Even after an extremely busy first day of the negotiating period between teams and free agents, it felt like a fairly routine start to the offseason. That is, until Tuesday night.
That's when the Maxx Crosby situation turned the market on its head. About 12 hours after news broke that the Ravens were backing out of their trade agreement with the Raiders, Baltimore pivoted quickly to sign free-agent pass rusher Trey Hendrickson.
Now Crosby's future is up in the air, and the Raiders are right back where they were with him after the 2025 season ended. It served as a good reminder that things can occasionally fall apart in free agency -- and the effects of the Ravens reneging on Crosby resonated league-wide.
Wednesday marked the official start to the new league year, and though we knew a lot of what was coming, it was still a busy day full of new and interesting transactions.
Here are some of our winners and losers through our third day of wheeling and dealing:
WINNERS
1) Baltimore Ravens. They might have ruffled some feathers around the league with their quick and unexpected pivot, but you have to give them credit for having a Plan B -- or a version of Plan A, as Eric DeCosta characterized it -- ready to go. The Ravens general manager said Wednesday the team was contemplating adding Crosby and Hendrickson. Now, they're no longer giving two first-round picks to the Raiders and millions of dollars to Crosby. But they were able to sign Hendrickson for about $60 million guaranteed. And it cost them no picks.
There's risk with Hendrickson, who missed 10 games in a down 2025 season and is almost three years older than Crosby. And DeCosta said Wednesday that he was "gutted" about the deal falling through. Still, this feels like a pretty terrific alternate scenario, all things considered.
The Ravens have seen a lot of their roster flock elsewhere, including four free agents to the Giants and their ex-coach, John Harbaugh, not to mention Tyler Linderbaum, who went to the Raiders. They didn't get Crosby, but they came away with a pretty good pass rusher and kept their draft coffers a little fuller.
There's still work to be done to get Baltimore back into contention, and doing so with a first-year head coach will be a challenge, but making the best of a potentially bad situation was a short-term win, whether you agree with how the team handled its business with Crosby or not.
2) Trey Hendrickson. Well into Day 2 of the free agency negotiating period, it was looking as if Hendrickson and his reps might have overestimated what the pass rusher could get on the open market. Before the Crosby deal blew up, there were potential suitors for him, but it appeared as if the money wasn't going to be what Hendrickson hoped for.
Then the proposed Crosby trade fell apart, and Hendrickson landed a pact that will pay him $28 million per year from Baltimore, putting him just outside the league's top 10 rushers in terms of average annual salary. Now, he's got two shots at redemption each season, guaranteed a pair of chances to tee off on the Bengals, with whom his relationship appeared to sour over the past few years, in the AFC North. Hendrickson joins a team that has made the postseason six of the past eight years and has Lamar Jackson very much in his prime.
This worked out about as well as it could have for Hendrickson, even with any lingering awkwardness from the way everything transpired. Guaranteed money has a way of muting that.
3) Daniel Jones. The quarterback was on his way to parlaying a breakout 2025 season into a big contract when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in December. At the time, it felt like a potentially devastating blow for Jones heading into free agency, putting his value shockingly in doubt.
But the Colts also were apparently backed into a corner, with Anthony Richardson requesting a trade and no other clear starting QB option on the roster. And the draft -- already thin on quarterbacks this year -- wasn't a realistic option, either, not with Indianapolis having sent two first-round picks to the Jets for Sauce Gardner last November. Using the transition tag on Jones only gave them so much cover.
The Colts were almost forced to sign Jones, who will receive $50 million this year, which was more than 30% above the transition tender offer for 2026. At $44 million APY minimum over the two years of the deal, Jones' contract puts him just below Patrick Mahomes.
That's good money for a player who might not be healthy enough to play at the start of next season. Whenever Jones is back, he'll have Alec Pierce out there still, a scenario that didn't feel certain even a few days ago. Sure, the Colts have lost some offensive pieces, including Braden Smith and Michael Pittman, but Jones has to be pretty happy with where things stand.
4) Interior offensive linemen. Tyler Linderbaum completely reset the center market with a huge deal averaging $27 million per year, and several other notable agreements at the position followed. The Bills re-signed Connor McGovern to a long-term extension. Tyler Biadasz landed $10 million per year over three years from the Chargers. The Packers locked up Sean Rhyan.
Guards cashed in, too. David Edwards and Isaac Seumalo received longer-term deals north of $10 million per year from the Saints and Cardinals, respectively, and Dylan Parham even hit the $10 million APY mark.
The Browns, desperate for OL help, snagged Zion Johnson and Elgton Jenkins, who can play guard or center. And even if players such as Jenkins and Alijah Vera-Tucker came at relative bargains, both are set to make very good money, pretty close to the top of the market for the position.
It has been a little slower in some regards at offensive tackle, where Rasheed Walker and Jamaree Salyer have yet to sign, and veterans Taylor Decker and Jawaan Taylor are waiting for their next opportunities. Most of the OT movement has come in the form of re-signings, with teams recognizing the value of keeping talent in-house at premium positions.
A hat tip to the interior grunts who have cashed in. They're often unsung, but their value has come to the forefront during this year's market. On Gregg Rosenthal's Top 101 free agents list, only two guards (Wyatt Teller, No. 44 and Kevin Zeitler, No. 65) and zero centers remain available.
LOSERS
1) Las Vegas Raiders. It's not easy putting the genie back in the bottle, it turns out. Credit Crosby for immediately returning from Baltimore and at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning -- that's the mark of a pro's pro. He's back as property of Las Vegas, and we'll just have to see where this goes.
It's hard to imagine the Raiders wheeling around and trading Crosby for anything close to what the Ravens offered, given what's transpired now. Any team that was interested in a Crosby deal has to know the price tag isn't the same as what it was before. And there's now a lot of pressure on any team potentially swooping in, knowing that one team already has medically failed Crosby.
Raiders GM John Spytek previously said he'd have to be blown away in order to trade Crosby. Has the bar now been lowered? Or could the team realistically keep Crosby and proceed like nothing happened?
That remains to be seen. After news of the Crosby deal broke, they went out and committed more than a quarter billion dollars on free agents. Even after all the other spending, they can make Crosby's contract work if they want to, but it's certainly not what they were prepared to do -- and those two additional first-rounders, presumably two big pieces for their massive rebuild, just went bye-bye, as well.
The Raiders have done some good things this offseason, and the draft should provide even more help toward building a respectable outfit. But right now, they've been thrown a major curveball they weren't expecting. How Spytek and Co. handle this situation could have major ramifications on the franchise's foreseeable future.
2) Maxx Crosby. This is tough for Crosby, too. He was surely over the moon going to Baltimore ... and shocked by the way things unfolded. For all of that to go down on the made it seem all the more surreal.
Crosby now has to be prepared to suit up for the Raiders -- or, at the least, settle in and wait. Perhaps a team will throw a life raft and give him another chance elsewhere. It's entirely possible the a bad situation could be turned around. But as of now, that isn't close to clear, as Crosby could be viewed as damaged goods, even accounting for the way every team will view medical risk differently.
One of the best pass rushers in the NFL, who has suffered through four straight losing seasons with the Raiders and is on his fourth head coach in as many years, has to at least be prepared to be part of a rebuild -- again -- in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, a grueling rehab continues, with his future unknown.
3) Buffalo Bills. The Bills haven't exactly sat on their hands in the early going, but their chances of filling all their needs on defense are starting to dry up quickly.
Most of the Bills' moves so far, outside of trading for WR DJ Moore, have been predicated on clearing up salary-cap space, which was necessary. Getting something for Taron Johnson, whom they were prepared to release, was a net positive, and reupping Connor McGovern and Dawson Knox on extensions was good business.
They brought on pass rusher Bradley Chubb at a fairly reasonable price, giving him $29 million guaranteed over three years. A healthy Chubb would be a solid addition, just as a healthy Joey Bosa was on a one-year contract in 2025. But Chubb also has played more than 14 games in a season just five times in 10 years. Best case, does this move elevate the defense or merely displace what Bosa gave them?
In a way, it felt like the Bills were almost backed into this signing. Hendrickson was on Buffalo's radar before landing with the Ravens. K'Lavon Chaisson, another potential edge-rush option, went to Washington. Malcolm Koonce, meanwhile, re-signed with the Raiders.
New defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard is installing a new system that will impact the entire defense, and right now, he doesn't have a complete picture. Much of the salary-cap space they cleared was to sign Chubb, it appears, but they'll have to find other defensive options to fill out the depth chart.
Safety is thinning out fast. Nick Cross and Kevin Byard found new homes on Wednesday. Jaquan Brisker could be a decent addition if the money is reasonable, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson remains available, but their options are far more limited now.
Linebacker is another position that has been picked pretty clean. The Bills also could use depth on the interior of the defensive line and at cornerback. There are still quality players at both of those spots, but how many are deemed fits for Leonhard's system?
Let's not forget a few spots on offense that need sprucing. They could still add a wide receiver after the Moore trade, and the losses of OG David Edwards (Saints) and FB Reggie Gilliam (Patriots) leave holes that have yet to be filled.
The Bills have checked two big boxes with Moore and Chubb, but more is needed. GM Brandon Beane is under pressure now more than ever, and he'll have to be creative to find proper solutions.
