The next day in the free agency period has just come to a close. We got some exciting news to report around the league. Some players re-signed with their respective franchises while others surprisingly left to ink larger deals.
The first big move of the day was when the Green Bay Packers gave an extension to Preston Smith. Smith received a pretty substantial four-year, $52.5 million deal to stick around with the team long-term. The Packers also made it clear that Za’Darius Smith would be getting released from the team.
The Atlanta Falcons jumped into the action next by retaining their starting left tackle. Jake Matthews was a vital piece to the Atlanta offensive line and this squad badly needs to improve in that area. Keeping Matthews on a three-year, $52.5 million deal is a surefire way to do just that.
We then saw the Miami Dolphins hold onto Emmanuel Ogbah on a four-year, $65 million contract. There were a lot of people out there than anticipated the Dolphins just using their franchise tag on the defensive end. Instead, they locked him up for good with this deal.
The Los Angeles Rams made sure to hold onto two key offensive linemen now that Andrew Whitworth decided to retire. The legendary tackle will leave a bit of a hole on the line, but Los Angeles has done their best to cover it up. They re-signed Joe Noteboom to a three-year, $40 million deal. However, he has certain incentives that could increase the number to $47.5 million. In the same announcement, the Rams said that they re-signed center Brian Allen as well to hold this line down. He also got a three-year contract.
The Cleveland Browns got into the news this day, but not in a good way. They announced that they will be releasing Jarvis Landry following the acquisition of Amari Cooper.
The Cincinnati Bengals hopped in with some major moves themselves. Everybody knew that they needed to fill some holes if they wanted to get back into the Super Bowl. They started by nabbing former Buccaneers guard Alex Cappa to a four-year, $40 million contract. Cincinnati also decided to steal another offensive lineman, this time signing former Patriot Ted Karras to a three-year $18 million deal. Oh, and they re-signed defensive tackle B.J. Hill to a three-year, $30 million deal.
Click here to take a look at the rest of the moves that were done so far in free agency. Along with some of the other moves from this day that we included in a different post.