The Jaguars are releasing four players after trading wide receiver Christian Kirk earlier Thursday, as they continue to clear cap space.
The team will cut wide receiver Devin Duvernay and cornerback Ronald Darby, NFL Media reports. Michael DiRocco of ESPN reports that tight end Evan Engram also is on his way out, and Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports adds wide receiver Josh Reynolds to the list of released players.
Duvernay’s release will save the Jaguars $2.732 million in cap space, and Engram’s departure clears $6.04 million. The Jaguars will free up another $2.44 million with Darby’s release and $4.26 million with Reynolds’ release.
Engram signed a three-year, $41.25 million contract with the team in July 2023, and Duvernay got a two-year contract last March with an $8.5 million base and a $12.5 million max value. Darby joined the Jaguars last March on two-year deal worth up to $10 million, and Jacksonville claimed Reynolds off waivers last season, taking on the two-year, $9 million deal he signed with the Broncos.
Engram caught 47 passes for 365 yards and a touchdown last season, his third in Jacksonville. Duvernay caught 11passes for 79 yards and averaged 25.1 yards on 14 kickoff returns and 8.8 yards on 19 punt returns. Reynolds made one reception for 11 yards in four games. Darby started 12 games and totaled 46 tackles, three tackles for loss and nine pass breakups.
The Jaguars, who sent Kirk to the Texans for a 2026 seventh-round pick, might not be done, either.
The Jaguars were planning to release wide receiver Christian Kirk, but they found a trade partner, according to Diana Russini of TheAthletic.com. Never mind that it’s a division rival.
The Jaguars will get a 2026 seventh-round pick that originally belonged to the Rams.
The trade will become official Tuesday.
Kirk is heading into the final season of a four-year, $72 million contract he signed with the Jaguars in 2022. He is scheduled to make $16.5 million this season, and his departure will save the Jaguars $10.437 million against their salary cap.
A year ago, Texans General Manager Nick Caserio traded a 2024 seventh-round pick for Joe Mixon and then extended the running back’s contract. The team could do the same for Kirk.
The Texans needed wide receiver help with Stefon Diggs and Robert Woods headed to free agency and Tank Dell having undergone surgery to repair a torn ACL on Wednesday. Dell previously underwent surgery to repair his lateral collateral and medial collateral ligaments, and he is expected to miss most if not all of the 2025 season.
Kirk played only eight games last season before a season-ending collarbone fracture. He made 27 catches for 379 yards and a touchdown.
In 2022, his first season in Jacksonville, Kirk started all 17 games and had career highs with 84 receptions for 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns.
The Cardinals made Kirk a second-round pick out of Texas A&M in 2018, and he spent his first four seasons in Arizona.
The Texans re-signed defensive tackle Kurt Hinish to a one-year, $1.8 million deal, Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports.
The deal has a maximum value of $2.35 million.
Hinish, 25, was scheduled to become a restricted free agent next week.
The Texans didn’t tender him but instead re-signed him for less than the tender amount.
Hinish has totaled 57 tackles and 1.5 sacks in three seasons, including 12 tackles in 10 games last season. He spent part of last season on injured reserve with a calf injury.
When it comes to arguably the single-worst transaction in NFL history, the Browns keep kicking the salary-cap can. They’ve kicked it so frequently that, through 2025 (the fourth year of the deal), the Browns will have absorbed only 41.1 of the total cap dollars in the contract.
The numbers don’t lie. The five-year, fully-guaranteed contract pays out $230 million. Through 2025, Watson will have been paid $184 million. But roughly half of that amount — $94.6 million — will have hit the cap.
That leaves $135.4 million to be charged in 2026 and beyond. And while last year’s tweaking of the deal makes it easier to push the dead money out as far as 2029, they won’t be fully free of the albatross contract for years to come.
The exercise of the 2025 restructuring sends two other messages. First, our cockeyed idea for dumping the final $92 million by including the Watson deal in a Myles Garrett trade won’t happen. By converting the maximum amount of his $46 million 2025 salary into a bonus, the deal has only $47.255 million in cash remaining. At this point, they’ll continue the relationship in order to minimize the cap havoc that a sudden move would make.
Second, to the extent the Browns were considering whether to parlay the off-premises re-tear of his Achilles tendon into an escape hatch for the remaining guarantees, cutting him a check for $44.745 million means that they won’t be pursuing that option.
In the end, he’ll get the full $230 million. And the Browns eventually will take $230 million in cap charges. And the three first-round picks they sent to Houston three years ago (plus multiple other picks) that could have become young, cheap, and possibly ascending players are long gone.
The Texans explored building a new stadium. And they decided not to do it.
New team president Mike Tomon said the Texans are “focused on a renovation” of NRG Stadium, in collaboration with the annual rodeo and county officials. Tomon downplayed prior talk of a possible new building.
“We have genuinely just been focused on the renovation, what studies are underway, what the project could look like and making sure we are in step with our partners,” Tomon said, via the Houston Business Journal.
The team’s lease expires in seven years. NRG Stadium opened in 2002. It has hosted two Super Bowls.
New construction or renovation, the usual goal is to get the taxpayers to foot a considerable portion of the bill. For the Texans, the annual rodeo makes that more justifiable; this month (and starting Tuesday night), the rodeo will use the venue for 19 nights.
Wednesday’s flurry of news included the fact that receiver D.K. Metcalf wants to fly the coop in Seattle. So where will he land?
Currently, DraftKings has the Seahawks and the Chargers as +300 co-favorites for Metcalf.
The Patriots aren’t far behind, at +350. The Texans are fourth at +550, followed by the Raiders at +700 and the Steelers and Broncos at 12-1.
It’s surprising the Seahawks have such low odds. Given the way word surfaced — with the Metcalf news landing at a time when the Seahawks were trying to give receiver Tyler Lockett a proper sendoff — the Seahawks reportedly are salty. The current momentum points toward a divorce.
What’ll it take? As explained on Wednesday, while 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel isn’t looking for a new deal on his way through the door in Washington (the trade becomes official on Wednesday), Metcalf is. Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports that he’s looking for $30 million per year, and that the Seahawks want a first- and third-round pick.
That’s what the Eagles gave the Titans for receiver A.J. Brown (Metcalf’s Ole Miss teammate) three years ago. Metcalf’s next team will have to strike the right balance between paying the player and satisfying his current team. The more money they give Metcalf, the less capital they’ll want to sent to Seattle. And vice-versa. It becomes a thee-way negotiation, that requires two needles to be threaded by his next team.
Still, the overall circumstances (capped by the news of Metcalf wanting out becoming the turd in the punch bowl of what should have been Tyler Lockett Day) suggest that this thing could move, quickly. And that, come next Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET, Metcalf could indeed officially be on a new team.
Houston is bringing back one of its own pending free agents.
Per NFL Media, the Texans are re-signing running back Dare Ogunbowale to a one-year, $2 million deal.
Ogunbowale, 30, has been with Houston since 2022. He appeared in all 17 games for the Texans last season, playing 28 percent of offensive snaps and 56 percent of special teams snaps. He ended the season with 112 yards on 30 carries plus 19 receptions for 198 yards with a touchdown.
Having entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2017, Ogunbowale has also spent time with Tampa Bay, Washington, and Jacksonville. He’s played 97 career games with nine starts.
Texans wide receiver Tank Dell is going back into the operating room on Wednesday.
Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports that Dell is having surgery to repair the torn ACL he suffered during a December loss to the Chiefs. Dell previously had surgery to repair his lateral collateral and medial collateral ligaments.
The extent and timing of Dell’s injuries make him unlikely to be ready early in the 2025 season and it will be some time before anyone with the Texans can be sure whether he’ll be available at all next season.
Dell’s cloudy outlook and the potential loss of Stefon Diggs and Robert Woods in free agency should make wideout a spot that the Texans look to address when the new league year gets underway next week.
Restructuring contracts is a popular way for teams to create cap space ahead of free agency and the Texans have gone that route ahead of next week’s start to the new league year.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the Texans have restructured wide receiver Nico Collins’ contract. The move clears $9.8 million by converting some of his base salary for the 2025 season into a signing bonus and spreading the remaining cap hit over the remainder of his deal.
Collins is heading into the first year of a three-year extension he signed with the Texans last year.
Some of that new cap space could go toward fleshing out the receiving corps. Stefon Diggs and Robert Woods are set to become free agents and it is unclear when the Texans will have Tank Dell back from the knee injury that ended his 2024 season.
The following are PFT’s top 100 free agents for the start of the 2025 league year. The rankings include prospective unrestricted free agents and released players. The list will be updated as events warrant, with signings, tags and re-signings denoted when announced and/or reported. Players released after initial publication may be added and all 100 players initially on the list will still be listed after any additions.
1. Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (Franchise tagged by the Bengals on March 3.)
2. Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold
3. Chiefs offensive guard Trey Smith (Franchise tagged by Chiefs on Feb. 27.)
4. Eagles edge rusher Josh Sweat
5. Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin
6. Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley
7. Jets cornerback D.J. Reed
8. Dolphins safety Jevon Holland
9. Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton
10. Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa (Agreed to four-year deal with Cowboys on March 4.)
11. Chiefs safety Justin Reid
12. Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack
13. 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward
14. 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga
15. 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw
16. Rams offensive tackle Alaric Jackson (Agreed to three-year extension with Rams on February 28.)
17. Vikings offensive tackle Cam Robinson
18. Falcons center Drew Dalman
19. Lions cornerback Carlton Davis
20. Eagles linebacker Zack Baun (Agreed to three-year deal with Eagles on March 5.)
21. Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood
22. Jets edge Haason Reddick
23. Eagles offensive guard Mekhi Becton
24. Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers
25. Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy
26. Colts offensive guard Will Fries
27. Packers center Josh Myers
28. Vikings safety Cam Bynum
29. Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner (Agreed to a one-year deal with the Commanders on March 6.)
30. Eagles defensive lineman Milton Williams
31. Lions defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike
32. Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel
33. Vikings running back Aaron Jones
34. Jets wide receiver Davante Adams
35. Raiders safety Tre’von Moehrig
36. Saints tight end Juwan Johnson
37. Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper
38. Steelers running back Najee Harris
39. Lions offensive guard Kevin Zeitler
40. Chiefs wide receiver Marquise Brown
41. Cardinals linebacker Baron Browning
42. Eagles cornerback Darius Slay
43. Steelers offensive guard James Daniels
44. Panthers cornerback Mike Jackson
45. Saints edge rusher Chase Young
46. Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs
47. Colts edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo
48. Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton
49. Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari
50. Chiefs defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton
51. Falcons safety Justin Simmons
52. Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton
53. Buccaneers offensive guard Ben Bredeson
54. Chargers cornerback Kristian Fulton
55. Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones
56. Vikings edge rusher Patrick Jones
57. Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David
58. Commanders edge rusher Dante Fowler
59. Vikings safety Harrison Smith
60. Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas
61. Chargers edge rusher Joey Bosa
62. Steelers quarterback Justin Fields
63. Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce
64. Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai
65. Commanders safety Jeremy Chinn
66. Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane
67. Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins
68. Bears offensive lineman Teven Jenkins
69. Commanders wide receiver Dyami Brown
70. Raiders linebacker Divine Deablo
71. Ravens offensive guard Patrick Mekari
72. Bears wide receiver Keenan Allen
73. Cowboys defensive lineman DeMarcus Lawrence
74. Commanders tight end Zach Ertz
75. Bengals defensive tackle B.J. Hill
76. Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed
77. Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins
78. Colts center Ryan Kelly
79. Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis
80. Colts safety Julian Blackmon
81. Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki
82. Saints cornerback Paulson Adebo
83. Dolphins defensive lineman Calais Campbell
84. Falcons edge rusher Matthew Judon
85. Colts linebacker E.J. Speed
86. Jaguars offensive guard Brandon Scherff
87. Steelers offensive tackle Dan Moore
88. Chargers defensive tackle Poona Ford
89. Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson
90. Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle
91. Browns quarterback Jameis Winston
92. Cardinals outside linebacker Kyzir White
93. Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson
94. Raiders cornerback Nate Hobbs
95. Jets offensive tackle Morgan Moses
96. Broncos inside linebacker Cody Barton
97. 49ers defensive lineman Javon Hargrove
98. Browns offensive tackle Jedrick Wills
99. Rams defensive tackle Bobby Brown
100. Jaguars safety Andre Cisco
101. Cowboys edge rusher Chauncey Golston
102. Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones
103. Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell
