March 9, 2026, 6:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
The start of the NFL legal tampering period gets underway at noon ET on Monday. During the NFL legal tampering period, clubs are permitted to contact, and enter into contract negotiations with agents of players who will become unrestricted free agents.<\/p>\n
Though no contracts can be finalized until the start of the new league year on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET, there will be a flurry of activity on Monday.<\/p>\n
In his look at NFL free agency buzz<\/a>, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler shared a nugget about a Detroit Lions<\/a> free agent.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Chicago Bears<\/a>\u00a0freed up around $17 million in cap space with the\u00a0D.J. Moore<\/a>\u00a0trade, which they will need in free agency to aid the defense. Yes, they could use pass-rush help. But I don’t sense Chicago is desperate for a splashy pass rusher. Much will depend on price. Interior rush help could be the way to go. To replace\u00a0Tremaine Edmunds<\/a>,\u00a0Alex Anzalone<\/a>\u00a0is a name to watch. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was with him in New Orleans and he’s good in coverage. – Jeremy Fowler, ESPN<\/p>\n It would be a tough pill for Lions<\/a> fans to swallow watching Alex Anzalone get scooped up by reigning NFC North champion and division rival Chicago. The Bears<\/a> are looking to revamp their defense to complement their young star quarterback Caleb Williams.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Anzalone has been a defensive mainstay over the past five seasons in Detroit, starting 73 games and amassing 490 tackles, 32 quarterback hits, 26 tackles for loss and nine sacks.<\/p>\n The Florida alum is entering his 10th NFL season and will be 32 years old in September.<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 9, 2026, 6:45 a.m. ET The start of the NFL legal tampering period gets underway at noon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[95878,374,692,391,2493,7,6,52959,96502,98045,95882,96164,96089,96242,95892,95893,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-802177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bears","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfllions","16":"tag-sstsnlions","17":"tag-tagalex-anzalone","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagcaleb-williams","20":"tag-tagchicago-bears","21":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","22":"tag-tagespn-inc","23":"tag-tagfacebook","24":"tag-tagnational-sports","25":"tag-tagnfl","26":"tag-tagnfl-hub","27":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116198843696303920","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}