In a 2026 market where the cap keeps climbing and position after position keeps getting reset with massive paydays, a front office that waits to extend a star player could end up spending significantly more money in the long run.
On PFN’s “The Hot List,” NFL analyst Ian Cummings ranked the five players most likely to sign extensions before the regular season, and the names double as a warning about the cost of standing still.
Top-5 NFL Extension Candidates
Start in Tennessee, where guard Peter Skoronski came in at No. 5. The Titans exercised his fifth-year option at $19.07 million for 2027, an easy call for a lineman who has started 34 straight games and rates as the team’s most reliable blocker by PFN’s OL Impact metric. Skoronski’s job is to protect former No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward, and he “is quickly developing into one of the better guards in the league with his tone-setting physicality,” Cummings argued.
The Chargers face a steeper bill at No. 4. Tuli Tuipulotu, a second-round pick in 2023, posted a team-high 13 sacks and 70 pressures in 2025 and made his first Pro Bowl, all before turning 24. The top of the edge market now starts north of $28 million a year. Los Angeles came into the offseason with one of the league’s largest cap reserves and every reason to act. “For his youth, he’s already playing at an incredibly high level,” Cummings noted, calling his ceiling “scary to think about.”
Detroit Lions star Jahmyr Gibbs sits at No. 3, and his $14.29 million option already looks like a steal. Saquon Barkley reset the running back market at $20.6 million a year, and Gibbs, a three-time Pro Bowler coming off 1,839 scrimmage yards, profiles as the back most likely to beat it. “He’s too vital, he’s too important, too indispensable,” Cummings said.
Why Zay Flowers, Christian Gonzalez Should Be First in Line for Extensions
The two names that arguably should already be done sit at the top.
Zay Flowers landed at No. 2, and the clock is ticking. Jaxon Smith-Njigba just reset the receiver record at $42.15 million a year, and Puka Nacua is lined up to push it higher. Baltimore can still get Flowers, the clear No. 1 target for Lamar Jackson, under that ceiling if it moves fast (with estimates around $35 million per year for Flowers). According to PFN’s WR Impact Score, Flowers was tied for the sixth-best WR in the NFL last season with an 86.2 grade, so the Ravens have no reason to drag their feet on this deal.
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“The Ravens don’t have a great track record when it comes to drafting wide receivers, but Zay Flowers has been a very refreshing change of pace since joining the team as a first-round pick in 2023…” Cummings said. “He’s the only Ravens draft pick at wide receiver ever to accumulate two 1,000-yard seasons, with hopefully many more to come for the wide receiver.
At No. 1 is Christian Gonzalez, and his case is the cleanest on the board. The New England Patriots picked up his option at $18.1 million, and the cornerback market is the next domino to fall. A second-team All-Pro in 2024 and a Pro Bowler in 2025, he projects to clear $32 million a year on his next deal. Every month the Patriots wait, that number climbs.
“He has swiftly developed into one of the best corners in the nation,” Cummings argued. “In 2025, he allowed a QB rating of just 64.4, but his best play came in the games that mattered most. In the playoffs, he registered a 40% forcing completion percentage, 1 interception, 7 pass deflections, and was quietly very, very good in the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks… And there’s reason to believe the best is yet to come.”
All five of these situations are worth watching. The cap won’t shrink, and the players who get paid first almost always get paid the least.
