Hogs Haven
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
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NFL teams — particularly those that need to open up cap space — have already begun releasing veteran players who were, prior to release, under contract in 2025.
Those players become immediate free agents, able to sign with any team right away. This contrasts with players on expiring contracts, who will become free agents at the start of the new league year (4pm on March 12th, 2025).
GMs who are trying to beef up their offseason rosters ahead of March’s free agent frenzy and April’s draft may want to take a close look at these veterans, many of whom are older, and may need to accept a short-term, low-dollar contract to stay in the league for another season or two.
A few of the players released this week:
Three of the players in this list were cut by the Dolphins this week, which is no surprise because Over the Cap projects Miami’s Effective Cap Space to be $13.7m over the cap in 2025 even after cutting these three veterans.
Let’s take a brief look at these 4 players, each of whom plays a position at which the Commanders need to build quality depth.
Smythe was a 4th round pick of the Dolphins in 2018, and has spent his entire career in Miami. Over his 7-year career, he has played in 112 games with 74 starts. He is a capable pass catcher (75.4% career completion rate) who averaged 186 receiving yards per season, but with two seasons (‘21 & ‘23) with over 350 yards each. With a 617% success rate, he has been a productive receiver when targeted.
Annual PFF blocking grades that range from 53.6 to 68.3 indicate that he is also a capable blocker. The 29-yr-old out of Notre Dame is 6’6”, 246 pounds, and would likely be the kind of all-round TE that could help Washington bridge the gap between recalibration and perennial playoff contender.
Smythe, who was set to count $4.8m against the Dolphins 2025 cap space, could likely be signed on a 1- or 2-year deal averaging less than the $3.9m APY extension he signed with Miami in 2023.
Mostert bounced around the league for about three years after going undrafted in 2015 before bursting into the national NFL consciousness in 2019 with the 49ers, when he ran for 772 yards at 5.6 yards per carry. In 2020, he ran for over 550 yards in just 8 games due to a pair of ankle injuries that put him on...
