JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The NFL’s new league year opened on Wednesday afternoon, and with it, a quiet start to free agency for the Jaguars.
Pinched by the salary cap, Jacksonville largely took a breather at the start of the free agency period as teams around the league unveiled signings and trades at a rapid pace. Most of Wednesday’s activity was agreed to during the NFL’s legal tampering period, so there was little suspense once the 4 p.m. window officially started the 2026 season.
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According to multiple reports, the team added running back Chris Rodriguez Jr., a fourth-year player from the Commanders. Rodriguez has rushed for 920 yards and 10 touchdowns in his career. He’ll join a backfield that presents major opportunities after Travis Etienne’s departure.
The team’s biggest deals were retaining its own free agents. Cornerback Montaric Brown, linebacker Dennis Gardeck and tight end Quintin Morris all re-signed with the Jaguars earlier this week on team-friendly contracts. It’s a much different look to the new league year as a 13-4 team up against the salary cap than a 4-13 one with money to burn and question marks all over the place.
As reported throughout the week, the Jaguars saw notable players Devin Lloyd (Panthers), Travis Etienne (Saints) and Greg Newsome II (Giants) head to other teams when the new league year started at 4. According to multiple reports safety Andrew Wingard signed with the Cardinals, opening up a spot in the secondary for the Jaguars.
Lloyd was coming off his best season, earning second-team All-Pro honors in his fourth season. His inconsistency throughout his first three seasons kept the Jaguars from picking up his fifth-year option, and the team was prepared to lose him in free agency.
Etienne played out his fifth-year option but was a longshot to return to the team with its tight salary cap situation. Plus, the Jaguars invested in two running backs in last year’s draft (Bhayshul Tuten, LeQuint Allen) and re-signed Deejay Dallas. It’s likely that Jacksonville will address running back in the draft after signing Rodriguez on Wednesday.
Newsome was the return in an in-season salary dump of Tyson Campbell, and didn’t play well enough in his time with the team to earn a new deal with Jacksonville.
That’s a far different start in the second year of the James Gladstone and Liam Coen era. The Jaguars needed to elevate a hole-filled roster that was coming off a 4-13 season and a hard franchise reset, so they opened owner Shad Khan’s checkbook in an effort to “raise the floor” of one of the league’s worst teams.
That included big money deals to sign cornerback Jourdan Lewis, guard Patrick Mekari, center Robert Hainsey and receiver Dyami Brown. There’s far more restraint this year, largely because of salary cap issues that took some cap gymnastics to solve.
Jacksonville had numerous restructures and releases to clean up a cap that is saddled with more than $51 million in dead money charges, according to Spotrac. That includes a whopping $41 million in cap charges for Gabe Davis, Tyson Campbell and Darnell Savage, all of whom signed big deals or extensions under Trent Baalke and Doug Pederson.