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Ben Solak
Mar 11, 2026, 06:30 AM ET
And just like that, NFL
free agency is over!
Well, not really. It
actually starts on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET -- but as ESPN's
Adam Schefter rightfully bemoaned earlier this week, let's just start calling
the legal negotiation period (which began Monday) the real opening of free
agency. Almost all of the significant dust has settled on major movers and
new deals.
I like to hand out awards
after the early parts of every free agent period. These aren't awards for
biggest winners (your favorite team, surely) and biggest losers (the team that
stole your favorite free agent targets, surely). My colleague Bill Barnwell hit
all those on Tuesday. This is for the sillier stuff. The Market Buster Award.
The Friendship Award. The Arch Manning Seat Warmer Award.
Intrigued? I sure hope so.
The Market Buster Award: Tyler Linderbaum
Yes, $27 million per year. 27! Twenty. Seven.
When the Raiders signed Linderbaum to a three-year, $81 million
deal Monday, they reset the center market in a way that markets simply
don't get reset in the NFL. The then-biggest deal at center was Creed
Humphrey's deal at $18 million per year. Linderbaum's $27 million per year
represents a 50% increase at the top. Unfathomable.
Here's a current look at the biggest contract at every position in the
NFL by APY and what a new contract would have to hit in order to create a
proportional increase to the "Linderbaum Leap" (copyright Ben Solak
2026, nobody else is allowed to use that without my written consent).
The 'Linderbaum Leap' at every position
|
Position |
Current biggest
contract (APY) |
50% increase |
|
QB |
$60.0M |
$90.0M |
|
RB |
$20.6M |
$30.9M |
|
WR |
$40.3M |
$60.5M |
|
TE |
$19.1M |
$28.7M |
|
OT |
$28.5M |
$42.8M |
|
G |
$24.0M |
$36.0M |
|
DT |
$31.8M |
$47.7M |
|
Edge |
$46.5M |
$69.8M |
|
LB |
$21.0M |
$31.5M |
|
CB |
$30.1M |
$45.2M |
|
S |
$25.1M |
$37.7M |
|
K |
$6.5M |
$9.8M |
Think about this: A team would have to pay an edge rusher $70 million
or a running back over $30 million or a defensive tackle almost $50 million to
get a proportionate jump. I only included
kicker at the bottom because it might actually happen this year; Brandon
Aubrey's negotiations with the Cowboys could get him around $10
million per year, which would be a 50% increase over Ka'imi Fairbairn's
newly minted $6.5 million-per-year deal.
It's very easy to look at the
Raiders, who entered the period with over $100 million in cap space, and shrug
at the Linderbaum deal. Why not sign him for whatever exorbitant figure ensured
he took his services to Las Vegas and nowhere else? (This, of course, was a
much easier argument to make before Maxx Crosby's $30 million cap hit was
suddenly catapulted back onto the Raiders' cap when the Ravens failed his
physical and backed out of the trade. But it's the best Las Vegas knew at
the time!)
This perspective is fine, but
it doesn't change the fact that $27 million is an enormous number. Linderbaum
is the sixth-highest-paid offensive lineman in all of football on this deal --
below only four left tackles and one right tackle. We've simply never seen an interior offensive
lineman valued like this.
It's interesting to try to
figure out when Linderbaum's deal will get beat. The league's best centers on
rookie contracts are Zach Frazier (Pittsburgh) and Graham
Barton (Buccaneers). Both were drafted in 2024 and are extension eligible
after the upcoming season. Barton has a fifth-year option of team control;
Frazier will be a free agent in 2028. We'll know how the Linderbaum deal has
fallen for the Raiders by then, but if it goes well, more teams might be
willing to pay their centers more than their guards -- and close to their
tackles.
It's a trend to watch. But
who knows what's really going to happen. We're in uncharted waters here -- $27 million worth of
uncharted waters.