NFL Free Agency Grades AFC.
The Free Agency Period Of The NFL Technically Never Ends least not Until Players And Teams Hitting The Market For Talent Around The Time Of The Playoffs However The Early Window Of the New League Year Settles Downs After The First Three Days Of The Signing Period and The Best Players Available Agree To Terms With Teams. Handing Out Grades Doesnt Stand Up Against Reason —Professors Don’t Hand Out Grades Before The Semesters At Least Not Reliable One—Because The True Value Of These Deals Havent Hit The Field Yet But Projecting Who Scored A Value And Who Didnt Just Didnt Get Great Value For Their Money Based On Projection. The NFL Media Complex Likes To Cast Free Agency As A Time When Teams Improve, Retool and Rebuild Their Roster For A Super Bowl But Not Every Team Improves During Free Agency And Some Got Down Right Striped Down. The Spike In The Salary Cap Allowed Some Teams To Retain Talents Most Expected To Hit The Board Which Lead To A Quiet Wide Receiver Market. I’ll Attempt To Keep These Brief But I’ll Grade Every Teams Free Agency Thus Far Division By Division:
AFC South:
Jacksonville Jaguars—The Jaguars traded wide receiver Christian Kirk to the Texans and then signed former commanders wide out Dyami Brown to a one-year, 10 million dollar deal. Brown flashed His 4.4 Speed Last Season As A Down Field Threat With The Commanders For The Past Four Season, Never Consistently Gaining Reps But The Former Star Heel Could See An Expanded Role In Liam Coen’s Offense and Possibly Push Davis As The Number Two. The Jags Have Constantly Shuffled Their Pass Catchers in Recent Years. The Jaguars Added To The Secondary With Safety Eric Murray and Corner Jourdan Lewis and These Names Don’t Leap off the Pen But Few teams Played Passing Defense As badly as the Jags And Infusing Their Lineup With Any New Contributors Might Move The Needle In A Positive Direction. The Jags signed Two Tight Ends In Hunter Long and Johnny Mundt, None Of Whom Can Replace The Receiver Threat Of Even Engram But Tight Ends Didn’t Feature Much In Coen’s Offense WTH Baker Mayfield Targeting His Tight Ends At The Ninth Fewest Rate In The NFL Last Season Compared To The 234 Catches Engram Made In His Three Seasons In Northern Florida. The Jags Also Plugged In Three Offensive Linemen Guard Patrick Mekari, Center Robert Hainsey, and Tackle Chuma Edoga. Hainsey and Mekari Have Clear Paths To Start But The Jags Could Look To Upgrade Tackle In The Draft. Grade C.
Houston Texans—The Texans Made A Series Of Trades That Will Prove More Impactful To Their Offseason Than The Linch Pin Players They Signed. Starting Trading For For Jags’ Receiver Christian Kirk. The Former 1,000 Yard Receiver Kirk Missed Most Of Last Season With A Collarbone Injury But He’s Expected To Play The Slot Role With Receiver Tank Dell Expected To Miss All Of The Upcoming Season. The Move That Sent Shock Waves Through The League The Trade Of All-Pro Left Tackle Laremy Tunsil To Commanders For A Concession Of Draft Picks. The Move Earned The Texans Censure As Houston Fielded One Of The Worse Offensive Lines In Football With Tunsil Serving As The Lone Bright Spot. However, As Houston’s Roster Get Expensive In The Coming Years The Texans demonstrated A Level Of Prescience By Moving Tunsil’s Contract With Intent To Upgrade The Position Through The Draft Or A Cheaper Veteran. The Texans traded for defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson From the Eagles. Apart from The Trades, The Texans Add A Bevy Of Year Deals On Serviceable Players, Like Guard Laken Tomlinson, Defensive tackle Mario Edwards and Sheldon Rankins, and A Couple of Wide Receivers In Braxton Berrios and Justin Watson amongst Others. From These Moves, The Texans Make Clear They Intend To Lean On Their “Nucleus” Of Players And Fill Out The Roster Elsewhere.
Grade, B-.
Tennessee Titan— The Titans Have A Mighty Decision To Make Next Month But For Now, They’ve Started Putting In The Infatrsuture For Their Franchise Latest Center Piece. Whether The Titans Want To Keep Will Levis Or Move To Cam Ward will matter As The Team Plugs In New Left Tackle Dan Moore Jr. the Titans Pulled The Best Tackle On The Market Not Named Ronnie Stanley With A Four Year 82 Million Dollar Deal. Also Along The Offensive Line The Titans Plug Guard Kevin Zeitler In On A Year Deal That Fills A Void. The Titans Like The Texans Filled Out Their Roster With A lot of “Splashy” Moves One Year Plug And Play Moves. Tennessee Added Dre’Mont Jones To The Defensive Line With Hopes He Could Replace Some Of The Value Lost With Harold Landry Moved. The Team Added Xavier Wood To The Secondary at Safety and Cody Barton To The Linebacker Group. The Titans made a Serviceable Move and UpGraded The Offensive Line. Grade, B-.
Indianapolis Colts—The Colts Had The Quietest With Only Six Signings In Total But Possibly The Most Impactful Free Agency. The Daniel Jones Deal Stood Out As The Colts Add A Fringe Starter and A Capable Back To Shane Steichen’s Offense. The Addition Of Jones Gives The Colts The Perfect Situation As Jones Could Push Anthony Richardson But As A Backup But also Takeover As A Starter if Richardson Struggles. Some, Like Myself, Still Believe Daniel Jones Has Some Good Football Left In Him and He Could Find His Career Resurrected In Indy. Outside Of The Texans, the AFC South All Featured Secondaries That Struggled and the Colts added Two Of The Best Secondary Players Available In Chardavius Ward From The Niners and Cam Bynum From The Vikings. Ward Ranked Amongst The Best Corners During The Niners Super Bowl run But He Fell Off In Down year For The Niners Overall And He’ll Look To Bounce Back. Cam Bynum Picked Off Three Passes and Registered An 86.4 Passer Rating In His Last Year With The Vikings. Bynum Has Upside And We’ll Witness His Full Capability Outside Of Brian Flores’s System. The Colts Picked Up Three One-Year Deals In The Form
Of Cornerback Corey Ballentine, Runningback Kahlil Herbert, and Defensive Tackle Neville Gallimore.
Grade B+.
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens—The Ravens Won Free Agency On A Personal Level By Retaining The Services Of Left Tackle Ronnie Stanley On A Three 60 Million Dollar Deal. Protecting Lamar Jackson Presents A Unique Task And Maintaining The Continuity Up Front saves The Ravens from Resting The Position. The Ravens use The Rest Of Their Cap Space To Fill Their Roster by Adding A Vet Like DeAndre Hopkins At Receiver But Keeping A Lot Of Their Lesser Known Commodities Like Full Patrick Picard, Wide Receiver Tylan Wallace At Receiver, and Ben Cleveland At Guard. The Ravens also Added Cooper Rush As A Backup. The Ravens Didn’t Have Much Cap capacity to Work With But Keeping Stanley mattered most. The Ravens Also Signed Former Cowboys Back Up Cooper Rush To Back Up Lamar Jackson.
Grade, C+.
Cincinnati Bengals—
The Bengals Have Labored Through a Raucous Off Season. Edge Rusher Sam Hubbard Retired and The Team’s Other Edge Rusher Trey Hendrickson Remains The Hottest Topic In Terms of Trade Block/speculation. The Big News, The Bengals Got Deals Done For Both Ted Higgins and Jamar Chase. Chase Resets Not Only The Quarterback Market But The “Non-Quarterback” Market With A four-year, $161 million deal that includes a $112 million guaranteed $40.25 million Average. Higgins has a four-year, $115 million deal, guaranteed for the first two years. The Guaranteed Money In The Second Year Matters Because The Bengals Don’t Often Offer Second Year Guarantees. Truthfully The Deal Looks Like A Loss For Tee Who Could’ve Reset The Number Two Market As A Number One With Another team like The Chargers Or The Patriots But With The Ohio State Tax System, He Might Retain More Of His Earnings. The Bengals Will Also Invest Around $70 Million In Two Receivers, One With A Sketchy Injury History and an Offensive In Constant Need Of The Repair And Upgrade. The Bengals Spent The Rest Of Their Cap Securing The Rest Of Their Defensive Line By retaining DT BJ Hill on A Three Year Deal, DT Cam Sample On A One year As Well As Joseph Ossai On A One Year Deal. The Offense Also Retained Service Running back Samaje Perine. The Bengals Brought In Linebacker Oren Burks From The Eagles. The Bengals Will Depend On Their Defensive Front To Control The Defense As The Team Will Look To Upgrade The Secondary Through The Draft.
The Bengals reset The Market On Chase, But In Earnest, The team Simply Reset The Status Quo From Their 9-7 Record From A Season Ago. Theoretically, And Popularly Absurd, Trading Chase To Say Denver For Some Combination Of Defensive Help, Offensive Line Improvement(all pro-Quin Meinerz) and some Mid Round Draft Picks Could’ve Improved The Team.
Grade, C-.
Cleveland Browns—
The Browns' Offseason Began Inauspiciously With The Team Severely Ailing In Terms Of Cap Space. Facing A Trade Demand From Star
Edge Rusher Myles Garrett's Team assuaged Him With A Then Record-Setting Contract Setting The Edge Rusher Market. The Garrett Deal Demonstrates Brown’s Commitment To Winning Now But The Rest Of Their Settling On Upside. They Signed Former Bucs 1st Round Pick Joe Tyron Shoyinka. Shoyinka Despite His Build and Frane Hasn’t Lived Up To The Hype Coming Out Of Washington in 2021 But His Upside Remains Strong Despite Low Production. The Browns Have Virtually No Money To Take Swings On Guys Like Greg Robinson, Tyron Smith, Or Their Own Former Top 10 Pick Jedrick Willis To Protect whoever lines Up At Quarterback For The Foreseeable But They signed Former Commander Cornelius Lucas As A Swing Tackle And Hopefully, He Can Help Hold Off The Flood Of Pressure The Browns Quarterback Will Seek. The Browns Traded For Eagles Backup Kenny Pickett Who Could Prove The Teams’s Starter This Season With Watson Out For Possibly The Year.
The Browns Have A Lot of Money Wrapped Up In a Roster That Has A Long Way To Go.
Grade, D.
Pittsburgh Steelers— Free Agency Would’ve Proven Underwhelming For The Steelers Had The Team Not Picked Up Star Receiver DK Metcalf From The Seahawks In Exchange For Draft Picks. The Steelers Then Handed Metcalf A Five Year Contract Worth $30 Million Per Year. The Steelers Haven’t Settled On A Quarterback Yet and As Of This Writing Wait On Aaron Rodgers While Mulling Bringing Russell Wilson Back. Otherwise, The Steelers Like Most Every Other Team In This Division Signed A Hist Of Gap Stop One Year Deals With Guys Like Former Eagle Darius Slay At Corner. Slay Enjoyed A Bounce Back Year Last Season Before Becoming Redundant With The Presence Of Quinton Mitchell and Cooper Dejean. Running back Kenneth Gainwell Also Moves Cross State From Philly To Pittsburgh. The Offense Also Brought Back Mason Rudolph And Brought In Service Wide Receivers Ben Skowornek And Scott Miller For Depth. The Steelers Added Defensive Depth With Veteran Safety Juan Thornhill and cornerback Brandin Echols and Brought In Malik Harrison At Linebacker. The Steelers Will Have To Replace The Services Of Dan Moore At Tackle. The DK Deal helps upgrade The Steelers On The Outside But With No Quarterback Just Yet The Steelers Have The Pieces But No Conductor.
Grade, C+
AFC East:
New England Patriots—
The Patriots Held The Most Money To Play With During Free Agency Which Indicated The Team Could Play A Crucial Role In The Allocation Of Big Time Players. Unfortunately In The NFL Players Often Times Gravitate Towards Success More Than Money And The Jump In The Cap Allowed Some Of The Better Free Agents To Remain With Their Incumbent Team Leaving The Patriots and Their Ailing Roster To Work With Fringe Free Agent Talent. The Patriots Invested Heavily On Defense Investing $245 MillioN(total Report contract Values) On Four Players, Starting With Eagles Defensive Tackle Milton Williams Who Enjoyed Playing On A Strong Eagles Front and Now Find Himself Gifted With Far More Expectations Than Just 48% Snaps He Played Last Year And Te Five Sacks He Generated. Paying Milton An Unproven Force, Top Billing Could Result In The Patriots Landing On A List For Bad free Agent Moves But The Patriots Had To Over Spend To Use The Cap and Attract Talent. New England Also Signed Former Titan Harold Landry, He’s An Edge Rusher With 50 Career Sacks and A Proven Quarterback Hunter. Robert Spillane From The Raiders Had A Solid Season Using His Speed As A Blitzer and In Coverage At Line Backer and He Too Played Under Coach Vrabel With The Titans. The Patriots Sign Cornerback Carlton Davis To Pair With Christian Gonzales On Outside Davis Has Allowed A Passer Rating Better Than 90 Just Twice In His Career Unfortunately He’s Played A Full Slate Of Games 0 Times In His Career. The Patriot's Offense Had Two Main Focuses Starting Tackle and Wide Receiver And to Whom Did They Pick Up Morgan Moses and Mack Hollins? Moses Has Played A lot Of Snaps Across His 12 12-year career And He’s Coming off an Injury Hollins Had Some Good Moments With The Bills But The Patriot's Offense Needs More Than Just “Good” Moments If the team Hopes To Improve. The Patriots Also Added Some Safety Depth With Jaylin Hawkins And Marcus Epps Edge Rushers With K’lavon Chaisson and Linebacker Jack Gibbons. Center Garrett Bradbury Filled Out The Offensive Line Improvements As He Replaces David Andrews. The Patriots Didn’t Hit The Marks The Team Projected To Aim At Given The Cap Space Available At The Start Of Free Agency. Truthfully The Roster Couldn’t Get Worse But For Expectation's Sake, The Patriots Flopped Even If They Couldn’t Control The Options Available In The Pool Of Free Agents.
Grade, B-.
New York Jets—
The Jets Had A Busy Season Like Nearly Every Season For The Jets Starting With Releasing The Tandem Of Quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Wide Receiver Davante Adams. Needing A New Option At Quarterback The Jets Signed Justin Fields To A Divisive But Justified Two Year 40 Million Dollar Deal 30 Million Dollars Guaranteed. The Jets Bet On Fields’s Upside With A One Year Out After The First Year, A Great Buy Considering The Still Untapped Potential Of Fields. The Team Secure Their Home Grown Talent In Jermaine Sherwood But Also Picked Up Former Commanders First Round Pick Jamin Davis A Great Athlete With High Upside to Add To The Jets stacked linebacking Group. The Jets Secondary Took A Hit With DJ Reed’s Departure But The Jets Pick Up Brandon Stephens From The Ravens, add Kris Boyd For Depth and former Jag Andre Cisco A High Upside Option At Safety. The Jets Also Added Several Defensive tackles like Derrick Nandi, Jay Tufele, and Byron Cowart To Play In Rotation Next To Quinnen Willaims. On The Josh Meyers Could Prove The Team’s Starting Center. As A Fields’s “Truther,” I Like This Free Agency For The Jets. The Free Agency Class Didn’t Include A Lot Of Outside Weapons So The Jets Will Have To Address The Tight End and Wide Receiver As Minor Moves For Wide Receiver Tyler Johnson and Stone Smart Won’t Move The Needle On The Season.
Grade, B.
Miami Dolphins—Did The Dolphins Have an Offseason? They Did But As A Franchise Strapped To Ground Cap Wise The Team Only Made Multiple Minor Moves. Zach Wilson Joins The Dolphins As A Back Which Gives Him A Better Chance At Starting, Given Tua’s Injury History, Than He Had In Denver. The Dolphins Lost Star Safety Jevon Holland To Free Agency But Brought Former Lion IFEATU MELIFONWU A Low-Risk High Upside Signing. Wide Receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine Comes Over From The Titans as The Dolphins Continue To Hint For That Third Receiver and Injury and Attitude Insurance For Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill Respectively. Larry Borom Adds Tackle Depth At Another Injury Prone Position At Offensive Tackle. The Dolphins' Defense Added A Couple Of Replacement Level Players On Defense To Surrounded Their Stalwarts With Corner Artie Burns, Ashtyn Davis at Safety, KJ Britt, and Tyrel Dodson At Linebacker. The Dolphins' Defense Hinges On The Health And Quality Of Their Stars As Their Role Players Need To Simply Function Competently. The Dolphins Also Signed Pharaoh Brown and running back Alexander Mattison, At Positions With an established Starter But In Need Of Depth. Truthfully I Like The Dolphins Free Agency, The Team Got A Lifeline Through The Cap Jump And They Still Wait For Terron Armstead To Announce His Decision on Whether To Play or Retire Still The Dolphins Just Added Some serviceable players.
Grade, B.
Buffalo Bills—Another Cash-Strapped Team The Bills Kick Off Free Agency By Signing MVP Quarterback Josh Allen To A New Deal A record-breaking $330 million with $250M guaranteed That Hurdled His Salary From A Reported $14.5 Million In 2025 To $58 Million. Allen Proved He’s Evolved Enough As A Player To Warrant Such an Explosive Rise In Salary. Allen Proved That He Can Win Without An Elite Wide Receiver Group But The Bills Made A Solid Pick With Former Charger Joshua Palmer A Solid Vertical Outside Threat Giving Him $12 million a year Comes Off As A Stretch. The Bills Also Signed Former Star Chargers Edge Rusher Joey Bosa. Bosa’s Star Has Fallen Like Lightning From The Sky. He’s No Longer The Fear Force Of The Edge But At Thirty He Fits The Role of a Situational Pass Rusher. The Bills Filled Out The Rest Of Their Free Agency With Replacement Level Players Like Defensive Tackle Larry Ogunjobi, edge Micheal Hoecht, Saftey Darrick Forest and Corner Dane Jackson. The Bills Didn’t Upgrade Any Position And Will Wait On The Draft To Escalate The Roster but instead Signed And Retain Functional Players Who Brought Value To The Existing Roster.
Grade, C-.
AFC West
Kansas City Chiefs—
The Chiefs Suffered an underwhelming Free Agency And Make Moves Hoping To Mind Gold Where Others Have Abandoned Starting Most Notably With Offensive Tackle Jaylon Moore's Backup With The Niners Who Could(And Most Likely Will) Jump Into The Starting Left Tackle Slot in Kansas City. Former Niners Runningback Elijah Mitchell Flashed Promise Rushing Behind Christian MacCaffrey With A Career Rushing Average Of 4.7 But Only When Healthy Which Happen Seldom Only Appearing in 27 Games In Three Season. The Team Retained Wide Receiver Marquise Brown The Speedster Never Gain His Footing With The Team After A Foot Injury But The Chiefs Hope Another Year In Their Offense Could Spring Loose Brown’s Latent Potential. Kareem Hunt Returns To The Starting Running Back Position. The Chiefs Defense Pick Up Former Kristian Fulton To Play Corner Opposite Trent mCDuffie A Tough spot For Anyone. Gardner Minchew Will Back Up Mahomes Coming Over From The Raiders. The Team Also Plugged In Some Defensive Depth With Jerry Tillery. The Chiefs' Lack Of Cap Space Didn’t Make Them A Number One Option For The “ Fringe” Free Agent Talents. The Franchise Has Fallen Into That Era that the Patriots Hit Where Everything Around The Quarterback Constantly Interchanes And now they’ll Lean On The Draft To Improve A Roster . grade C-.
Los Angeles Chargers—
The Chargers' Free Agency Itinerary Fell Apart Early As Most Of the Promising Wide Receiver Options Came Off The Board And Left Los Angeles To Seek Out A Familiar Face In Wide Receiver Mike Williams. Williams Returned To The Team That Drafted him And Extended Before Releasing Him Due To Cap And Injuries Issues. A 31-Year-Old Williams Can Again Make Big Plays With His Compadre Justin Herbert. The Chargers Also Sign Former Steelers First Round Pick Najee Harris A Productive But Less Attractive Back Due To His Rugged Play Style. The Charger wanted A Healthier Option At Running back And Not The More Explosive. Harris should See A lot Of action behind New Guard Mekhi Becton Whom The Chargers Picked Up From The Eagles To Improve The Interior Of The Line. The Chargers' Defense Resigned Kahlil Mack But The Secondary lost a lot Of Snaps by Letting Go Of Asante Samuel Jr. and Kristian Fulton But Signed Former Commanders Number One Corner Benjamin St. Juste. St. Juste Showed Promise Two Season Ago Surrendering A Passer Rating Of 87 In Back To Back Season Before Jumping To 102 In 2024. The Chargers Hope To Get The Better Version Of St. Juste With A Sub 60 Completion Percentage Allowed. Donte Jackson Will Paly Opposite Him In The Chargers Newly Formed Secondary. The Chargers Didn’t Get A Number One Caliber Receiver and They Needed One. The Offensive Moved Forward A Tick On The Interior But By How? Grade, C+.
Denver Broncos—
The Broncos Shock The World By Clinching A Wild Card Playoff Spot And For One Drive Threatened The Favorite Bills Before Having Their Doors Blown Down. The Broncos Picked Up Some Solid Players With High Up Side But Sketchy Injury History Starting With Tight End Evan Engram Who Only Played 9 Games Last Season But Hauled In A Remarkable 237 Catches In Three Season With The Jags. A Healthy Evan Engram Could Prove One More Added To Sean Payton’s Offense That Always Favored Pass-Catching Tight End. The Broncos Defense Picked Up Talented Pieces From The Niners In The Form Of Dre Greenlaw Coming Off Of Two 100+ Tackle Seasons Before A Knee Shut Him Down For All But Two Season Last Year. The Broncos Also Pick Up All-Pro Safety(‘22) Talanoa Hufanga. Hufanga Brings Versatility, Playmaking To A Denver Defense Not Short On Playmaking But if He Returns To Form From His ACL Injury This Broncos Defense Looks Impressively Similar To The One That Won The Super Bowl Against The Panthers A Decade Ago. The Defense Added Depth and Insurance To The Defensive Line With DJ Jones At Defensive Tackle. Trent Sherfield Jr Joins The Wide Receiver Group And Jarrett Stidham Returns As Nix’s Back Up. I Would Suggested The Broncos Grabb A Stronger Back And More Of A Mentor Type For Nix The Additions In Free Agency If They Hit And Guys Like Engram, Greenlaw, and Hufanga Return From Injury To Peak Form The Broncos Become Instant Contenders In The AFC. The Broncos Also Could’ve Look For A Move To Upgrade The Runningbacks Which Prevents Me From Giving Them An A.
Grade, A-.
Las Vegas Raiders—
The Raiders Address Two Primary Roster Concerns First By Trading For Seattle Starting Quarterback Geno Smith. Rather Than Taking The Route Seattle Took By Signing A Still Unproven Sam Darnold The Raiders Send A Round Pick For Geno Smith who Completed 70% Of His Passes and threw For 4320 Passing Yards. A Move Like This Probably Could’ve Saved The Davante Adams Relationship In Nevada But Now Las Vegas Has To Find Number One Wide Receiver Threat. Seattle Briefly Reset The Market On the Non-Quarterback By Giving Edge Rusher Maxx Grosby A New Deal. The Raiders Defense Ranked 19th By ESPN But Will Look Different After Losing Key Pieces. Eric Stokes The Athletic But Underwhelming Former Packer First Round Pick Joins The Raiders on A One Year Deal. He’s Struggled With Injuries But He Remains an Intriguing Investment. Jeremy Chin Will Take Over At Safety With Trevor Moehrig Signed To The Panthers. The Raiders Retain defensive Tackle Adam Butler Who Notches Five Sacks In Back To Back Seasons And Brought Back Malcolm Koonce Who Spent 2024 Recovering From Injury. The Raiders Filled Out The zoster With veterans Like Linebacker Elandon Roberts, Running Back Raheem Mostert, And Cornerback Darnay Holmes. The Raiders Pull In A Solid Haul Of Guys But The Roster Didn’t Improve in a Seismic Way. Because The Franchise Has Proven So Unstable In Recent Years The Raiders Would’ve Had To Over Pat To Retain Or Allure Higher End Talent And Upgrading The Contract For Crosby And Taking On Geno Made Improving The Roster Via Free Agency Impossible.
Grade, C-.
