The Dolphins now have a quarterback who can thrive in cold weather.
With Tua Tagovailoa due to be released on Wednesday, the Dolphins have agreed to terms with former Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis.
Per multiple reports, it’s a three-year, $67.5 million deal. The $22.5 million APY falls in the dead center of the $20 million to $25 million annual average we’d heard about from a G.M. at the Scouting Combine.
The benefit for the Dolphins is to get three years. Many believed it would be a two-year deal.
The fact that the Dolphins made a beeline for Willis makes it clear that both coach Jeff Hafley and G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan believe in Willis. They had full access to him for the last two years, on the practice field, during meetings, etc. They have far more information than teams usually have about free agents, and they think Willis can play for the Dolphins like he did in limited duty for the Packers over the past two years.
Rashan Gary is heading to Dallas.
The Packers have agreed to trade Gary to the Cowboys for a 2027 fourth-round draft pick, according to multiple reports.
Gary, a veteran defensive lineman, was expected to be released unless the Packers could find a trade partner willing to take on his $19.5 million non-guaranteed pay for 2026. In the Cowboys, the Packers found that partner.
The 28-year-old Gary has played his entire seven-year career with the Packers and started 15 games last year. Last week, Gary posted a goodbye to Green Bay on Instagram, then deleted it. There were claims that Gary had been hacked, though few people believed those claims, as his initial post seemed consistent with a player who had been told he was on the way out.
After last year’s blockbuster trade that saw Micah Parsons go to the Packers for two first-round picks and Kenny Clark, the Cowboys and Packers have now made another deal, this time with the Cowboys trying to bolster their defense and the Packers shedding cap space.
With a trip to free agency roughly 12 hours away, linebacker Eric Wilson decided to stay where he has been.
Via Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, the Vikings and Wilson have agreed to terms on a three-year, $22.5 million deal. Of that amount, $12.5 million is fully guaranteed.
The 31-year-old Wilson appeared in all 17 regular-season games last season, starting 16 of them.
He arrived in Minnesota as an undrafted free agent in 2017. After four seasons with the Vikings, he signed a one-year deal with the Eagles. A Week 1 starter in 2021, he was released after only seven games. He finished the year with the Texans.
Wilson spent the next three seasons with the Packers. In his first two years, he appeared in 30 games with no starts. In 2024, he appeared in all 17 games, with 12 starts.
Last year, he signed a one-year, $2.6 million deal to return to Minnesota.
Not many guys see their biggest NFL payday on the other side of 30. Wilson has — and it ensures (given the guarantees) that he’ll have at least two more years with the Vikings.
With the so-called legal tampering period opening on Monday and with illegal tampering already running rampant, the Packers played beat-the-clock with one of their own.
Per multiple reports, the Packers have agreed to terms with offensive lineman Sean Rhyan on a three-year, $33 million deal with a maximum value of $39 million.
Rhyan opened the year as the starting right guard. He became the starting center after Elgton Jenkins suffered a season-ending injury in November.
The re-signing of Rhyan moves the Packers closer to a split with Jenkins, who is due to make $19.6 million in 2026, the final year of his contract. There has been talk of a potential trade, but it’s hard to imagine anyone taking on that financial obligation.
Rhyan arrived as a third-round pick in 2022. He started every game at right guard in 2024. For his career, Rhyan has 47 regular-season appearances and 28 regular-season starts.
The Raiders wanted two first-round picks and a player for defensive end Maxx Crosby. They ultimately settled for a pair of first-round picks from the Ravens.
The Cowboys apparently tried to land Crosby with a reduced offer of their own.
Via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Dallas was willing to send a first-round pick in 2026 (12th overall), a future second-round pick, and a veteran player to Las Vegas.
The notion that the Cowboys tried to make a big swing for a pass rusher contradicts the “stop the run” excuse-making from owner/G.M. Jerry Jones, after he cried “uncle” at the end of the multi-month standoff with Micah Parsons. But Jones surely was intrigued by the possibility of getting Crosby’s remaining four contract years, at an average payout of $29 million per year. (And Jones undoubtedly believed he could talk Crosby into not expecting an adjustment to a deal that has been leapfrogged by other players — and by $10 million per year after Parsons signed with the Packers.)
The Cowboys have worked hard to convince themselves, and everyone else, that they won the Parsons trade. The mere fact that they made a play for Crosby is a concession that they need a high-end, veteran pass rusher after losing the chess match that played out throughout the 2025 offseason, the entirety of training camp, and most of the preseason.
Every team would benefit from a high-end veteran pass rusher. After quarterback, a player who can affect the quarterback is the most important position in football, one that transcends the stat sheet because it forces an offense to always know where that player is and to divert other players to slowing him down.
It also accelerates the clock in the quarterback’s head, prompting him to possibly make bad decisions before the walls cave in.
Last year, the Cowboys made a bad decision to negotiate directly with Parsons, to take the position that he verbally agreed to a deal, to refuse to engage with his agent, and eventually to not pay one of the best players in all of football. The fact that they were willing to give up nearly as much as they got for Parsons proves it.
