The NFL Combine brought some big news and a massive trade

The 2025 NFL Combine has come and gone and it caused the predictable amount of chaos.

Last week here at The Skinny Post we, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, discussed how a hypothetical Matthew Stafford trade didn’t seem like it would really benefit anyone. Stafford was talked about as the week wore on and ultimately got a new deal from the Los Angeles Rams, which rendered all trade talk moot.

But the first trade of the offseason did still happen while the Combine was rolling on as the San Francisco 49ers sent Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders. The franchise tag deadline is this week, legal tampering and free agency kick off next week… things are moving and grooving.

The Commanders are officially going for it… right?

Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images

RJ:

The greatest gift in football is a quarterback on a rookie contract. Most teams do everything they can to capitalize on it and Washington is proving to be smart in this bare minimum sort of sense (not a shot at them).

We used the phrase “going for it” here which I agree with, but I would add that we should be better in terms of what clears our bar for that as football fans. This is an example of the Commanders trying to improve and to maximize an important window, yes, but we should expect teams to do these obvious things.

Something like this from Washington specifically feels a bit rare given who they have been, but my goodness have they turned a corner as a franchise. Deebo is not who he once was, but the in-division rivals of the Commanders are proof that you don’t have to have everybody be a superhero all of the time. If you add a ton of really good players to your roster then your floor and room for error at large are much higher.

Michael:

I really like this move for the Commanders. The cost of a fifth-round draft pick is super ideal to land a player like Deebo Samuel, and his skillset — even if he’s not the same guy like you said — fits really well with Kliff Kingsbury’s offense in Washington. On top of Daniels’ dual-threat ability, you now add Samuel’s dual-threat ability, to go with Austin Ekeler’s dual-threat ability, to go with studs like Terry McLaurin and Brian Robinson Jr.

This isn’t the flashiest offensive skill group in the NFL, but like you said, they’ve got a handful of really solid players who can be elevated by a good play-caller and overall great team synergy. It’s the same formula the Ravens have utilized with Lamar Jackson and we have seen just how consistently successful that has been in recent years.

Which prospect is your biggest winner from the NFL Combine?

Michael:

There were a lot of standout performers at this year’s NFL Combine but one that stood out the most to me was the freakish safety from South Carolina, Nick Emmanwori. The guy is 6’3, 220 pounds and ran a blazing 4.38 in the 40-yard dash. His 43-inch vertical is a top-3 mark in the history of the event while his 20 reps on the bench press were the most among his position this year.

Daniel Jeremiah and Rich Eisen were making D.K. Metcalf comparisons on the broadcast and I think that’s pretty darn accurate after the show Emmanwori put on at his size.

RJ:

I’m going to stick with one of my own and offer Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo.

Skattebo took the college football world by storm with how the Sun Devils stormed to a Big 12 title in their first season in the conference behind him and then with an all-time performance in a Peach Bowl loss. TL;DR, he is a college football legend.

Some people assumed this would just stick to CFB though and that his disposition (he runs hard) would not translate to the NFL, but he tested fairly well and really stood out in the vertical jump.

It is Cam Skattebo’s world, even if you do not know it yet.

Signing Aaron Rodgers feels like a bad idea for just about anyone

Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images

RJ:

As noted up top, we are about a week away from the NFL offseason taking off into a different dimension. Aaron Rodgers seems to have enjoyed occupying an alternate dimension over the last couple of years, and it looks as if he is going to drag another NFL team into it with him soon enough.

Matthew Stafford staying in LA obviously takes the Rams off of the list of squads who would pursue Rodgers, but we have seen NFL teams do just about anything in the name of finding a capable quarterback. The position is that important.

At this time the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders feel like the most probable destinations for Rodgers, but do we really need to see this? Is there a single one of us who thinks it will go even moderately well?

Again, some team is going to talk themselves into it being a decent idea. But the overwhelming odds are that it isn’t.

Michael:

I’m of the camp that Aaron is on the same swiftly descending slope that Peyton Manning underwent during his last year or so in Denver. There are still flashes that remind us of the vintage version of the player we’re watching, but for the most part it was a bit sad seeing him struggle in New York. And to be honest, I don’t think it was the players around him as much as Rodgers made it seem like it was.

A QB-needy team like the Giants could probably stand to use him as a bridge quarterback while drafting another either this year or next, but Rodgers’ time in the spotlight is quickly dwindling. As you mentioned, the Raiders are the other team that could use his services for at least one season, but none of his apparent options have a roster better than the Jets did in 2024.

Will the Bengals regret franchise-tagging WR Tee Higgins?

Michael:

The Bengals officially used the franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins for the second time in as many seasons. This year, the tag will pay Higgins $26 million unless both sides are able to come together on a long-term deal ahead of the 2025 season.

Is this the right move for the Bengals as they attempt to push themselves back over the hump? The inevitable Ja’Marr Chase extension is likely to reset the market for the position and it’s not like Higgins’ potential deal will be all that team friendly either after the way he ended the 2024 campaign. The Bengals obviously have issues. The defense was horrid and the offensive line was pretty rough protecting Joe Burrow.

When the Bengals made the Super Bowl, they did it with a strong defense backing up Burrow while the offensive line was still in shambles. They can’t go into the 2025 season with both glaring issues still in place and expect to improve on their most recent season. Will they be able to plug up enough holes on the roster with the remaining cap space following a new deal for Higgins? I guess time will tell.

RJ:

My overall standpoint here is that you pay to keep good football players around. When you start to worry about the minutiae of how it is all put together then you start to find yourself in some pickles in my mind.

Is it ideal to have so much money tied up on offense? No, obviously not. You would prefer to be much more balanced in an overall sense.

But Tee Higgins is a great player and can help the Bengals more than he can help anybody. Even if this is just a one-year thing on the second tag… it is logical.

Good for Cincinnati. I trust them.