One minor move to pass along today:
Washington Commanders
Both of the 2023 UDFAs spent the majority of their rookie seasons on Washington’s practice squad. Allen made a name for himself at UCLA, hauling in 12 touchdowns in 38 games. He was also a collegiate sprinter, making him a natural candidate for return duties.
Albert O. is staying in Philadelphia. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, tight end Albert Okwuegbunam has signed a one-year deal to stick with the Eagles. The 25-year-old was set to hit unrestricted free agency next month.
Following three seasons in Denver, Okwuegbunam was facing waivers at the end of the 2023 preseason. The Eagles swooped in and added him via trade, acquiring the tight end and a seventh-round pick for a sixth-round selection.
Despite the trade, Okwuegbunam barely came off the bench this past season, even with starter Dallas Goedert sidelined. He was limited to only four games in 2023, finishing the year fourth among Eagles tight ends in offensive snaps (behind Goedert, Jack Stoll, and Grant Calcaterra). The Eagles still valued Okwuegbunam enough to give him a chance at a 2024 roster spot, and the veteran could provide the organization with a bit of insurance with Stoll hitting restricted free agency.
Following a productive college career at Missouri, Okwuegbunam was a fourth-round pick by the Broncos in 2020. He was limited to only four games as a rookie thanks to a torn ACL, but he earned a significant offensive role during his second season. He finished the 2021 campaign with 33 catches for 330 yards and two touchdowns, starting six of his 14 appearances. With rookie Greg Dulcich added to the depth chart in 2022, Okwuegbunam saw a lesser role, finishing with only 10 catches for 95 yards.
Pro Football Focus gave Okwuegbunam solid reviews through his first two seasons in the NFL, but the website hasn’t been as favorable on his 2022 and 2023 performances. If the tight end is able to rediscover any of that previous talent, he could find himself with a larger role in 2024.
Last year brought an earlier resolution on the salary cap front. The $224.8MM figure emerged in late January, but it is not out of the ordinary for the process to take longer to produce a number. A slower run-up is transpiring this year.
In December, we heard teams were expecting the cap to check in around $240MM. Teams’ internal projections at that point were going on a salary ceiling between $235-$240MM. It looks like clubs are now expecting that number to be a bit higher; a year-to-year increase of more than $20MM may now be in play.
After indicating an expectation the 2024 cap would be north of $243MM, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio added the number will likely veer closer to $250MM. This would be approaching a historic one-year increase.
The previous record came between the 2021 and ’22 offseasons, and extraordinary circumstances drove that. After the COVID-19 pandemic led to the second-ever cap decrease, the 2022 number ($208.2MM) came in $26MM higher than the 2021 ceiling. Flirting with that type of increase under more normal circumstances would be an interesting development for the league.
The NFL and NFLPA negotiate the salary cap, and Florio adds the league may be attempting to enact a more gradual increase from the 2023 number. The March 2021 TV agreements, along with money coming in from gambling partnerships, will factor into this year’s salary cap. The YouTube TV seven-year “NFL Sunday Ticket” agreement, worth more than $2 billion, will impact future caps as well.
Once the 2024 salary ceiling emerges, matters like franchise tag numbers and RFA tenders — along with fifth-year option prices for the 2021 first-rounders — will crystallize. The cap has only climbed by $20MM-plus in a year once, and it has only jumped more than $15MM twice (last year and in 2006, when a new CBA was ratified).
Illustrating the league’s growth, the 2024 cap is expected to reside more than $110MM above where it stood in 2014. Here is how the salary cap has climbed over the past two CBAs:
Matt Eberflus avoided the two-and-done reality many expected, instead being given the power to fire his offensive coordinator and other members of his 2023 staff. The third-year Bears HC will also operate in a dual role in 2024.
Although the Bears hired Eric Washington, the former Bills assistant will be a non-play-calling defensive coordinator to start his Chicago tenure. Eberflus said Thursday he will retain play-calling duties in 2024. This comes after he held the role for most of the 2023 season, following Alan Williams‘ September departure.
[RELATED: Bears Expected To Tag CB Jaylon Johnson]
Williams, who followed Eberflus from Indianapolis, did not fare well running the show in 2022. Granted, the Bears had purged their defense of veterans — including the trades of Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn — that year. The team ranked last in points allowed and 29th in total defense. Williams then left under somewhat mysterious circumstances, leading to Eberflus abandoning his status as a CEO coach and calling signals beginning in Week 3.
Last year’s Bears featured more defensive talent, seeing offseason and in-season additions bolster Eberflus’ unit. The team gave Tremaine Edmunds a top-five linebacker deal and added T.J. Edwards from the Eagles. Chicago, which entered the season with more questions at defensive end, traded for — and then extended — Montez Sweat. The team, which also received a breakthrough contract-year effort from Jaylon Johnson, finished 20th in scoring defense and 12th in yardage yielded.
Eberflus came to Chicago after four seasons with a play-calling role in Indianapolis. The Colts finished as a top-10 defense in three of those years, elevating Eberflus to the HC interview circuit. Washington has been in a play-calling position previously, serving as the Panthers’ DC from 2018-19. He spent the past four years as the Bills’ defensive line coach. While Washington taking the call sheet at some point during his Bears tenure is not a farfetched proposition, he will not carry it to begin his tenure.
Winning a prolonged practice competition last season, Michael Badgley reclaimed his job after the Lions had previously traded for Riley Patterson. Closing the season as Detroit’s kicker again, Badgley is poised to enter the team’s offseason program in the role.
The Lions are keeping Badgley, according to his agency (via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport), by agreeing to a one-year deal Thursday. Badgley, 28, kicked in seven games — counting three playoff tilts — for the NFC North champions last season. This continues an on-again, off-again partnership.
Detroit had brought Badgley back on a practice squad agreement last year, continuing a busy run of transactions for the kicker. The Lions had cut Badgley just before training camp, leading him to the Commanders. Badgley did not stick as Washington’s kicker, being released last summer, and spent a few days in Tennessee. But the Lions circled back to their primary 2022 kicker, stashing him on their P-squad in August. That pickup eventually led to Detroit giving him the kicking reins back late in the season.
A kicker chain reaction produced the Badgley-Patterson practice competition. The Broncos released longtime kicker Brandon McManus last year, leading to the Jaguars picking him up. That led them to dangle Patterson in deals. After speaking with the Cowboys, the Jags ultimately dealt Patterson to the Lions. That prompted Detroit to release Badgley, despite having re-signed him in March 2023. Despite Patterson making more than 85% of his kicks during the regular season, the Lions booted him and rolled with Badgley for the stretch run.
Badgley made each of his four regular-season field goal tries last year, missing two extra points. He was 3-for-3 in the playoffs, though the sequences in which Dan Campbell left his kicker on the sideline proved more memorable than those makes. Campbell eschewed two second-half Badgley tries inside of 50 yards to go for fourth-and-shorts; both plays failed in a 34-31 loss to the 49ers.
In 2022, Badgley was 33-for-33 on PATs and 20 of 24 on field goals with the Lions. The team had signed Badgley in October 2022, scooping him up after the Bears cut him. Badgley replaced Dominik Eberle that year. Overall, Badgley has played six NFL seasons. While he enjoyed steady Chargers employment for three years, the past three have brought in-season transactions. Since leaving Los Angeles in 2021, Badgley has kicked for the Colts, Titans, Bears and Lions. He will make an attempt at a more stable 2024.
A day after releasing former starting center Brian Allen, the Rams want to retain the player who took over their snapping duties last year.
Sean McVay confirmed (via The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue) the team is attempting to reach an agreement to re-sign Coleman Shelton. The young interior O-lineman has the option of voiding the final year of his contract and hitting free agency.
After working primarily as a Rams backup from 2019-21, Shelton seized a starting guard job replacing the departed Austin Corbett in 2022. After an Allen injury during Week 1 of the 2022 season, Shelton moved to center. A 2023 offseason competition went Shelton’s way, and he started all 18 Rams games last season. Pro Football Focus graded Shelton as the league’s 17th-best center last season.
The center market cooled last year, allowing a few teams — the 49ers, Browns, Vikings and Panthers — to retain their previous pivots at reasonable rates. No free agent center agreed to a deal worth more than $6MM per year in 2023. Lloyd Cushenberry is expected to cost more this year, but the center market on the whole has seen better days.
Shelton, 28, has been with the Rams since arriving as a 2019 UDFA. He started at both guard and center in 2022 and joined most Rams O-linemen in missing time during that injury-plagued year. Shelton sustained a high ankle sprain in 2022 and missed four games, but he established himself as a starter — at both center and guard — in Los Angeles that year. The Washington alum parlayed that into a full-time gig, helping the Rams rebound on offense and return to the playoffs.
The Rams have Steve Avila signed through 2026, and left tackle Alaric Jackson is only eligible for restricted free agency this year. But Shelton and their other interior starter — guard Kevin Dotson — are moving toward free agency. After bouncing back in what many expected to be a rebuilding year, the Rams have some decisions to make along their O-line.
Gabe Davis is one of several pending free agents who could depart the Bills at the start of the new league year. While the deep-threat wideout has long been expected to explore the open market, he recently hinted his time in Buffalo has come to an end. 
Davis showed immediate promise as a secondary pass-catching option during his first two seasons. He posted nearly identical statlines across 2020 and ’21, totaling 70 catches, 1,148 yards and 13 touchdowns during that span. In the latter campaign, the former fourth-rounder delivered an historic performance in the divisional round of the playoffs with 201 yards and four touchdowns.
Consistency has been an issue for the 24-year-old, though, and he has yet to post a catch percentage above 56.5% in his four-year career. As Buffalo continues to seek out a dependable secondary option to complement Stefon Diggs, Davis has made it clear no extension talks have taken place and that he is therefore on track to reach the open market. He recently posted a video reflecting on his time with the Bills; while it does not confirm he will be heading elsewhere, it can certainly be interpreted as a farewell to the franchise.
Buffalo has Diggs under contract though 2027 (although speculation about his satisfaction regarding his situation and his financial outlook have been a major talking point for some time now). The Bills invested a first-round pick in tight end Dalton Kincaid last April, and he delivered an encouraging rookie season. 2022 fifth-rounder Khalil Shakir also took a substantial step forward in production last season, and he could be in line to operate as the team’s No. 2 wideout if Davis were to depart.
The latter is set to join the likes of Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman Jr., Mike Evans, Calvin Ridley and Marquise Brown as free agent wideouts in March (although the franchise tag looms as an option for that list to dwindle between now and the start of the league year). Given Davis’ age and proven ability as a vertical threat, he could very well receive offers the cap-strapped Bills are unable to match. A deal keeping him in Buffalo could still be worked out in the near future, but signs continue to point to a departure this offseason
The Cowboys are among the teams which have made frequent usage of the franchise tag in recent years. DeMarcus Lawrence, Dak Prescott, Dalton Schultz and Tony Pollard have each played at least one season on the one-year tender in a streak dating back to 2018. That is likely to end in 2024, however. 
David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports the Cowboys are not expected to apply the tag during the current window. Pollard was an obvious tag candidate last offseason, one in which the team moved on from fellow running back Ezekiel Elliott. That move freed up an undisputed No. 1 role for Pollard, who quickly signed his tenure and earned $10.1MM during the season.
The former fourth-rounder received an increased workload in 2023, but his efficiency saw a notable decline. As a result, it would come as a surprise if Dallas elected to tag him again at a cost of roughly $12.1MM. A deal checking in at a lower rate to keep Pollard in the fold would be far more beneficial to the Cowboys’ salary cap situation, something which will be worth watching over the coming weeks.
Prescott is in need of either a restructure or an extension given the $59.5MM cap hit he is slated to carry in 2024. Dallas also has a number of pending free agents, including left tackle Tyron Smith and cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who could use up needed cap resources if retained. Both veterans have expressed a desire to re-sign with the Cowboys, who will also have top-of-the-market extensions for wideout CeeDee Lamb and edge rusher Micah Parsons to budget for in the near future.
Lawrence and Prescott each wound up agreeing to long-term deals after playing on the tag, while Shultz departed in free agency last offseason. Pollard’s future will be worth monitoring if he does indeed reach the open market. The franchise tag window runs through March 5, but Dallas should not be expected to be active on that front in a departure from recent history.
Safety Geno Stone emerged as a vital element on the backend of the Ravens’ defense in 2023, boosting his free agent stock considerably in the process. His chances of holding down a full-time starting spot in Baltimore are murky, however, which could lead him elsewhere on the open market. 
Stone joined the Ravens as a seventh-round pick in 2020. His tenure included a trip to the waiver wire in his rookie season, and he was claimed by the Texans. The 24-year-old did not see any playing time in Houston, though, and he quickly found himself back with the Ravens. Stone logged eight starts between the 2021 and ’22 seasons, and his workload increased further this past season.
The Ravens declined to tender Stone as a restricted free agent last offseason, but they moved quickly in re-signing him to a one-year deal. That pact carried a cost of $1.76MM, and it proved to be a bargain. Stone saw a snap share of 82% in 2023, and he racked up seven interceptions, nine pass deflections and 68 tackles. Those career-high figures have upped his market value and proven his ability to handle first-team defensive duties.
Baltimore already has fellow safety Marcus Williams on the books through 2026, however. Many of Stone’s starts have come during the time Williams has missed due to injury, though the pair were used simultaneously under ex-defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald at times. Baltimore has fellow safety Kyle Hamilton on his rookie contract, although his versatility could allow the Ravens to use three-safety looks moving forward. In any case, Stone is seeking a full-time starting spot on his next contract, wherever it comes from.
“At the end of the day, Baltimore is always home, but business is business,” the Iowa alum said during an interview on NFL Total Access. “You know that being in this league this long. I’ve been through it all, especially my rookie year. I just want to be somewhere I’m appreciated, you know, who wants me and for me to be a starter, whatever it may be. I just want my value to be there.”
The Ravens currently have just over $5MM in cap space, but a number of impact defenders are set to hit the open market. That group is headlined by defensive tackle Justin Madubuike, who will likely receive the franchise tag in short order. Linebacker Patrick Queen is also a pending free agent, and he and Madubuike profile as higher offseason priorities who will be able to command a higher price once the new league year begins next month.
Given his one year of standout production, Stone will likely be hard-pressed to join the group of 14 safeties averaging at least $10MM per year on his next contract. He will no doubt see a substantial raise from his $4.9MM in career earnings, though, as he eyes a commitment as a first-teamer moving forward. Whether or not that comes from the Ravens will be worth watching as the offseason unfolds.
As has become tradition in recent years, the Saints have a number of moves to make in the build-up to free agency to become cap compliant. The team took another step in that direction Thursday. 
New Orleans converted the base salary and roster bonus of center Erik McCoy into a signing bonus, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. The move frees up $7.18MM in cap space for 2024, but it will add to his cap hits for future years on his through-2027 contract. As NewOrleans.football’s Mike Triplett adds, the Saints can manufacture roughly $30MM more in immediate breathing space by restructuring their other veterans. Colleague Nick Underhill notes a void year has been added to the deal.
McCoy inked a $60MM extension in September 2022 to ensure he would avoid hitting the market at the expiration of his rookie contract. That deal kept one of New Orleans’ key offensive contributors on the books for the long term, but it added to the list of expensive commitments the team has made amidst its annual salary cap challenges. The former second-rounder already had his deal adjusted last winter.
McCoy played a full campaign in 2023, the first time he did so since 2020. The 26-year-old saw a marked improvement in terms of PFF evaluation, particularly in the run blocking department. He earned a Pro Bowl nod for the first time in his career, proving his value on a O-line which is in need of upgrades at other positions. The center spot is not a question mark for several more years, though, especially given the term remaining on McCoy’s pact.
New Orleans started the day more than $80MM over the cap, so a number of other moves will be needed before the new league year begins next month. The team has already re-worked the contracts of Marshon Lattimore and Jameis Winston, and several other similar decisions will no doubt be made. General manager Mickey Loomis has made it clear a similar approach to those of past years will be followed in 2024; as such, New Orleans will be on track to keep much of its corps intact by racking up future cap commitments.