Cornerback Darius Slay said recently that no team other than the Eagles should call him about playing in 2026, but now it seems that even the Eagles shouldn’t bother reaching out to him.
In a post to X.com on Monday, Slay announced that he is retiring from the NFL. Slay wrote that he has reached the time for a “new chapter” and that he’s “ready to turn the page” on an NFL career that began as a Lions second-round pick in 2013.
Slay remained with the Lions through the 2019 season and made an All-Pro team before moving on to the Eagles in a trade in 2020. He helped the Eagles to an NFC title after the 2022 season and won a Super Bowl in his final game with the team.
Slay signed a one-year deal with the Steelers in 2025, but was waived by a mutual agreement in December. He was claimed off of waivers by the Bills and declined to report amid speculation that he hoped to return to the Eagles.
Slay had 655 tackles, 28 interceptions, two forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and six touchdowns over the course of his career.
The first big wave of free agency has ended. The second wave has, too.
As the dollars settle on last week’s spending spree, plenty of big names are still on the board.
Receiver Stefon Diggs had a very good year in his first season back from a torn ACL, notching his seventh 1,000-yard season. The Patriots opted not to continue his contract, which added him to the group of available players. He remains on the market.
So does receiver Jauan Jennings, who landed at No. 23 on the PFT Top 100 list of free agents. He failed to parlay an unexpectedly productive 2024 into an extension with the 49ers. The fact that he didn’t sign quickly after free agency opened suggests that he wanted more than the market will bear.
Receiver Deebo Samuel, No. 29 on the PFT list, also waits for his next team. There was no land rush for a player whose lone Pro Bowl and All-Pro season is now five years in the rear-view mirror. He hit free agency for the first time. He remains available.
Other receivers who are free and clear include Tyreek Hill (who’s recovering from a serious knee injury), Christian Kirk, DeAndre Hopkins, and Keenan Allen.
As running backs go, the best options are gone. Veterans who are available include Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, Brian Robinson, A.J. Dillon, Raheem Mostert, Najee Harris, and Austin Ekeler.
Edge rusher Joey Bosa, who’s No. 35, was essentially replaced in Buffalo by Bradley Chubb. Bosa is waiting for his next stop; his mother apparently envisions the Bosa brothers teaming up in San Francisco.
Other big-name defenders remain. Future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner is unsigned. As is edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, the first overall pick in the 2014 draft. Veteran defensive end Cameron Jordan is a free agent. Linebacker Lavonte David, a fixture in Tampa Bay since 2012, is unsigned, too.
Then there are the quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Flacco, and Tyrod Taylor are the headliners. Currently, only the Cardinals and Steelers are presumably in the market for a QB1.
More signings will surely happen. But, for the most part, the big-money pipeline has sealed shut. The budgets have been busted. Quickly, the spending spree ends and the pre-draft process resumes.
Veteran safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson signed this week with the Bills. In his introductory press conference, he addressed one of the biggest issues hovering around him — a reputation for being a not-ideal teammate.
Gardner-Johnson said he’s not concerned about perceptions.
“I look at it like this,” Gardner-Johnson said, “if — and I don’t throw shade. I don’t throw — because locker rooms that I’ve been in, we’ve won. But the situation I got traded to, like, it’s hard to go into something where you’re not really familiar. Like, it’s like spurts. . . . That’s like going to McDonald’s. You can eat McDonald’s, but you don’t know how to make the fries. So, it’s like, I’m not saying you didn’t know how to play football, it’s just like, you have to gather that relationship while trying to get better while trying — and the season comes quick and all. Once the moves, the draft picks get in, it’s on you.”
He was traded to Houston last year. After the deal was done, Gardner-Johnson said the Eagles shipped him out because they were “scared of a competitor.”
The Texans abruptly cut him after an 0-3 start, without trying to trade him. After a short stint with the Ravens, he landed in Chicago.
With the Bears, he had 10 regular-season appearances with seven starts. He also started the divisional-round playoff game against the Rams.
“For me, I look at, like, every place I’ve been with, I won,” Gardner-Johnson said. “If it was a locker room problem, I just result back to whatever came out. Why now? Like, why now? If I was a locker room problem, like why now? What was the news flashes when we were winning, going 14-3? When we were on the top of the mountain. . . . When I was catching six [interceptions], but where was those like — but why now? So I just take it with a grain of salt . . . it is what it is.”
Gardner-Johnson, 28, has played for the Saints, Eagles, Lions, Eagles again, Texans, Ravens, and Bears. He has appeared in 87 regular-season games with 71 starts, and he was a member of the Super Bowl LIX championship team in Philadelphia.
The Bills are signing safety Geno Smith to a one-year deal, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Stone, who turns 27 in April, spent the past two seasons with the Bengals, starting all 34 possible games.
In 2025, Stone totaled 104 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions and four pass breakups.
The Ravens made him a seventh-round pick in 2020, and he spent his first four seasons in Baltimore. He has 312 tackles, 14 interceptions and 21 pass breakups in his career.
He joins a room that includes C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Cole Bishop, Jordan Hancock and Sam Franklin.
Wide receiver DJ Moore experienced something new with the Bears last season.
The 2026 season was Moore’s first winning one in the NFL as he helped the Bears win the NFC North and advance to the divisional round of the playoffs before losing to the Rams. With that success coming in Ben Johnson’s first year as the team’s head coach, it seemed like the start of something big in Chicago but Moore won’t be around for what comes next.
The wideout is now a member of the Bills after being traded to Buffalo earlier this week. At a press conference on Thursday, Moore said that he was happy with how things went last year but felt that his time with the Bears had reached a natural end point.
“I’m excited. I’m excited for the new challenge and a new journey. I think my time in Chicago, it ran its course and it ended on a great note with it being a great season in how it ended,” Moore said, via the Bills’ website. “Now it’s time to do that here.”
Moore will be working with quarterback Josh Allen in his new home and the hope in Buffalo is that his arrival helps boost a receiving corps that came in for a fair amount of criticism during the 2025 season. If that happens, the Bills could find a breakthrough of their own.
