Jets To Trade Jermaine Johnson To Titans For T’Vondre Sweat
Jermaine Johnson is the latest defender to see his Jets tenure come to an end under the team’s new regime. The fifth-year edge rusher is on the move. 
Johnson is being traded by the Jets to the Titans, as first reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. Defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat is heading to New York in return. Like all trades, the final agreement is pending a physical for both players. This swap will not be finalized until after the new league year begins, Dianna Russini of The Athletic notes.
[RELATED: Johnson Aimed To Be Traded; More Jets Available?]
This swap will allow for Johnson to reunite with Robert Saleh. The two were previously together on the Jets, and after a one-year stint as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator Saleh was hired last month to take charge of the Titans. Adding along the edge has been seen as a critical need in Tennessee’s case, and before free agency has even begun the team has already lined up a move on that front.
Saleh’s arrival brought about a change in scheme, something which Russini notes made Sweat more of a trade chip. In two Tennessee seasons, the former second-rounder has posted 85 stops and eight tackles for loss. Sweat, who will turn 25 in July, has two years remaining on his rookie contract. He will look to provide New York with a starting presence along the interior and by doing so help fill the vacancy created by the Quinnen Williams deal.
Williams and cornerback Sauce Gardner were each traded away at the 2025 deadline. The Jets’ new decision-making tandem of general manager Darren Mougey and head coach Aaron Glenn received considerable interest in Johnson as well, but no deal was worked out in his case. New York rejected an offer including a third-round pick at the time, but that did not ensure Johnson would remain in place for 2026.
A December report indicated it was highly unlikely Johnson would work out an extension with the Jets. The 27-year-old will play out his fifth-year option in 2026, but he will do so on a new team. Johnson is due $13.41MM and will carry the same cap charge on Tennessee, a team which can comfortably afford an increase in costs along the defensive front. The same is also true of the Jets, of course, so it will be interesting to see how they proceed in the pass-rush department this spring.
New York owns the second overall pick in April’s draft. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza is universally expected to be selected first overall, which will leave the Jets in line to add at a different position. That could result in a pass rusher such as hybrid linebacker/EDGE Arvell Reese hearing his name called at the No. 2 slot. Free agency will also present the Jets with a number of options to add options on the edge.
Johnson had a quiet rookie season but earned a Pro Bowl nod based on his strong play in 2023. The Florida State product notched 7.5 sacks and 25 QB pressures, leading to high expectations for a strong follow-up campaign. However, an Achilles tear limited Johnson to just two games in 2024. He managed to make 14 appearances this past season, but in that time Johnson only recorded three sacks. A turnaround in Tennessee would go a long way in shaping his financial future.
The Jets ranked 29th against the run last season. Improving on that figure will be a key priority, and Sweat will be tasked with helping out on early downs in particular. The 6-4, 366-pounder was one of many Tennessee players who drew interest on the trade front this past fall, and his stock in the organization was not believed to be particularly high heading into the offseason. A change of scenery could prove to be beneficial to all parties.
After this swap becomes official, the Titans and Jets will still be among the league leaders in cap flexibility. Both teams also have considerable draft capital at the moment, so several more moves could be coming soon.
Commanders To Cut C Tyler Biadasz
Tyler Biadasz had one year left on a three-year, $30MM contract. The Commanders are instead moving on early. They are releasing the veteran center, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports.
This move comes shortly after the team re-signed Andrew Wylie. Despite Wylie working as a backup last season and Biadasz being a starter throughout his two-year Washington stay, the latter is out. The former Cowboys draftee should generate immediate interest as a street free agent. Because of this release, Biadasz can sign anywhere immediately — whereas UFAs must wait until March 9 when the legal tampering period begins.
A former fourth-round pick, Biadasz became a full-time starter for the Cowboys in his second season and parlayed that run into an eight-figure-per-year Commanders contract in 2024. Biadasz joined Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler in following Dan Quinn from Dallas that year. He missed only three games from 2024-25, giving the Commanders stability at center.
Pro Football Focus viewed Biadasz as a middling center during his Washington tenure, ranking him 19th at the position in 2024 and 12th in 2025. The Commanders have used free agency to plug holes since Chase Roullier‘s career ended early in the 2022 season. Roullier had been Washington’s center from 2017-22. After giving Nick Gates an opportunity in 2023, the Commanders pursued Biadasz in free agency.
Because two void years are present in this contract, the Commanders are not in position to save much money. They are poised to add just $2.89MM in cap space and see $8.1MM in dead money. A post-June 1 release would spread the latter figure over two years; it would also keep Biadasz from becoming a free agent until the new league year begins March 11.
This move comes after Biadasz suffered a knee injury on Christmas Day against the Cowboys. He finished the season on IR. The Wisconsin alum came up as a possible Commanders extension candidate weeks ago, but the team instead will change course at snapper.
The Commanders came into the day holding more than $73MM in cap space; this release will add a bit to that total. The Biadasz release follows the Titans’ Lloyd Cushenberry cut. Cushenberry disappointed on a big-ticket 2024 contract. Those two join Cade Mays, Connor McGovern and Ethan Pocic among the Tyler Linderbaum consolation prizes on this free agent market.
Linderbaum is expected to break a center record with his second contract. The rest of the crop will not be positioned to rival where the three-time Pro Bowler goes contractually. With 84 career starts and not being set to turn 29 until November, Biadasz will likely land another starting opportunity elsewhere soon.
Cowboys To Place Second-Round RFA Tender On G T.J. Bass
The Cowboys are showing a strong commitment to their restricted free agents. With a second-round tender coming to kicker Brandon Aubrey, Dallas has another one planned for a lesser-known player.
Three-year guard T.J. Bass will receive a second-round RFA tender, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler tweets. The second-round tender price is not yet known, as the salary cap has not been revealed, but OverTheCap projects it to come in at $5.81MM. This will mean around $12MM allocated to two RFAs for the Cowboys.
Bass has been a key backup in Dallas, starting 10 games in relief during his career. Part of the Cowboys’ 2023 UDFA class, the Oregon alum has logged between 315 and 351 offensive snaps in each of his three seasons. Bass split his time nearly equally at LG and RG last season, making starts in relief of Tyler Smith and Tyler Booker. Pro Football Focus graded Bass 29th overall among qualified guards last season.
With Smith extended and Booker locked in at the other guard spot after being drafted 12th overall, Bass has no pathway to a starting job in Dallas. That does make the use of a second-round tender interesting, but the Cowboys are effectively making sure they would collect a valuable asset (a Round 2 pick) if a team signed Bass to an offer sheet and Dallas did not match.
This tender is also interesting due to Bass having only taken snaps at guard as a pro. In place as a second-stringer throughout his Dallas run, the soon-to-be 27-year-old blocker has not made any appearances at tackle or center. Bass, though, came to Dallas after spending his final Oregon season as the Ducks’ left tackle during Bo Nix‘s first Ducks season. Bass moved to LT during his junior season at Oregon, being a guard starter for the Ducks in the 1 1/2 seasons prior to that switch.
Saints C Will Clapp To Retire
Following an eight-year career as a center in the NFL with stops in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Buffalo, Will Clapp announced on his Instagram today that he will be retiring from the NFL. According to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football, the end of Clapp’s playing career may just coincide with the start of his coaching career. 
Clapp came to the NFL after three years as a starter at LSU. The nearby Saints drafted him in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and though he made the initial 53-man roster as a rookie, he didn’t make his NFL debut until the final three weeks of the season, culminating with his first NFL start in a meaningless Week 17 affair. In Year 2, Clapp became established as a key contributor off the bench for the Saints offensive line. Despite only logging three actual starts, Clapp played in 15 games, often getting a decent snap share in each contest (33.5 percent of the offensive snaps that season).
Unfortunately, Clapp saw his role greatly reduced in Year 3. After failing to make the initial 53-man roster for 2020, he spent most of the year bouncing back and forth from the active roster and practice squad, and his snap shares fell dramatically in the eight games in which he did play. After starting 2021 on injured reserve and getting activated in early October, it was more of the same as he continued to bounce back and forth between the taxi squad and 53-man roster. Over four years in New Orleans, Clapp played in 34 games with seven of those being starts.
In 2022, he signed with the Chargers. While he made the 53-man roster and remained there for the entire season for the first time since his sophomore campaign, Clapp resumed a backup role, playing only special teams in most games with a few midgame replacements and three starts. The following year, though, a season-ending heart issue for starting center Corey Linsley opened the door for Clapp to finally work as a starter. He worked with the first-team offense from Week 4 all the way to Week 15 of that season, at which point he suffered a knee injury that landed him on IR for the remainder of the year.
Following his time in LA, Clapp signed with the Bills. After failing to make the initial 53-man roster, Clapp was retained on the practice squad. Buffalo brought him back to the active roster in Week 4 that year, but after he went 10 straight games as a healthy scratch, the team relegated him back to the practice squad before elevating him to start in the final game of the regular season. That game (not including special teams duty in two playoff games) would be his last. Clapp returned to New Orleans for a second stint this past offseason but suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury in the team’s first preseason game.
A New Orleans native, Clapp’s time with the Saints may not be over just yet. Per Underhill’s NOF colleague, Mike Triplett, during his stint on IR this year, Clapp began to help out the Saints coaching staff. Fellow former Saints offensive lineman Jahri Evans set that example starting back in 2022. After working as an intern and offensive assistant, Evans was named assistant offensive line coach last year but just left to take the same job with the Steelers this offseason. That leaves a vacancy that could easily be filled by Clapp. Clapp is already extremely familiar with offensive line coach Brendan Nugent, who was OL coach for the Chargers during Clapp’s stay in LA.
While his playing career ended earlier than he likely hoped it would, Clapp seems primed to begin his career as a coach, following in Evans’ footsteps. We’ll have to keep an eye out for an announcement in the near future potentially naming Clapp to the assistant OL coaching role in New Orleans.
Titans To Release Lloyd Cushenberry, Xavier Woods
The Titans signed center Lloyd Cushenberry to a four-year, $50MM contract in 2024, but he will not finish the deal. The team is releasing Cushenberry, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports. The Titans are cutting Cushenberry with a failed physical designation, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
Along with Cushenberry, the Titans are waving goodbye to safety Xavier Woods, Schefter relays. Woods joined the Titans on a two-year, $10MM pact last March. He will now return to free agency a year later.
Cushenberry, a 2018 third-round pick from LSU, became Denver’s No. 1 center from the get-go. He started in all 57 of his appearances with the Broncos over his first four seasons. Cushenberry logged full seasons on three occasions, but a groin injury limited him to eight games in 2022.
While Cushenberry remained a full-time starter over 23 games in Tennessee, he had a harder time staying healthy there than he did in Denver. The 6-foot-4, 315-pounder played every snap for the Titans before his first year with them ended with a torn Achilles in Week 9.
Cushenberry returned to play 15 games in 2025, but he finished as Pro Football Focus’ 34th-ranked center out of 37 qualifiers. The 28-year-old recently underwent shoulder surgery, but he should make a full recovery by next season, according to Rapoport. Cushenberry will have to look for another team in the meantime.
Despite coming off the board late in the 2017 draft (Round 6), Woods has started for most of his career. The former Cowboy, Viking and Panther continued in that role in his only season with the Titans.
Woods started in 10 of 11 games in 2025 before landing on IR with a hamstring injury in mid-December. The 30-year-old’s season wrapped up with 39 tackles, three passes defensed, two interceptions and a sack. PFF rated Woods’ performance a passable 43rd among 91 safeties.
Tennessee entered Wednesday with an NFL-leading $103.50MM in cap space, per OverTheCap. General manager Mike Borgonzi will now have even more money available to upgrade a team that stumbled through its second straight 3-14 season in 2025.
Moving on from Cushenberry will add $3.42MM to the Titans’ books, though it will also stick them with $9.05MM in dead money. Woods’ exit will clear $3.82MM at the cost of a more palatable $1MM cap hit.
Falcons To Release WR/ST KhaDarel Hodge
The Falcons are expected to release wide receiver/special teams ace KhaDarel Hodge, per NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
Hodge, 31, arrived in Atlanta in 2022 and took up core special teams duties with a rotational role on offense. After three straight one-year deals, a Pro Bowl in 2024 earned him a two-year, $5.5MM contract signed last offseason.
Hodge continued his special teams work in 2025 and joined the field goal block team for the first time in his career. His participation on offense was reduced to just six snaps per game, and a shoulder injury landed him on injured reserve in December, ending his season. Hodge finished with just three catches for 31 yards on offense and nine total tackles on special teams.
By releasing Hodge, the Falcons will save $2.64MM against the salary cap with a $625k dead cap charge, per OverTheCap. They will still have only $14MM in cap space heading into the new league year, though extending Kyle Pitts off the franchise tag would reduce his 2026 cap hit. Atlanta also have several restructure candidates who would allow them to free up more money entering free agency.
Hodge’s special teams experience should draw him some interest in free agency. He may not be a dynamic receiving threat, but he can eat run-blocking snaps on offense. However, his grades from Pro Football Focus (subscription required) have dipped in that regard in recent years. Plenty of teams still value consistency and stability on special teams; perhaps Hodge could follow former Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams to the Raiders, where he is now a senior special teams assistant.
Minor NFL Transactions: 2/23/26
Here is Monday’s lone minor NFL transaction…
Buffalo Bills
- Re-signed: DT Phidarian Mathis
Mathis came into the NFL in 2022 as a Commanders second-round pick, but he has not lived up to his draft stock. The former Alabama lineman missed all but one game as a rookie as a result of a calf injury. Mathis went on to combine for 22 appearances from 2022-23, though he came off the bench in all of those games and totaled just 25 tackles. The Commanders waived Mathis in December 2024. The Jets claimed the 312-pounder, but he was unable to crack their roster last summer.
Around three weeks after the Jets cut him, Mathis caught on with the Bills’ practice squad in early September. The 27-year-old went on to play in six games and pick up 13 tackles on 120 defensive snaps. Mathis will remain in Buffalo on a one-year pact.
Chargers C Bradley Bozeman Announces Retirement
After eight seasons in the NFL, Chargers center Bradley Bozeman is hanging up his cleats. The 31-year-old announced his retirement on Instagram on Monday (via Adam Schefter of ESPN).
The Chargers were the third team for Bozeman, an Alabama product who entered the league as a sixth-round pick of the Ravens in 2018. With Matt Skura then serving as the Ravens’ center, Bozeman’s lone start during a 14-game rookie season came at left guard. Bozeman became a full-time starter at left guard in 2019, his first of three straight 16-game seasons.
After Skura left the Ravens to sign with the Dolphins in 2021, Bozeman switched back to center. It turned out to be the last season in Baltimore for Bozeman, who accepted Carolina’s one-year offer in 2022.
Although Bozeman only started in 11 of 17 games in his first season in Carolina, he was impressive enough for the Panthers to bring him back on a three-year, $18MM contract. The 325-pounder notched a 17-start season in the first year of the deal, but the Panthers released him in March 2024.
A week after his Carolina tenure ended, Bozeman moved to the West Coast on a one-year agreement with the Chargers. Bozeman made just over $1.1MM during another 17-start season, leading the Chargers to award him a raise on a two-year, $6.5MM accord last March.
While Bozeman was again a full-time starter over 16 games in 2025, Pro Football Focus ranked his performance last among 37 qualifying centers. His struggles were among a handful of problems up front for the Chargers, who went without injured left tackle Rashawn Slater for the season and didn’t have right tackle Joe Alt for most of it. As a result of the Chargers’ O-line woes, quarterback Justin Herbert took the league’s second-most sacks (54).
The Chargers may have been in the market for a center this offseason had Bozeman kept playing in 2026. They definitely will be now that Bozeman is walking away after 129 games and 110 starts in the league. His exit will clear the way for yet another new starting pivot for the Chargers. The Bolts have not used the same primary starting center for three straight years since longtime staple Nick Hardwick retired in 2014.
Commanders Re-Sign OL Andrew Wylie
Andrew Wylie was on course for free agency. Instead, he will be remaining in the nation’s capital for at least the next two years. 
Wylie and the Commanders have agreed to a two-year contract, as first reported by Ari Meirov of the 33rd Team. The deal has been confirmed by ESPN’s John Keim, who notes Wylie preferred to re-sign with Washington rather than testing the open market. That will indeed be the case.
According to Meirov, this deal has a base value of $7.5MM. It can reach a maximum of $10.5MM, making this a notable raise compared to Wylie’s most recent contract. In 2025, he took a one-year, $4MM pact to stay in place with the Commanders. The 31-year-old will now be in line to continue serving a notable role along Washington’s offensive line. Wylie will collect a $1.5MM signing bonus, Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 adds.
A former undrafted free agent, Wylie found an opportunity for playing time with the Chiefs and established himself as a regular with them. Over the course of five seasons in Kanas City, he totaled 59 starts. That stretch was followed by a three-year, $24MM deal in free agency which sent Wylie to Washington. It allowed the Eastern Michigan product to operate as the Commanders’ starting right tackle.
Things changed last year when Washington drafted Josh Conerly in the first round. Conerly took on right tackle duties during his rookie campaign, and he is in line to continue in that role for 2026. The Oregon alum could be seen as a potential left tackle in the future, but Washington is interested in extending Laremy Tunsil. As long as Tunsil and Conerly are in the fold, Wylie – who drew trade interest in the fall – will be tasked with handling a backup tackle gig; he could also see time at guard, as was the case in 2025.
The Commanders still have a long list of pending free agents whose futures need to be decided on over the coming days. That includes several offensive linemen, but given today’s news Wylie will offer familiarity and a veteran depth presence up front.
Patriots Release Antonio Gibson
After spending his first three NFL seasons in Washington, where he was a 1,000-yard rusher in 2021, running back Antonio Gibson joined the Patriots in March 2024. Gibson inked a three-year, $11.25MM contract to move to New England, but he will not see the deal through. The Patriots announced that they have released Gibson.
Gibson totaled at least 149 carries and 546 rushing yards in each of his first three seasons. He also combined for 21 rushing touchdowns, including a career-high 11 as a rookie, and 124 catches during that span. Gibson added another 48 receptions over 16 games in 2023, but his role on the ground diminished during a 65-carry campaign. He left for the Patriots after that.
Serving as the primary backup to Rhamondre Stevenson last year, Gibson’s rushing attempts nearly doubled from his last season in Washington. He amassed 120 carries for 538 yards, good for a solid 4.5 per tote, and a touchdown. Gibson made less of an impact as a pass catcher, though, notching career lows in receptions (23) and yards (206).
Stevenson and Gibson were still in place last offseason, but the Patriots invested a second-round pick in running back TreVeyon Henderson. The former Ohio State Buckeye went on to lead the AFC champions in carries (180), yards (911) and rushing touchdowns (nine) during a 17-game season. Stevenson put up 130 carries, 603 yards and seven TDs in 14 contests.
Meanwhile, Gibson’s greatest contribution came during a Week 2 victory in Miami. After returning six kicks for 171 yards, including a 90-yard touchdown, Gibson earned AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors. As a runner, Gibson combined for 25 carries, 106 yards and a TD in the Patriots’ first five games. His season ended when he suffered a torn ACL in a win over Buffalo on Oct. 5.
With Stevenson and Henderson sticking around in 2026, it does not come as a surprise that the Patriots are moving on from Gibson as he recovers from a serious injury. Releasing the 27-year-old will save the Patriots $3.14MM in cap space at the cost of $1MM in dead money.