Bucs, QB Baker Mayfield ‘Not Anywhere Close’ To Extension
The clock is ticking on a contract extension for Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield. Entering the last year of his deal, Mayfield told reporters on Friday that he and the team are “not anywhere close” to an agreement (via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times). Mayfield added that he has set a negotiating deadline for the start of training camp in late July.
“Would love to be here long term but as of right now that’s not exactly the case,” Mayfield said. “But I’m under contract for 2026. The guys in that locker room, the staff know that I’m still gonna be me. I’m still going to do everything I can to help this team win a Super Bowl. To me that’s the priority. Everything else will take care of itself. “
Mayfield entered the NFL in 2018 with the Browns, who drafted the Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winner first overall in a class that included four other first-round signal-callers: Sam Darnold (No. 3, Jets), Josh Allen (No. 7, Bills), Josh Rosen (No. 10, Cardinals) and Lamar Jackson (No. 32, Ravens). After an up-and-down four years with the Browns, Mayfield’s stock dropped further in a half-season in Carolina in 2022. The Panthers had both Mayfield and Darnold on their roster that year, but neither panned out for them. They waived Mayfield in late December, and he went on to finish the season with the Rams after they claimed him.
Mayfield’s performance improved in Los Angeles, where he made four starts filling in for an injured Matthew Stafford. However, with Stafford entrenched as the Rams’ top QB, it was obvious Mayfield would have to look elsewhere if he wanted a chance to start in 2023. That led him to Tampa Bay on a one-year, $8.5MM pact, which turned out to be a steal for general manager Jason Licht.
Mayfield beat out Kyle Trask for QB1 duties and went on to set career highs in completion percentage (64.3), yards (4,044) and touchdowns (28, against 10 interceptions) over 17 starts. He earned Pro Bowl honors for the first time and led the Buccaneers to a 9-8 record and an NFC South title. They crushed the Eagles in the wild-card round, 32-9, but bowed out the next week in a 31-23 loss to Detroit in the divisional round.
Convinced Mayfield was their answer under center, the Buccaneers prevented him from leaving in free agency with a three-year, $100MM extension in March 2024. Once again, he exceeded expectations in the first season of the accord. Although Mayfield tossed too many picks (16), he made up for it by establishing new career highs in completion rate (71.4), yards (4,500), TDs (41) and passer rating (106.8). Mayfield made his second straight Pro Bowl, and the Buccaneers went 10-7 on their way to another division title. However, they could not get past the Jayden Daniels-led Commanders in a 23-20 wild-card round loss at home.
The Buccaneers were the clear favorites to win the NFC South entering 2025, and it looked as if they would coast to the crown during a 6-2 start. Mayfield was drawing MVP hype then, but a slew of injuries took their toll on the team in the second half of the season. The Buccaneers lost seven of their last nine and finished 8-9, which tied the Panthers and the Falcons for the best record in a bad division. But the Bucs lost the tiebreaker to the Panthers, who represented the NFC South in the playoffs.
After Mayfield completed 63.2% of passes for 3,693 yards, 26 TDs and 11 picks during his third straight 17-start year in 2025, he will work with yet another new O-coordinator this season. The Buccaneers fired Josh Grizzard and replaced him with former Falcons OC Zac Robinson. He will be Mayfield’s fourth play caller in as many years in Tampa Bay, which had Dave Canales in place during the signal-caller’s first season there.
Licht made it known last summer that the Buccaneers wanted to extend Mayfield. While that still hasn’t happened, it remains a top priority for the team. Last July, the Buccaneers guaranteed $30MM of Mayfield’s $40MM salary for 2026. A new deal should come at a higher price, especially with the salary cap continuing to skyrocket. Eleven quarterbacks are averaging over $50MM per year. The leader, the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, is earning a league-high $60MM per annum.
Prescott was 31 years old when he signed his extension, a four-year, $240MM pact with $231MM in guarantees. Mayfield is the same age now as Prescott was when he re-upped with Dallas in September 2024. That doesn’t mean Mayfield will do as well on his next contract, but as someone who ranks just 16th at his position in AAV, a raise is clearly in order. Thanks to Mayfield’s self-imposed deadline, the Buccaneers are running out of time to make it happen.
Bears To Sign First-Rounder Dillon Thieneman, Second-Rounder Logan Jones
The Bears have agreed to a deal with first-round safety Dillon Thieneman, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports. As the 25th overall pick, Thieneman will sign a fully guaranteed contract worth $19.51MM over four years.
Chicago has also come to terms with second-round center Logan Jones, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. Jones was the 57th overall selection, which carries an approximate value of $8.47MM. It is likely he will receive a good chunk of guaranteed money.
Thieneman, who divided his three-year college career between Purdue and Oregon, entered the draft trailing Ohio State’s Caleb Downs as the second-rated safety on the board. Downs went 11th overall to the Cowboys. It was somewhat surprising Thieneman was still available 14 picks later for the Bears, who are expecting his excellence in college to transfer to the pros. The 6-foot, 201-pounder made 106 tackles and intercepted six passes as a freshman with the Boilermakers in 2023 en route to third-team All-America honors. Last year, his lone season at Oregon, he was named a first-team All-American after making 96 tackles and pulling in two picks.
The NFC North champion Bears deployed starting safeties Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard on over 99% of defensive snaps in 2025, but both players exited in free agency. They partially replaced those two with former Seahawk Coby Bryant, who moved to Chicago on a three-year, $40MM contract. Thieneman and Bryant are now positioned to serve as the Bears’ safety duo for at least the next few seasons.
Jones played his college ball at Iowa, which is known for churning out quality offensive linemen. That includes the game’s best center, the Raiders’ Tyler Linderbaum, whom Jones succeeded in 2022. While Jones had a tough act to follow, the former defensive tackle ended up a four-year starter in the middle of the Hawkeyes’ O-line. He earned three All-Big Ten selections during that span, and he was at his best in 2025. The 6-3, 299-pounder was a unanimous All-American who won the Rimington Trophy, which is given to the nation’s best center. Linderbaum also took home the Rimington Trophy in his last year at Iowa.
After the abrupt retirement of starting center Drew Dalman, the Bears acquired Garrett Bradbury from the Patriots in early March. Bradbury may start in 2026, but he is on track to become a free agent next offseason. So, even if Bradbury wins the job this summer, Jones could take over as the Bears’ No. 1 center by 2027.
With Thieneman and Jones set to put pen to paper, the Bears will soon have just one unsigned pick: third-round tight end Sam Roush. Here is their full class…
- Round 1, No. 25: Dillon Thieneman (S, Oregon) (signed)
- Round 2, No. 57: Logan Jones (C, Iowa) (signed)
- Round 3, No. 69 (from Giants via Texans, Bills and Titans): Sam Roush (TE, Stanford)
- Round 3, No. 89: Zavion Thomas (WR, LSU) (signed)
- Round 4, No. 124 (from Jaguars via Panthers): Malik Muhammad (CB, Texas) (signed)
- Round 5, No. 166 (from 49ers via Eagles and Panthers): Keyshaun Elliott (LB, Arizona State) (signed)
- Round 6, No. 213 (from Seahawks via Jaguars, Lions and Bills): Jordan Van Den Berg (DT, Georgia Tech) (signed)
Lions Unsure If S Kerby Joseph Will Be Ready For Week 1
The Lions are a little over three months away from kicking off their season against the Saints on Sept. 13. It is unclear if standout safety Kerby Joseph, who is managing a degenerative knee condition, will be ready by then (via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press).
Asked Thursday if Joseph will be on the field in Week 1, head coach Dan Campbell said, “Honestly, we probably won’t know until we get into the thick of training camp.”
Joseph, a third-round pick in 2022, did enough over his first three seasons to earn a massive extension. Coming off a first-team All-Pro campaign in which he pulled in an NFL-leading nine interceptions, he inked a four-year, $86MM deal in April 2025. The agreement briefly made the 25-year-old the league’s highest-paid safety (the Ravens’ Kyle Hamilton surpassed him last August).
After the Lions made a huge long-term commitment to Joseph, it was clear they expected him and Brian Branch to continue forming an elite safety duo for at least a couple of more years. Unfortunately for Detroit, injuries foiled those plans for most of 2025. Joseph’s knee limited him to six games, and his last appearance came in an Oct. 12 loss to the Chiefs. Branch, meanwhile, missed five games (one because of a suspension) and tore his Achilles in a Week 14 win over the Cowboys on Dec. 4. Thanks in part to their absences, the Lions went a middling 9-8 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2022.
Because Branch suffered his Achilles tear late last season, he is not expected to be ready for the start of camp in late July. It is up in the air whether Joseph will still be sidelined then, though Campbell said the defender has “done everything he can do to this point” during the rehab process.
With Joseph and Branch on the mend from major injuries, the Lions added veteran safeties Christian Izien and Chuck Clark on modest free agent deals earlier in the offseason. Those two have worked with the first-team defense in OTAs this spring, per Birkett, and could be in for big roles if one or both of the Lions’ starters are still on the shelf in September.
Packers, WR Christian Watson Agree To Extension
Last offseason, Christian Watson and the Packers agreed to a one-year extension. Another new deal has been worked out, and this time around a long-term commitment has been made.
Watson has agreed to a four-year extension, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. This is a $110.5MM deal, he adds. The Packers have included a $31MM signing bonus in this contract, which will keep Watson on the books through 2030.
Injuries have been a concern throughout Watson’s NFL career. The former second-rounder was limited to 10 games during the regular season in 2025, although he also played in Green Bay’s wild-card loss. Watson was productive when on the field, totaling six touchdowns and maintaining a strong yards per catch average. The Packers clearly saw enough this past season to authorize a lucrative investment.
In March, Watson was named as one of several young members of Green Bay’s core who could be in line for an extension. One month later, general manager Brian Gutekunst confirmed a long-term deal was indeed a priority for the team. With plenty of time to spare before training camp, an agreement has now been reached. This represents the second big-money deal worked out with a receiver this spring in the case of Green Bay.
Jayden Reed agreed to an extension of his own shortly before the second day of the draft. That pact ensures he will remain in place through 2029 and carries an average annual value of $16.75MM. Watson’s new deal confirms he will be a focal point on offense for the foreseeable future as well. Tight end Tucker Kraft has yet to line up a second contract, but he may represent Green Bay’s next priority.
Watson has secured an AAV of $27.63MM on this latest extension. The 27-year-old will thus slot in just outside the top 15 in the NFL with respect to receiver compensation on an annual basis. Continued absences due to injuries could of course limit the success of this commitment, and Watson has yet to top 620 yards in a season. Nevertheless, he has averaged 17 yards per reception over the course of his career, and remaining one of the league’s top vertical threats would be critical for the Packers’ offense moving forward.
The 2026 offseason has seen Romeo Doubs depart in free agency, while Dontayvion Wicks was traded to the Eagles in April. Those absences will thin out a receiver room on a Green Bay team which added Matthew Golden in the first round in 2025 but did not make any draft investments this year. Watson, Reed and Golden will be counted on to operate as key figures for years to come as part of the Packers’ efforts to make a deep playoff run.
Steelers Will Not Trade T.J. Watt In 2026, Likely To Retain Alex Highsmith
Developing their share of rush linebackers going back to the Greg Lloyd/Chad Brown days, the Steelers have produced a long string of talent at this position. Nick Herbig is Pittsburgh’s latest OLB success story, and despite a history as a part-time starter, the former fourth-round pick received an eye-opening extension this week.
The Steelers gave Herbig a four-year, $100MM extension, one that matches the deal Odafe Oweh received from the Commanders in March. Herbig, 24, is now signed through the 2030 season. His signing has generated obvious questions about the long-term statuses of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
[RELATED: Steelers, TE Darnell Washington Agree On Extension]
Teams do not make a habit of carrying three lucrative edge rusher contracts on payrolls. As our Connor Byrne noted when discussing the Herbig extension Tuesday, the Steelers are spending a combined $84MM in AAV at edge rusher. Only the Texans ($96MM) outpace them, and Houston just authorized a record-smashing $50MM-per-year payday for Will Anderson Jr. and another extension for Danielle Hunter. Both those players have every-down roles in Houston, whereas Pittsburgh’s outlook is historically unusual.
While the Steelers once rostered All-Pros Lloyd, Brown, Jason Gildon and Hall of Famer Kevin Greene at once (1994-95), Brown and Gildon were developing on rookie contracts behind the lead ‘backers before Greene’s 1996 free agency exit; Brown then left as a 1997 FA. Highsmith also overlapped with Bud Dupree‘s franchise-tag year (2020), but the Steelers gave the younger player a key promotion a year later.
No other team is even carrying three edge rushers beyond $11MM — the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby–Kwity Paye–Malcolm Koonce trio that certainly was not designed to play together (due to the Ravens’ scrapped agreement to acquire Crosby) — the Steelers have Watt on a $41MM-AAV extension and Highsmith at $17MM per year. Highsmith is signed through the 2027 season, Watt through 2028.
Even with Herbig’s extension inviting speculation about Pittsburgh offloading one of its more experienced vets, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport said during a Pat McAfee Show appearance the team is expected to keep all three on its roster in 2026. Watt will not be traded, Rapoport said definitively, and Highsmith will be expected to be part of his seventh Steelers roster. After 2026, the Steelers likely have a decision to make. The Browns just traded Myles Garrett to presumably help in their pursuit of a long-term quarterback answer; Watt or Highsmith would serve as Steelers aid if/when one of them is dealt.
Re-signed before the Ravens backed out of their Crosby trade agreement, Koonce is also on a one-year deal. His $11MM AAV came into the week as the NFL’s highest as far as No. 3 edge rushers go. The Commanders also have Dorance Armstrong on a three-year, $30MM deal — one that sits behind, in terms of AAV, Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson — in third place among edge rushers on their payroll. The Seahawks just extended Derick Hall to go with DeMarcus Lawrence ($10.8MM per year) and Uchenna Nwosu ($9.8MM AAV). The Steelers carrying Watt’s upper-crust contract and now two other lucrative deals separates this situation from those and just about any other EDGE setup before it.
Herbig’s cap numbers are not yet known, but Steelers deals are typically clean. It should be expected Herbig will have a lower cap figure in 2026 before the extension bumps up his 2027 number. While that will seemingly make a move likely before the 2027 season, Herbig’s lower cap hit this year points to the Steelers (per McAfee staffer Mark Kaboly) dealing with that problem after the season and keeping the Watt-Highsmith-Herbig troika together for another year.
Highsmith, 29 in August, came up in trade rumors just before the draft. But those were quickly squashed. Coming off a 9.5-sack season, Highsmith is on a team-friendly contract that does not include any remaining guarantees. Watt’s three-year, $123MM extension contains fully guaranteed money in 2026 and ’27. The future Hall of Famer hopes to play several more seasons.
Watt, 31, managed just seven sacks in 14 games last season. But labeling him a declining player seems premature. He joins Cameron Heyward as Steelers front-seven cornerstones, with Herbig’s contract elevating him to such status as well.
No member of the trio has logged more than 10 snaps (per Pro Football Focus) as an inside D-lineman in a season. Watt did say (via Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams) he expects to move around in Patrick Graham‘s defense, but it remains to be seen if the Steelers will find ways to have all three well-paid rushers on the field together. This looks to be a 2026-only problem, and teams will likely be calling about Highsmith and Watt before 2027. For now, the Steelers have one of the NFL’s more interesting positional plans thanks to Herbig’s extension.
Pro Football Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat: 6/4/26
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Rams Rework Myles Garrett’s Contract
Myles Garrett became the rare edge rusher to change teams in a trade involving a first-round pick and not receive an immediate extension. As our most recent Trade Rumors Front Office piece detailed, Garrett is set to be first EDGE to be traded for a future first — excluding pick-for-pick trades — this century and not receive an extension.
We learned following the trade the Rams were not planning an immediate pay bump for the future Hall of Famer, but the sides have agreed to rework the contract the Browns designed last March. The Rams and Garrett agreed on an adjusted deal Thursday, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reports. While this can be framed as a five-year, $204MM agreement, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport notes it does not provide a raise or add any years to his Cleveland agreement.
[RELATED: Aaron Donald Mulling Unretirement]
Garrett signed a four-year, $160MM Browns extension nearly 15 months ago. Because two seasons were left on his first Browns extension — a five-year, $125MM pact agreed to in summer 2020 — his current deal runs through 2030.
Garrett set a single-season sack record in 2025, proving he remains probably the game’s premier edge rusher and one of the NFL’s best overall players, and his Browns re-up triggered a sea change on the EDGE market. T.J. Watt, Micah Parsons, Aidan Hutchinson and Will Anderson Jr. have leapfrogged Garrett’s $40MM-per-year deal in terms of AAV. Anderson moved the bar to $50MM per year in April.
But the Garrett trade was more about a team resetting and cashing in on its top asset to accelerate a rebuild, as opposed to most high-profile trades at this position. Of the seven other 21st-century instances of edge rushers being dealt for packages involving a first-rounder — for Parsons, Bradley Chubb, Frank Clark, Khalil Mack, Jared Allen, John Abraham, Kevin Carter — all involved immediate raises. So did three recent deals involving a second-rounder being swapped for an edge defender (Brian Burns, Montez Sweat, Dee Ford). The Rams having an opportunity to acquire Garrett without needing to authorize a top-market extension created even more value for the Browns in this trade, which sent Jared Verse and three draft choices (including a 2027 first-rounder) to Cleveland.
The rework will increase Garrett’s 2026 pay from $31.5MM to $37MM, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler adds. Like they did with Matthew Stafford in 2024, the Rams are moving money from future years into the current campaign. The Thursday adjustment also moves option bonuses to signing bonuses in some cases, per Fowler.
Garrett’s Browns deal already contained $41.7MM in 2027 guarantees. Today’s agreement, which includes $37MM guaranteed at signing, will reduce Garrett’s 2027 guarantees by $10.7MM but increase the 2028 guarantees by $7.2MM, Florio notes.
By 2027, Garrett will see a total of $62MM in injury guarantees vest, Florio adds. That makes this an appealing package for both team and player, as a two-time Defensive Player of the Year is still attached to the league’s fifth-most-lucrative EDGE AAV and said player will see a mammoth guarantee come his way next year.
This amounts to a three-year deal with two team options, with the Rams keeping Browns terms for the nonguaranteed 2029 and 2030 years; Garrett will be due an $8MM roster bonus in March 2029 and March 2030. The cap numbers will be important to observe on this rework, as the Rams have surely adjusted the contract to help in that regard.
The Rams entered Thursday with $18.29MM in cap space. Although Los Angeles moved off Verse, it has a host of extension-eligible young players. The 2023 draft brought Puka Nacua, Steve Avila, Kobie Turner, Byron Young and Warren McClendon to L.A. Nacua is believed to be the top priority, but the Rams have not executed any extensions for that draft class yet. The team did give Stafford a one-year, $55MM extension. More deals should be expected.
It will be interesting to see if Garrett pushes for a true raise soon. The Rams have shown in the past — via their bumps for Donald and Cooper Kupp in 2022 — they are willing to reward cornerstone players with multiple seasons remaining on contracts. Garrett’s camp forcing the issue in the future would not surprise, but the trove of guaranteed money vesting next year should satisfy the superstar defender for the foreseeable future.
Rams Would Welcome Aaron Donald Unretirement
Aaron Donald ended one of the greatest careers in NFL history at age 33, stopping after 10 Rams seasons. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year made a case as the greatest defensive tackle ever during that period, but the Rams have been able to get by defensively without the all-time great.
The Rams have been able to stay afloat defensively due in large part to successful front-seven draft investments. The team hit on Kobie Turner and Byron Young in the 2023 third round and then landed Jared Verse and Braden Fiske in the 2024 draft’s first two rounds. Los Angeles used Verse as the headline asset in the Myles Garrett package, and Donald took notice of another future Hall of Famer joining the Rams’ defense.
Going a whole two seasons without a surefire Hall of Famer on defense, the Rams acquired Garrett and will pair him with the Young-Turner-Fiske trio. Donald, however, created considerable buzz in the wake of the trade by indicating he is considering a return to football. The Rams’ three-year, $95MM Donald — agreed to months after Super Bowl LVI — contract carries one more season, in the event Donald would want to follow Philip Rivers in delaying his Canton clock.
Unlike Rivers, Donald is a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer. He also plays a far more rigorous position. Unsurprisingly, Sean McVay said (via ESPN.com’s Sarah Barshop) the Rams would welcome a Donald return. But the former superstar, who regularly posts workout videos to social media, is far from certain to complete a comeback even with Garrett headlining Chris Shula‘s third defense.
“Aaron’s a guy that I stay really close in touch with and I know the respect that he has for Myles,” McVay said. “Talked to [Donald] about the opportunity to be able to bring [Garrett] on board. If Aaron decides he wants to dust them off at the age of 35, I bet you he could still do it at a pretty high clip.”
Perhaps the only D-lineman whose peak rivals Donald’s this century, J.J. Watt also teased an unretirement earlier this decade. Retiring after the 2022 season, when a heart scare occurred, Watt said he would consider a comeback to join the Texans or Steelers. But the CBS analyst said that window would close after the 2024 season. Donald is further removed from his career than his former peer was when he mentioned the prospect of a comeback, offering another complication.
Rather than rejoining the Rams this summer and going through another training camp, Donald could delay an unretirement for a bit and consider an in-season return. This seems like the more realistic path, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer offers. Mentioning Eric Weddle‘s unretirement in time for the 2021 playoffs — after the Rams had lost multiple safeties — as a potentially notable example (Weddle initially retired after the 2019 season).
The Eagles also signed Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph in mid-November 2022, adding the vets to their D-line after neither had gone through training camp or played in the first half of that season. Both played rotational roles for the NFC champions that year.
Donald playing a rotational role would be rather strange given his abilities pre-retirement. After missing a chunk of the 2022 season due to injury, Donald roared back with a seventh first-team All-Pro season in 2023. He finished that ’23 season with eight sacks and 16 tackles for loss, helping a Rams team that had themed 2023 around cost-cutting moves back to the playoffs.
Los Angeles has Fiske and Turner as locked-in regulars on its D-line. Donald returning would stand to cut into the younger 3-4 ends’ playing time. But a defense rostering Garrett and Donald to go with some rising young talents would obviously be formidable. Beyond a 2022 high ankle sprain, Donald does not have much of an injury history. Prior to 2022, the only two games he missed were due to a 2017 holdout. This may be a storyline to monitor well into the season — or until Donald shuts it down — as the Rams are viewed as early Vegas favorites to win a Super Bowl set to take place at SoFi Stadium.
Giants DL Roy Robertson-Harris Could Return This Season
The Giants have bought in bulk on their defensive line following the Dexter Lawrence trade. New York added Shelby Harris, D.J. Reader, Zacch Pickens, Leki Fotu and Josh Tupou this offseason. The team also drafted Bobby Jamison-Travis in Round 6.
Part of this spree did come after a notable setback, as Roy Robertson-Harris — given a two-year contract in 2025 — suffered an Achilles tear. While the veteran interior D-lineman is facing a long recovery journey, the Giants are not placing him on IR. John Harbaugh said (via The Athletic’s Dan Duggan) the team has hope Robertson-Harris can return late in the season.
Robertson-Harris going down in late May would conceivably support an in-season return. We have seen similar timetables emerge involving players to suffer this injury during offseason work. Terrell Suggs‘ 2011 Defensive Player of the Year season preceded an Achilles tear in spring 2012. Suggs underwent surgery and returned in Week 7, helping Baltimore win its second Super Bowl. A year later, Michael Crabtree suffered an Achilles tear during 49ers OTAs. He came back in Week 13 as the 49ers reached a third straight NFC championship game.
Cam Akers beat those two standouts’ timetables in 2021, suffering a tear in late July and returning by Week 18. The Rams running back was not in great form upon return, but he made his way back to dress for Los Angeles’ four-game playoff run that culminated with a Super Bowl LVI win. Robertson-Harris is not on a team with lofty aspirations, but there is precedent for players in his circumstance completing a rehab effort by season’s end.
It looks like the Giants will stash Robertson-Harris on their reserve/PUP list when they set their 53-man roster in late August. He would miss at least the first four games, and a late-May Achilles tear will almost certainly lead to a longer hiatus. If the Giants were to place Robertson-Harris on IR now, he would — barring a situation involving a release and injury settlement — be forced to miss the season. The Giants would not lose one of their eight injury activations by activating Robertson-Harris from the PUP list.
A 10th-year veteran, Robertson-Harris started 17 games for the Giants last season and played 56% of their defensive snaps. The former Bears, Jaguars and Seahawks defender signed with the Giants — on a two-year, $9MM deal — after a Seattle release.
The Giants, who geared their D-line group (and pretty much their entire front seven) around Lawrence’s presence for seven years, have four 30-somethings rostered along their defensive front post-Lawrence. Robertson-Harris, 32, will not join Harris and Reader — and perhaps Tupou, who is 32 — on New York’s active roster for a while, but the team will hold out hope he can come back this season.
Minor NFL Transactions: 6/4/26
Several NFL teams made minor transactions on Thursday. Here’s a look…
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: DE Benton Whitley
Houston Texans
- Signed: TE Louie Hansen
- Waived: WR Jalen Walthall
Los Angeles Rams
- Placed on IR: OL Chad Lindberg, OLB Eddie Walls
Minnesota Vikings
- Signed: WR Michael Briscoe, WR Trayvon Rudolph
- Waived: WR Joaquin Davis
New York Jets
- Signed: WR Gee Scott
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: LB Jamin Davis
- Waived: TE Chamon Metayer
Out of the 11 players listed above, Davis is the only one with a first-round pedigree. Washington took the former Kentucky Wildcat 19th overall in 2021, but his stock has plummeted during his five-year career. As a member of the Commanders for three-plus seasons, he totaled 282 tackles and seven sacks over 50 games (36 starts).
The Commanders experimented with Davis at defensive end in 2024, but it didn’t work out to their liking. They waived Davis in late October that year, and he has since gone to short stints with the Packers, Vikings, Jets and Raiders. The 27-year-old got into two games with the Raiders last season and made three tackles. Davis is now reuniting with Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who held the same position in Las Vegas in 2025.