Last Updated on March 18, 2026 7:18 am by admin_001
Picture Tyler Linderbaum’s phone on Sunday night. Baltimore’s three-time Pro Bowl centerâthe best in the league, full stopâwatching offers roll in while the Ravens organization that declined his fifth-year option quietly hoped the market wouldn’t go nuclear. It did. Las Vegas handed him three years, $81 million, $60 million fully guaranteed, and made him the highest-paid interior offensive lineman in NFL history. Linderbaum packed his bags for the desert. He didn’t pack them alone.
Meanwhile, somewhere in South Florida, a Dolphins executive was staring at Tua Tagovailoa’s dead money like a man reading his own obituary. Arizona ate Kyler Murray’s cap carnage. Atlanta buried Kirk Cousins under an eight-figure tombstone. Three franchise quarterbacks, three organizations torchedâand free agency hadn’t even formally opened yet. Now, it has, but who have been the biggest winners and losers from the opening days? Let’s take a look.
Winner: Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders played out a 3-14 dumpster fire last seasonâlegitimate contenders for the most embarrassing record in the AFC. They responded ruthlessly. Head coach Pete Carroll was fired long ago, while quarterback Geno Smith has now departed for the Jets. Clint Kubiak inherited a roster that needed everything: quarterback, offensive line, linebackers, pass rush, secondary, and receivers. Everything. Luckily, the new man at the helm was acutely aware.
When the free agency doors opened, the Sin City front office got to work, committing over $280 million in total contract value before most fans had finished their morning coffee. Linderbaum is the cornerstone and make no mistakeâthis isn’t just a splashy headline. Kubiak’s zone-run scheme lives and dies on pre-snap communication; the center is its nervous system. Linderbaum’s 96.2 percent pass block win rate since 2022 is obscene, and his football IQ was a massive reason Baltimore ran for 156.6 yards per game last season.
He will provide the infrastructure around which their new franchise quarterback will work. And one look at the latest betting odds tells you exactly who that man will be. The latest NFL futures at Bovada show that Heisman trophy winner Fernando Mendoza is a whopping -17500 favorite to be selected first overall by the Raiders in the upcoming draft. Make no mistake about it; he will be the most important man through the Allegiant Stadium doors this offseason, but the cavalry around him is already being built, ready for his arrival.
Linebacker Nakobe Dean (three years, $36 million, $20 million guaranteed), Quay Walker ($40.5 million, $28 million guaranteed), edge rusher Kwity Paye ($48 million, $32 million guaranteed), receiver Jalen Nailor, and corner Eric Stokes have all signed on. The Maxx Crosby trade did embarrassingly collapse as Baltimore backed out of a deal that would’ve sent two first-rounders to Vegasâand that stings. But with $90 million in remaining cap space and Mendoza arriving shortly, does it really matter right now?
Loser: Cincinnati Bengals
Joe Burrow deserves better. We already knew that after watching historically bad Bengals defenses repeatedly get torched throughout 2024 and 2025. However, that sentence hits differently now that Trey Hendricksonâfour Pro Bowls, back-to-back 17.5-sack seasons, the engine of the only decent things the Cincinnati didâis suiting up in Baltimore purple. Four years, $112 million. Gone. To the division rival. Twice a year, for the next four years, Bengals fans will watch Hendrickson feast on their offensive line and wonder why the front office couldn’t find a way to keep him.
Here’s what makes it malpractice: Cincinnati had the cap space. They had the relationship. They had every reason to know this was comingâHendrickson had made no secret of wanting long-term security. The Bengals’ front office apparently decided that was someone else’s problem. Bryan Cook arrived. Boye Mafe signed. Solid depth pieces, both of them. Fine. But if you told Bengals fans in August 2025 that the answer to replacing a 17.5-sack monster was “Bryan Cook and vibes,” they’d have laughed you out of the building.
The missed connections compound the damage. John Franklin-Myers. Nick Cross. Devin Lloyd. Leon Chenel. None of them is Hendrickson, but collectively, they represented an opportunity to rebuild the defensive infrastructure around Burrow’s prime window. Instead, Cincinnati watched passively while the Ravensâalready the AFC North’s gold standard despite an uncharacteristically poor 2025âgot better at Cincinnati’s direct expense.
Winner: Los Angeles Rams
Sean McVay has never been accused of timidity, and the Trent McDuffie trade is Exhibit A for why NFC West opponents should sleep with one eye open this summer. The Rams’ secondary was the fatal flaw everyone circled in 2025âopponents targeted it, exploited it, and built game plans around it. McVay and Les Snead watched the tape, identified the problem, and solved it with a sledgehammer.
Trading the No. 29 pick and additional selections to Kansas City for McDuffie, then immediately locking him in at four years, $124 million with $100 million fully guaranteedâhighest-paid cornerback in the league at $31 million annuallyâis the kind of decisive swing that separates contenders from pretenders. McDuffie is 25 years old, an All-Pro, and has a championship pedigree baked into his DNA. He fits McVay’s press-man scheme like he was designed for it. Jaylen Watson ($51 million, three years) slides alongside him, and suddenly, the Rams have the NFC’s most dangerous cornerback tandemâbuilt in 72 hours.
Loser: New Orleans Saints
Tyler Shough surprised everyone in 2025. A second-year quarterback generating legitimate buzz, a young offense with upside, and a front office with cap flexibility to build something real around him. Then they spent it on a running back.
Travis Etienne. Four years, $52 million. Quality player, wrong position, catastrophically wrong moment. The Saints needed a cornerback. They needed an edge rusher. They needed a WR1 who could make defenses pay. They needed interior offensive line help. They needed a nose tackle. Instead, they handed $52 million to a running backâa position that, by every available analytics metric, represents the worst possible return on cap investment. Etienne is good. He’s genuinely good. He’s also an answer to a question nobody in New Orleans was asking.
Mike Evans found a home elsewhere. Tyler Linderbaum is in Vegas. Joel Bitonio slipped away. Demario Davis is gone, leaving a linebacker hole that Noah Fant and punter Ryan WrightâRyan Wright got Day 1 money, which really tells you everythingâcan’t fill. David Edwards adds offensive line depth, but the transformative upgrades Shough needed? Nowhere.