The Dolphins are in a full blown Two Days After St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The latest to go is receiver Tyreek Hill. And it’s the least surprising.
Even without the significant knee injury he suffered on September 29, this was coming. Even without the firing of G.M. Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel, this was coming.
Hill was due to make $35 million in 2026, the final year of his contract. He had a $5 million roster bonus that was due on the third day of the new league year.
He was always going to be released. He was always going to be available on the open market.
Now, for the first time, he’ll be free and clear to sign with anyone.
The question is whether Hill will be signed before he’s fully and completely healthy and, if so, whether his contract will include protections based on Hill eventually passing a physical. Sometimes, a player has enough leverage (like receiver Chris Godwin a year ago) to avoid such limitations on his pay.
Hill turns 32 on March 1. The best of his best days are likely behind him. If healthy, however, he’s still pretty damn good.
The most obvious potential destination is Kansas City. Last year at the Super Bowl, Hill expressed some regret for leaving in the first place. With Eric Bieniemy back as the offensive coordinator, the Chiefs could decide to bring Hill back, too. Which may have the added benefit of getting tight end Travis Kelce to return for another season.
The Chargers could become a potential destination, given McDaniel’s arrival there as offensive coordinator. They desperately need effective weapons for quarterback Justin Herbert — and a 32-year-old Hill would instantly be better than anything else they currently have.
Other teams with needs at the position should give Hill a look, including (to name a few) the Bills, Ravens, Steelers, Packers, Jets (who tried to trade for him four years ago), Patriots, and Seahawks (who need a strong, consistent complement to Jaxon Smith-Njigba).
Seahawks Clips
The 2025 season ended eight days ago. In one day, the first significant moment toward the refinement of rosters for 2026 arrives.
The annual two-week window for applying the franchise tag opens on Tuesday, February 17.
As some have suggested in the past, the only day that really matters is the last day for applying the tag (March 3). But with the Scouting Combine (a/k/a Tampering Central) coming next week, some teams may be inclined to apply the tag before all of them convene in Indianapolis, in order to make it clear that an impending free agent won’t be free.
That’s the most important thing to remember about the franchise tag. It gives each team the ability to block one player per year from earning on the open market a long-term contract from the cash-and-cap-rich teams.
Last year, only two tags were applied — by the Bengals to receiver Tee Higgins and by the Chiefs to guard Trey Smith. It was the fewest total tags since 2006.
This year, there are several intriguing candidates for the franchise tag (or, in theory, the little-used transition tag).
The list starts with Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III. He finished his 2022 second-round contract with a flourish, gaining 376 rushing yards in three playoff games and winning the Super Bowl MVP award. It would cost the Seahawks $14.1 million to extend Walker’s stay by a fifth year and/or to extend until July 15 the ability to sign him to a long-term deal.
The question for the Seahawks becomes projecting whether another team will break the bank for a running back, and whether Walker (with his name and accomplishments removed from the equation) justifies a major investment moving forward, given the supply-demand realities of the running back position. (In 2006, the Seahawks gave running back Shaun Alexander a market-level deal after his MVP season, and they quickly regretted it.)
Cowboys receiver George Pickens could be headed for the tag, even if he may not be thrilled about it. One year and $28 million falls far short of the market-level, multi-year deal ($40 million per year or more) he may desire.
Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. will be hitting the market, barring the tag. He had a career high in catches (88) and touchdowns (five), but Pitts has still yet to live up to the potential that made him the fourth overall pick in 2021, one spot above receiver Ja’Marr Chase. It remains to be seen whether the new regime in Atlanta (led by the quarterback who threw passes to Pitts as a rookie) will choose to apply the $16 million tag.
The Eagles sent a third-round pick during the 2025 season to the Dolphins for linebacker Jaelan Phillips. He performed well in Philly, and the Eagles have to decide whether to try to keep him or to let him go, and to collect a potential compensatory draft pick in 2027.
The Bengals may decide to use the tag to keep defensive end Trey Hendrickson around for another year. The price tag ($30.1992 million, based on his 2025 cap number) is high. And there’s lingering acrimony between player and team.
Whatever the final number, the number will likely be far closer to last year’s two than the 2012 record high of 21. That year, the shift in calculation from the 2011 CBA combined with a small bump in the cap due to the lockout made it cheaper to use the tag.
Cheap continues to be the operative word. Teams want to keep their best players without having to pay market rates. And while, in theory, that only impacts the players who don’t get to become free agents, it also holds down the rest of the market by not letting the best free agents get every penny they deserve.
So, yes, the franchise tag stinks for players. But it’s never going away, given that it gives teams the annual ability to keep a highly-talented player around without giving him the contract he has otherwise earned.
The Seahawks have found a new offensive coordinator who is likely to keep the same scheme.
According to multiple reports, Seattle is hiring San Francisco tight ends coach Brian Fleury for the role.
Fleury had been with the 49ers since 2019, beginning his time with the club as a defensive quality control coach. He moved over to offense in 2020, serving a quality control coach for the unit before being promoted to tight ends coach in 2022.
San Francisco added run game coordinator to his title in 2025.
Fleury is replacing Klint Kubiak, who was hired as Raiders head coach after Super Bowl LX. Kubiak previously served as San Francisco’s passing game coordinator in 2023, working alongside Fleury and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Fleury also has at least some level of familiarity with quarterback Sam Darnold, who spent the 2023 season as the 49ers’ backup quarterback.
Andrew Janocko went to Las Vegas to interview for the Raiders’ offensive coordinator job on Sunday and it looks like he’ll be spending a lot more time there in the future.
NFL Media reports that the Raiders are expected to hire Janocko. Janocko was the quarterbacks coach for the Seahawks in 2025 and will be joining Klint Kubiak in Vegas after Kubiak moved from being Seattle’s offensive coordinator to the Raiders head coaching job.
Janocko was also the quarterbacks coach while Kubiak was the offensive coordinator in New Orleans and Minnesota. He spent two years in the same role with the Bears before rejoining Kubiak in New Orleans.
The Seahawks considered Janocko as a possible replacement for Kubiak, but they are expected to hire 49ers tight ends coach Brian Fleury as the new offensive coordinator on Mike Macdonald’s staff.
Seahawks quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko is a candidate to replace Klint Kubiak in Seattle and he’s also a candidate to join Kubiak in Las Vegas.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Janocko will interview with the Raiders for their offensive coordinator position. Kubiak was the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champs and became the Raiders’ head coach after they beat the Patriots in Santa Clara last Sunday.
Janocko also worked with Kubiak in New Orleans and Minnesota earlier in his career. He was the quarterbacks coach for both of those teams and had a two-year run as the quarterbacks coach for the Bears as well.
Janocko is one of four in-house candidates for the Seahawks’ coordinator job. Passing game coordinator Jake Peetz, assistant offensive line coach/run game specialist Justin Outten, and tight ends coach Mack Brown are the others. The Seahawks are also speaking to outside candidates.
In recent years, many NFL teams have shied away from giving big contracts to running backs in free agency, finding that there’s better value at other positions and that cheaper running backs can get the job done. That would seem to be bad news for Kenneth Walker, a month before he hits free agency.
But Walker, the Seahawks running back who was named MVP of Super Bowl LX, is hitting free agency at just the right time.
That’s in part because his MVP-winning performance (plus the 256 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns he had in the Seahawks’ other two playoff games) will make the Seahawks eager to re-sign him, and put his skills on full display for the other 31 NFL teams if the Seahawks don’t do what it takes to keep him in Seattle.
It’s also in part because Walker is hitting free agency while he’s still young: Walker will turn 26 during the 2026 regular season, so a team signing him to a lucrative contract would likely expect to be paying him for his prime years, and not guarantee him any money into his 30s.
Walker had a solid regular season, carrying 221 times for 1,027 yards and a career-high 4.65 yards per carry. He might just be a running back that the Seahawks and other teams are willing to invest a big contract in, even as big contracts are getting harder for running backs to find.
The Seattle Seahawks will consider a division rival for their offensive coordinator opening.
San Francisco 49ers tight ends coach Brian Fleury is interviewing today for the Seahawks offensive coordinator job, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The Seahawks need a new offensive coordinator after Klint Kubiak left to become head coach of the Raiders. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald runs the defense, so offensive coordinator is the most important assistant on his staff.
Fleury is a longtime member of Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers staff. Fleury and Shanahan originally worked together on the Browns’ stasff in 2014, and Shanahan hired Fleury in 2019, originally as a defensive quality control coach before moving him to offensive quality control in 2020, promoting him to tight ends coach in 2022 and then adding run game coordinator to his title last year.
Macdonald has plenty of experience coaching against the 49ers’ offense, and he was impressed enough that he’s now considering adding a coach from that staff to his team.
When it comes to betting, there’s inside information. And there’s outside information. Literally.
A clip is making the rounds of a guy who showed up outside Levi’s Stadium during the rehearsal of the national anthem for Super Bowl LX, performed by Charlie Puth. The guy brought a stopwatch and a listening device. He heard it. He timed it.
He bet accordingly on the duration of the anthem. And he won.
Although some are calling it inside information, it isn’t. He wasn’t part of the production. He heard what anyone could have heard while standing in a public place.
Anyone could have done it. It was smart. And it highlights one of the basic flaws in the system when it comes to betting on specific facts unrelated to what happens once the game begins.
He also could have done it for the halftime show. If he’d heard one of the rehearsals, he could have dropped a bet in one of the prediction markets as to the first song to be performed by Bad Bunny.
It’s legitimate. Next year, more people should do it during the Super Bowl LXI rehearsals at SoFi Stadium.
Until such wagers aren’t made available, anyone with the time, the inclination, and the equipment to show up and listen can make some easy money.
Of course, if enough people do it, those types of bets will eventually be removed from the board. Until then, go get paid.
The Raiders will interview Seahawks safeties coach Jeff Howard on Saturday for their defensive coordinator job, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports.
Howard worked with new Raiders coach Klint Kubiak in Minnesota and Seattle.
Howard began his NFL coaching career in 2013 with the Vikings. He was a defensive assistant for seven seasons in Minnesota.
He was with the Browns from 2020-22, serving as the defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator. After one season as the Chargers’ linebackers coach in 2023, Howard joined the Seahawks.
Kubiak overlapped with Howard with the Vikings in two different stints (2013-14, 2019-21) and again last season in Seattle.
Mike Macdonald’s successor as the Ravens defensive coordinator will reportedly be joining Macdonald’s staff in Seattle for the 2026 season.
Clarence Hill of All City DLLS reports that Zach Orr will be the new inside linebackers coach for the Seahawks. Orr spent the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator in Baltimore.
Per the report, Orr chose the spot on the Seahawks’ staff over filling the same role for the Cowboys.
Orr and Macdonald were on the Ravens’ staff together from 2017-2020 and again in 2022 and 2023. Orr was the inside linebackers coach and Macdonald was the coordinator in the second stint. Orr also played for the Ravens from 2014-2016 when Macdonald was a coaching intern and defensive assistant.
