What happened in the first week of NFL free agency: From Kirk Cousins to the Falcons to Justin Fields' trade to the Steelers

Kenny Pickett was all smiles outside the visitors locker room at Lumen Field on Dec. 31st in Seattle as he posed for a photo with hockey great Wayne Gretzky.

It was some game, really. The Steelers had just beaten the Seahawks, 30-23. Pittsburgh ran its winning streak to two games to keep its faint postseason hopes alive. But as Najee Harris went Beast Mode with Marshawn Lynch in attendance, Pickett was a mere spectator that day.

Though Pickett was 27 days removed from a TightRope procedure — which typically comes with a four-week recovery window — on his injured ankle, coach Mike Tomlin had decided to ride the hot hand by starting Mason Rudolph for a second consecutive week. Pickett watched from the sideline in street clothes. Reports emerged that Pickett had refused to dress as the backup, which he later denied. (Tomlin would continue to start Rudolph in the season finale and later in the first round of the playoffs against the Buffalo Bills.)

As it turned out, that quiet benching for the New Year’s Eve game became the first indication that the Steelers were charting a new path at quarterback.

On Friday, shortly after introducing Russell Wilson as the newest Steeler, the team profoundly shook up its quarterback room and eliminated any speculation about who would start Week 1. In a surprise move, general manager Omar Khan dealt Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a modest return. The Steelers gave up a fourth-round pick (No. 120) and Pickett in exchange for a third-round pick (No. 98) and a pair of 2025 seventh-round picks. It illustrated how much Pickett’s stock had fallen: from the 20th pick in 2022 to a mid-round pick swap in 2024.

Read more here.

OT Tyron Smith and the Jets have agreed to terms, per source.

More to come.

I remember this like it happened just yesterday.

It was my first week of Los Angeles Rams practice in 2020 — really, a first week back for many after COVID-19 lockdowns, but for me it also was my first real week on the beat.

Of course I wanted to see Aaron Donald in person. He was already a legend many times over who was whispered about in awed tones in other NFL buildings I’d covered. I had already heard plenty of gripes about how long it took to game plan for him. A coach tipped me off: Spend your first days watching him practice. If I did that, I’d understand everything there was to know about Aaron, and so too what the Rams were all about.

So I stood behind the hit sled as defensive line drills began. He was smaller than I thought — mythological beings usually are, when you meet them — and as he took his stance in the lead spot of the drilling line, I held my phone up and started to record. Thud. Thud. Donald didn’t hit the sled, that’s not the right way to describe it. He assessed its physics with fluid, assertive movements. In his hands, the sled wasn’t a sled. It was a tool, and also it was doomed.

Suddenly, he flicked his arms and wrists to swipe across the pad and he burst to the side of the drill. Watching my video later, I laughed. He moved too fast, my camera pan was too slow.

I did learn what I needed to know about Donald while watching practice that day, and every single day for the next four seasons.

He announced his retirement Friday morning, a bittersweet moment because he is at peace with his choice and we are selfish.

Read more here.

The Broncos are signing veteran linebacker Cody Barton, his agent announced in a social media post.

Barton, who is signing a one-year deal, last season played for the Washington Commanders. His four seasons before that were spent playing with the Seattle Seahawks, who selected him in the third round of the 2019 draft out of the University of Utah.

Barton, 27, was a rotational player during his first three seasons with the Seahawks, but he started 11 of the 17 games he played in 2022 and finished with a career-high 136 tackles. He followed that up with 121 tackles last season for the Commanders. He has been highly durable in his career, playing in 78 of a possible 82 games.

Barton could step into the starting role next to Alex Singleton. That job was vacated by Josey Jewell, who signed a three-year contract with the Panthers as an unrestricted free agent this week. The Broncos also re-signed Jonas Griffith, who missed all of last season due to injury, but started eight games in 2022.

Keenan Allen is on his way to Chicago, and the Los Angeles Chargers have now firmly navigated through their precarious salary cap situation.

After months of speculation about the Chargers’ big-four veterans contracts — Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa, Mike Williams and Allen — we have our answer, at least initially, on who is staying, who is going and at what price.

The Chargers cut Williams on Wednesday, saving $20 million in cap space. Mack and Bosa both agreed to restructured contracts, according to league sources. Mack agreed to his ahead of the new league year Wednesday. Bosa agreed to his Thursday ahead of a roster-bonus deadline. As part of those restructures, Mack took a $4.25 million pay cut, and Bosa took a $7 million pay cut, according to NFL Network. Mack’s restructure saves the Chargers $12.92 million in space, according to figures from Over the Cap. Bosa’s restructure will end up saving the Chargers around $11 million in cap space, based on the NFL Network report.

And then came Allen. The Chargers traded one of the best players in franchise history to the Chicago Bears for a fourth-round pick late Thursday night. According to league sources, the Chargers approached Allen about taking a pay cut, and he refused. The structure of the proposed pay cut was similar to the adjustments Bosa and Mack agreed to — slash some salary before restructuring the deal by converting part of the new total salary into a signing bonus. That would have allowed the Chargers to use bonus proration over two years to clear space. The Chargers and Allen could not come to terms, and that is when trade talks picked up, according to a league source. The trade saves the Chargers an additional $23.1 million in space.

Read more here.

The Pittsburgh Steelers traded quarterback Kenny Pickett and a fourth-round draft pick (No. 120) to the Philadelphia Eagles for a third-rounder (No. 98) and two seventh-rounders in 2025.

Read the trade‘s grades here.

The Los Angeles Rams are signing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to a one-year deal, league sources said. ESPN was first to report the news.

More to come.

Can confirm that former Eagles guard Sua Opeta is signing with the Buccaneers, per source.

The Eagles enter free agency with a few others in line ahead of Opeta. They’ll be seeking to fill in right guard as Cam Jurgens is expected to slide to center.

The Dallas Cowboys no longer have anyone left on their roster from their 2018 draft class. The team announced Friday that they have released WR Michael Gallup and LB Leighton Vander Esch.

Gallup, a third-round pick in 2018, was designated a post-June 1 cut, which saves Dallas $9.5 million against this year’s salary cap but will count $8.7 million in 2025.

The Cowboys signed Gallup to a five-year, $57.5 million extension in March of 2022, two months after he suffered a torn ACL and MCL. The hope was that he’d recover and perform like the team’s No. 2 wide receiver. But that never happened. Gallup continued to fall on the depth chart. Currently, Dallas’ top three wide receivers are CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks and Jalen Tolbert. The Cowboys also think highly of WRs KaVontae Turpin and Jalen Brooks.

Vander Esch, Dallas’ first-round pick in 2018, missed 12 games last season with a neck injury. His release was a failed physical designation. Vander Esch had a Pro Bowl rookie season but was never able to repeat that outstanding year. Dallas signed veteran LB Eric Kendricks on Friday. He’s expected to fill Vander Esch’s role as a quarterback of the Cowboys’ defense this upcoming season.

General manager Howie Roseman’s strategy to organize the defensive line’s perimeter is closer to reaching its conclusion. This all began a month ago when the Eagles made it clear that Josh Sweat and Haason Reddick were both on the trading block. That effectively allowed the Eagles to gauge the market as they weighed how they’d approach two edge rushers who were entering the final years of their contracts.

It’s clear that Reddick, who is entering his age 30 season, is the most likely to be traded. His $21.8 million cap hit is scheduled to be the highest for Philadelphia in 2024. If they trade Reddick before June 1, another team could take on Reddick’s contract, and the Eagles would have $1.2 million in cap savings in 2024, according to Over the Cap.

Philadelphia, which drafted Nolan Smith No. 30 overall in 2023, added to its surplus at the position by signing former New York Jets edge rusher Bryce Huff to a three-year, $51.1 million deal in free agency. Huff, 25, showed promise in a breakout season last year with 10 sacks and 10 tackles for loss, which the Eagles hope will help preserve the effectiveness of their pass rush while also resetting the clock of their collective age at the position.

Read more here.

Panthers have their safety. It’s a one-year deal for Jordan Fuller, according to a league source.

Fuller reunites with Ejiro Evero and Jonathan Cooley, both of whom were on the defensive staff in Los Angeles.

Aaron Rodgers once said Green Bay was a free-agent destination primarily because guys wanted to play with him. He likely wasn’t wrong.

Based on what Josh Jacobs and McKinney said Friday, it seems as if in-season ability wasn’t the only thing Rodgers transferred to his heir. Don’t get it twisted: money will always have a significant pull. But what Jordan Love did in his first full season as the starting quarterback appears to have made waves around the league.

“I was telling people when we were scouting, when we were playing them last year, I seen him make some throws a lot of people can’t do,” Jacobs said. “Running backwards on one foot and slinging it on a dime. That kind of got me excited when I just started thinking about, watching film on him, and just to see the way he throws the ball effortlessly and the grit he plays with. I’m very excited to play with him.

“To have a guy so young and playing as well as he has and a guy that’s going to be around for a long time, it’s fun to have something stable and know what you’re going to get out of a guy week in and week out, so that’s very exciting for me.”

McKinney and his former team, the Giants, made Love have one of his worst games last season. In fact, McKinney recovered Love’s crucial fumble in the middle of the second quarter with Green Bay on the edge of the red zone in an eventual 24-22 Giants win. Even so, the 24-year-old safety said Love was a “big factor” in his decision to join the Packers after the Giants didn’t tag him.

“It’s a competitive league and you need an elite quarterback to be able to even have a chance,” McKinney said. “I believe that he is an elite quarterback. Obviously, I played against him and I watched him play and I think he’s really good and the sky’s the limit for him. I know he’s a great leader — I’ve heard great things about him — so it’s going to be real fun being a part of this team and being able to go to work with these guys every day.”

Read more here.

The Steelers are trading QB Kenny Pickett to the Eagles, per source.

Eagles get:

QB Kenny Pickett

4th-round pick (No. 120)

Steelers get:

3rd-round pick (No. 98)

2025 7th-rounders (their two highest)

More to come.

Running back A.J. Dillon is officially back with the Packers after passing a physical and signing a new deal on Friday. Quarterback Jordan Love's reaction shows his approval for the Quadfather's return as he will team up with new signing Josh Jacobs in Green Bay's backfield.