This article is part of our NFL Free Agency series.
This post will keep track of Friday's big free agency news in the NFL. For a comprehensive selection of other NFL offseason content check out our other articles on the subject, including the free agency reports from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We also have the following to ready you for draft battle:
Friday News
-The biggest free agency development Friday was probably JuJu Smith-Schuster returning to Pittsburgh on a one-year deal. Smith-Schuster reportedly was offered slightly more money by Kansas City and Baltimore, but he opted to return to Pittsburgh for another year. Lining up in the slot was a burdensome chore for Smith-Schuster last year, whose injury history isn't alleviated any by the amount of impact-collision blocking he has to do at a position that basically functions like a move tight end in a spread offense. Ben Roethlisberger couldn't release quickly enough or generate enough zip to make quality throws to Smith-Schuster in the congested middle of the field, which explains Diontae Johnson's 144 targets as the designated outside receiver, were there was substantially less traffic. Perhaps teams pay more attention to Johnson in 2021, freeing up Smith-Schuster for better looks than he saw in the prior year, but Johnson's brutal inefficiency from 2020 mostly signals that defenses should keep playing Pittsburgh the same way.
To this point in the month Smith-Schuster had been going 30th among wide receivers (65.26) in
This post will keep track of Friday's big free agency news in the NFL. For a comprehensive selection of other NFL offseason content check out our other articles on the subject, including the free agency reports from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We also have the following to ready you for draft battle:
Friday News
-The biggest free agency development Friday was probably JuJu Smith-Schuster returning to Pittsburgh on a one-year deal. Smith-Schuster reportedly was offered slightly more money by Kansas City and Baltimore, but he opted to return to Pittsburgh for another year. Lining up in the slot was a burdensome chore for Smith-Schuster last year, whose injury history isn't alleviated any by the amount of impact-collision blocking he has to do at a position that basically functions like a move tight end in a spread offense. Ben Roethlisberger couldn't release quickly enough or generate enough zip to make quality throws to Smith-Schuster in the congested middle of the field, which explains Diontae Johnson's 144 targets as the designated outside receiver, were there was substantially less traffic. Perhaps teams pay more attention to Johnson in 2021, freeing up Smith-Schuster for better looks than he saw in the prior year, but Johnson's brutal inefficiency from 2020 mostly signals that defenses should keep playing Pittsburgh the same way.
To this point in the month Smith-Schuster had been going 30th among wide receivers (65.26) in BestBall10 drafts while Johnson went 45.04 and Chase Claypool 55.74. It will be interesting to watch whether any of them slide in light of Smith-Schuster's return.
-ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio reported that Kenny Golladay is looking for $18.5 million per year as a free agent, which might do a lot to explain why Golladay hasn't been signed yet. He's not objectively more useful to a team than Curtis Samuel, who agreed to an under $12 million per year on a three-year deal with Washington.
-The Bengals cut Geno Atkins, one of the best defensive tackles of the past decade. The Bengals could have moved A.J. Green, Carlos Dunlap and Atkins for a substantial haul of assets a year or two ago, but instead Cincinnati squandered all of it. Catastrophic team management.
-Tackle Riley Reiff agreed to a one-year deal with Cincinnati, which casts some confusion over who they might pick with the fifth overall selection in the 2021 draft. Oregon tackle Penei Sewell was the heavy favorite before, but now the Bengals have both Reiff and Jonah Williams as options at tackle. They cut the impressively bad Bobby Hart otherwise.
-The Bills agreed to a one-year deal with Jacob Hollister, pairing the former Wyoming tight end with his college quarterback. Hollister was one of Allen's lead pass catchers there, which makes the reunion somewhat interesting, but it's not clear whether Hollister has any realistic shot of stealing snaps from the bigger, more athletic Dawson Knox.
-The Texans traded for Ryan Finley, sending him there as the QB3 behind Tyrod Taylor. Finley can't play -- they'd be better off moving him to receiver.
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