Juan Thornhill says free agent market is trash after signing with Browns

Former Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill is apparently not happy at all about the state of the free agent market these days.

In case you wanted to know how he felt, Juan Thornhill does not approve of this year’s free agency period. 

Thornhill has been looking forward to this offseason for a long time, as every NFL player hopes to realize his goals of being paid the big bucks in free agency after putting in their time with the team that drafted them. For Thornhill, that meant playing the last four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Earlier this spring, Thornhill found a new home in free agency with the Cleveland Browns on a three-year deal. Since the signing, he has sounded positive and even excited to be with his new team. He’s been hyped after talking to his new defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz, and he also stated the team has the pieces to make the Super Bowl.

However, on Monday, Thornhill posted the sort of tweet that would sound like a record needle scratching—if social media posts could make noise.

At first, it would be easy to read that and think that Thornhill was actually unhappy with his own situation. After all, most players don’t get the full amount of money or the range in years that they would like to see (see “Brown, Orlando”). But Thornhill qualified his remarks about the “complete trash” market by referring to other players in the first place.

Perhaps the Chiefs are even a part of this because a lot of vets are settling for one-year contracts in free agency, especially those signed after the initial wave. That means there are seemingly more prove-it deals being handed out than ever before, the type that JuJu Smith-Schuster just signed a year ago at this time in order to bet on himself and re-enter the market (which worked, by the way).

This year, the Chiefs grabbed former Buccaneers safety Mike Edwards and former Chargers linebacker Drue Tranquill on one-year contracts. They also brought back some of their own players like Nick Allegretti on the same.

It’s true that teams are getting smarter about their commitments, but it’s also good for the health of an organization to not tie up money at the middling talent level knowing that so many college prospects are now coached well enough to contribute early. Just ask the Chiefs who leaned heavily on first-year players, especially on defense, during their Super Bowl run.

We’re not sure what Thornhill wants to do here, because the collective bargaining agreement is in place and it’s not as if anyone is going to stage a strike anytime soon. Would Thornhill give up his new-found riches in order to try to put pressure on owners? It seems like the only thing he can do is sit back and watch the trash market unfold.