per day average start with my $0 day Sunday.
30-day total food spend = $670...$22.30 per day average.
Month #1 closed. I have 56 days here total, so I am breaking it into two 28 day months/halves. Trying to keep it to $20 a day which I got all kinds of gift cards for it from family and friends during the holidays, etc., to cover approx. $20 a day.
*28-day month #1 of 2 here, final tally = Overbudget/goal by $44 total. Not bad.
