NFL Offseason Evaluations so far

Like a Good Pot of Stew or Gumbo, or Whatever Meal You like, letting the NFL Free Agency settle for A Little While Before diving into all the names and Numbers Always Makes the Meal more enjoyable and consumable. The NFL Opens Ups Their Legal Tampering Period A Few Days Before The New League Year Officially Starts And Deals Start To Leak And Dominate Your Notifications On Locked also Your Social Media Feeds and they Takeover A Sports Life For A Quick Period and Fans Start To Buy In On The Chance Of Their Team Becoming The Next Seahawks Or Patriots. Like a good Christopher Nolan Movie—My Personal favorite director, The Offseason Always Delivers A "Set-up and Payoff" For Fans. Some Of Those Deals Can Fall Apart Before They Become Officially Official. Football Reporter Exhausts so Much Digital Currency Switching Hands On and Rumors, So Letting a Deal Flesh Out Before Instantly Grading And Reacting. I'll Give My Opinion On Most Of The Deals and Moves Made, Hypothetically Grading each Team On Their Moves In Free Agency. The Grades Will Stand As Place Holders Because No One Will Know The Real Value Of The Deal Until The Contract Closes.

The Colts:

The Colts Got Excessively Busy This Offseason As The Team Hopes To Capture The Magic Of Their Hot Start In 2025 And Set Aside Most Of Everything Else. Indy's 2025 Season Follows The Arch of The Terminator Franchise, as everything got progressively worse after a historic Start, and most of the rebooting dismayed the second of the franchise's run. Armed With One Franchise Tag The Colts Faced Two Major Contract Decision As The Teams Quarterback And Top Receiver Hit Free Agency The Colts Ultimately Slapped Daniel Jones With The Tag Before Locking Jones Up In The Interim With a two-year, $88 million contract, worth up to $100 million With $50 Million Guaranteed After Jones Signed For $14 Million With The Team and Help Lead Indy To 8-1 Before He Suffered Multiple Injuries Including An Achilles Tear That Ended His And Projects To Eat a Chunk Of Next season. A Few YearsBack (2023), Jones Scored A Big Deal With The Giants for a four-year deal worth $160 million after Jones generated a career season and led the Giants to a playoff win. Some believed Jones Only Started "scratching the surface" as quarterback, but instead, he flamed out of New York Less Than A Year Later on A Deal That Should've Ended In 2026. The Colts Face The Dilemma Of Jones's History: Not living up to expectations and having an Achilles' heel. Wide Receiver Alec Pierce Hit Free Agency, But The Colts Locked Him Into a Long-Term Deal for 4 Years, $116 Million, $80 Million Guaranteed, For A Guy the Team Felt They Had to Keep Long-Term. The Bidding War For Pierce elevated his dollar value as the team coveted his long-range threat capabilities, but retaining Pierce Resulted In The Colts trading away former lead receiver Michael Pittman to the Steelers. Pittman Never Possessed The Long speed To Win Deep Like Pierce, But His Big Body Provided The Numerous Colts quarterbacks with an excellent contested catch, underneath, underneath, and in a breaking route safety blanket sort of the perfect compliment in the Colts offense, even as Pittman's production dropped. Pierce Will Take On A Greater Role In The Offense He Function As A one Trick Pony 79.4% of his targets Came Downfield 10 Or More Air Yards and his Separation Numbers, 1.6 Yards Of Separation On Deep Routes Because Most Defenders Know Most Of The Time He's Going Vertical So Bail But With a +1.02 EPA Per Target On Such Targets He's too good At Climbing Over Defenders. Pierce Also Help Keep The Chains Moving. 41 of His 46 Receptions Generated a First Down. He recorded 33 explosive gains as a passing threat. The Colts Don't "Need" To Transform Pierce Into something He's Not Just a Compliment. The NFL Cap continues To Mushroom. The Pierce Deal Might Look Like A Bargain Deal In Just One Season. Pittman's loss could also open up a Role For Slot and Short Yardage Specialist Josh Downs and Tight Tyler Warren, but the 80 receptions and seven touchdowns Pittman produced last year could require the Colts to secure Another Outside.

The Raiders:

The Team Of The Offseason, The Holders Of The Number One Pick, Sizable Cap(The most cap space), and One of the Most Coveted Assets Of The League's Busiest Transactional Period. The Las Vegas Raiders entered the offseason expecting to play a crucial role, and They Did Sort Of. The Raiders Traded Star Edge Rusher Maxx Crosby to the Ravens in exchange for two first-round picks on March 6th. Still, the deal couldn't become more the digital folklore until the league year officially started on March 11th, and as you probably know or don't, the deal for Crosby Fell Apart After Crosby Failed A Physical Due To His Recent Knee Surgery. Every Team Knew Of Maxx Crosby's knee injury. He Closed The 2025 Season On INJURED Reserve, and any team acquiring Crosby would take him, his talent, and His Rehabilitation Process On In Any Trade. Based On What The Ravens' doctors and a quasi-independent doctor unveiled after studying Crosby's repaired knee created apprehension over Crosby's value, and Baltimore Bailed On The Deal They Reported Wanted, as they offered two first-round picks, The Only Team Reported Devoted To Stepping Into Those Waters For Crosby. The 28 Year Old Crosby Returned To The Raiders Contractually But For Now HHe'sIn Limbo Possibly Waiting On The Next Bus To Whatever Team Pays The Price. The Raiders' other big Ravens-related move is locking up center Tyler Linderbaum to a three-year, $81 million deal, including $60 million in guarantees—a 27 million-per-year contract.

Easily The Richest Contract For A Center Exceeding Chiefs' Creed Humphrey By Nine Million, and Chiefs Guard Trey Smith, The Highest Paid Guard In Football By Nearly Five Million. No one player can fix an entire offensive line, ask the Bengals, But In Adding Linderbaum, they solve the key puzzle piece who will anchor their vulnerable interior. The Raiders Also Signed Former Vikings Reciver Jalen Nailor to a three-year, $35 million deal, and He Joins Pretty Much The Weakest Receiver Room In Football. Nailor provides A Steady Deep Threat +0.66 EPA Target On deep Targets As A Third Receiver In Minnesota, and He Can Provide The Same Service For The Presumed Number One Pick, Mendoza. The Raiders Added Some Impact Players to Their Defense: Linebackers Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker, Two Former Georgia teammates from the Eagles and Packers, respectively. Dean Has Struggled With injuries Dating Back To His Days In Athens, Georgia, But He's Productive: 75 Stops In 2024, When He Played 15 Games, and 28 In 2025, When He Played 9 Games. Dean plays solid in coverage, negative catch rates Over Expected, and Negative Coverage EPA Over His Past Two Seasons. Former Packers first-round pick Quay Walker Brings Excellent Tackling With 3.1 missed tackles, and he's generated less than 50 Stops Just One Of His Four Seasons In The League. Kwity Paye, another first-round pick from the Colts, joins the Raiders for three years, $48 million, $32 million in guaranteed money. Paye Never Lived Up To The Billing In Indy, But at Just 27 He's a Decent Enough Pass Rusher 40 Or More Pressures In Each Of His Last Three Seasons And 20.5 Sacks Over His Final Three Years With The Colts. The Raiders Hope These Additions and retaining the talents of guys like Eric Stokes, Another Former First-Round Cornerback, Would Help Bolster a Defense That Ranked 17th according to ESPN's FPI Efficiency. The Raiders Have Struggled To Escape From Anonymity Because They've Struggled To Win Games For Many Years. The Silver and Black Often Has To "overpay" To Secure Free Agents Of Lesser Value Who Dont Live Up To Contracts. The Raiders Seemingly Always Finish The Year Top Ten In Cap space—since 2023—but they Dont secure major deals, and the ones they do —Don't secure Jimmy G, Christian Wilkins, Davante Adams via Trade—haven't Exactly Worked out, haven't exactly.

Carolina Panthers: Carolina Choose Not To Rest On Their Laurels(An Idiom I Only Now Know How To Utter Probably) After Their Victory Of The NFC South Division And Their Pushing Od The Los Angeles Rams—Statistically and Observationally The Best In Football—In The Wild Card Round. The Panthers closed the season as the worst team to make the playoffs and maybe still the worst team in their own division, so their victory amounted to other teams in their division not living up to expectations, rather than Carolina Engineering. The Panthers Never Stood Out In Any One Area. They Ran The Ball Well Against Select Defenses. They Forced Turnovers Against Select Offenses, and Bryce Young Passed The Ball Well Enough Against Select Opponents To Justify Another Year As The Team Starter. The Panthers added to the potential difference-makers on defense, signing Former Eagles and Dolphins pass rusher Jaelen Phillips to a four-year, $120 million contract, $80 million guaranteed. Phillips Has Suffered multiple serious injuries in his career, including an Achilles injury. Still, He Started All 17 Games In 2025 And Played 77% Of The Defenses Snaps and generated 63 Pressures, Five Sacks on 2.91 time to pressure, 15.9% quarterback pressure rate, 15.9% Quarterback Pressure Rate, and 1.3% Sack Rate, 28th in sacks (30) and 24th in pass rush win rate (34.4%) last season. One Man Won't Solve All The Panthers' Pass Rush Problems, But Phillips Should Elevate The Floor Of The Worst Pass Rush In Football, 26.2% Pressure Rate, 148 Pressures In Total. Rookie Edge Rusher Nic Scourton Produced The Most Pressures On The Team 31 and Led The Team In Sacks With Five Total. The Panthers also signed Jacksonville's All-Pro Linebacker Devin Lloyd for three years and $45 million after four years in Jacksonville. The Jags Traded Back Into The First Round of 2022 Draft To Select The Versatile Linebacker Out Of Utah, A Player Who Could Impact The Game On Multiple Levels as A Pass Rusher(either blitzing or aligning off the edge), But Also off Ball In Coverage Or Run Stop. Llyod Picked Off Five Passes, Generated a Passer Rating of 51.2, -28.2 Coverage EPA, -0.38 EPA Per Target On 331 Coverage Snaps along With 74 Tackles and 36 Stops. Lloyd Has Tacking Concerns, 12 Missed Tackles in the run game, but overall, based on contract projection, the deal the Panthers struck was a steal for his value. The Panthers Locked Up Tackle Rasheed Walker to take over at left tackle, with Ike Ekwonu Expected To Miss A Great Deal Of Time After A Patella Injury He Suffered In The Wild Card Round. Quarterback Kenny Pickett To Provide An Experienced But Less Threatening Talent-Wise Quarterback As A Back Up To Bryce Young, But Not Really Challenge Young, Who Entered Into Fifth Year Option Territory. The Panthers haven't Added Any New Talent to the Receiving Game, a third receiver or another tight end behind Tee Higgins and Jalen Coker on the Outside, and Maybe Make up for the Lack of Development of Xavier Leggett.

Miami Dolphins:

The Dolphins Mmade the franchise direction-altering and all too frequent historic dead cap hit move by cutting quarterbackTua TTagovailoa In 2022 Matt Ryan Set The Dead Cap Hit Record At $40.5 million, A Year Later Russell Set The Figure At $85 Million A Number No One Could Fathom Crossing Before Salary Hit At Least $400 Million. Still, just three late, the Dolphins Decide To absorb the largest cap hit in NFL History. The Dolphins knew for some time that the team wouldn't enter the 2026 Season With Tua on the roster or that any team would take on his massive $50 million average salary. Hence, the Dolphins Had To Decide How To Absorb The Massive $99 Million Dead Cap Hit incurred on Tua's contract. The Dolphins Split The Dead Cap Charges $55.4 Million in 2026, $43.8 Million in 2027, Opening Room For The Dolphins To Ink Tua's Replacement, Packers Backup Quarterback Malik Willis. The Dolphins Locked Up Willis for three years, $67.5 million, including $45 million fully guaranteed. Based on a four-game sample size, where Willis produced +0.69 EPA per dropback, 145.5 Passer Rating, 85.7% Completion Percentage, Three Touchdowns, 422 Passing Yards, and zero interceptions, based on a 35-attack sample size. Statistics in the NFL Only Cover a Quarter Of The Story in Terms of Football Outcomes. Very few coaches in football know Malik Willis Better Than New Dolphins Head Coach Jeff Haftly, Former Defensive Coordinator Of The Packers, who would've faced Willis a lot during Packers Practices and training Camp. On Film, Malik hasn't solved a lot of The Issues That Plagued Him Coming Out of Liberty, and Most Of His Attempts This Season Came In The Short Range, 0-9 air yards, with timely Dots Downfield. The Dolphins Plug The 27-Year-Old To Take Over As The Long-Term Starter with a Base Salary Of $1,215,000 For 2026 and A Potential Out In 2027, so the deal breaks down to two years, $45 million (Still A lot for" prove it "Type Deal). Willis Has Never Failed To Impress Fans And Evaluators With His Athleticism But The Technical Side Of The Game Needs To catch Up With His Natural Abilities.

49ers:

The 49ers struck gold as their namesake, locking up Buccaneers legendary receiver Mike Evans to a 33-year, $42,400,000 contract, with $16 million guaranteed for Evans. To Depart From Tampa, The Only Team He's Ever Played To Join An NFC Rival. Mike Evans's Streak of 1,000-Yard Seasons To Start A Career Ended At 11 Seasons and Won't Follow Across The Country. What The 49ers Hope Will Travel, Mike Evans play Making Ability As boundary Receiver But A Natural 66'5Trumps Any Skill Set Available On The Market, and He Prove His Skills Haven't Diminished Despite A Down Year With A 6 receptions for 132 Receiving yards Performance Against The Falcons Week 15. Evans also has a growing injury history, including a series of hamstring injuries dating back to 2021 and a clavicle injury last season that knocked Mike out of 6 Games. The Deal for Evans Breaks Down to One Year, $16 Million, and Depending on How Next Season Breaks Down, the Two Sides Will Restructure the Deal Next Season. Niners Tight End And Unanimious All-Pro Vote Stealer George Kittle Will Miss All If Not A Solid Chunk Of Next Season With an Achilles tear. Evans Will Provide a Downfield Escape Valve for Brock Purdy. The Niners Also Traded For Cowboys Defensive Tackle OSA Odighizuwa Defensive Tackle A Player The Cowboys Signed To A four-year, $80 million deal that included $39 million fully guaranteed at the time of signing and $52 million guaranteed Away To Keep The Former Third Round Draft Pick Defensive Tackle In Big D. OSA Delivered About 52 Pressures according To PFF, 37 According To NFL Pro stats, 32 Stops in 654 Defensive Snaps. The Cowboys secured Jets Defensive Tackle Quinnen Williams in A Trade With The Jets, making Osa Expensive and Expandable For Dallas, but More Than amenable To The Niners, who were 25th in EPA Per Play Allowed On Defense Last Season. San Francisco Needed Talent All Throughout Their Defense, and They Got It In OSA, and Also Bringing Back Longtime Linebacker Dre Greenlaw, Who Signed With The Broncos Last Season.

Baltimore Ravens: After Pump Faking The Public and Catching A Fair Amount Of FFlakFor backing Out Of The Maxx Crosby trade, The RRavens made their move, signingformer Bengal and Ttop free agent 31-year-oldTrey Hendrickson Tto a four-year 120 million dollar deal The Ravens Kill Two(Maybe Three Birds) In Signing Hendrickson Satisfying The defenses Need For pass Rush, Weakening A division Rival By Taking Away One Of Their Best Players And Not Exhausting Resources Like Draft Picks In The Process. Hendrickson Struggled With Injury Last Season Despite The Down Year and The Dubious Age. He Ranks Amongst The Most Respected Pass Rushers In Football. The Ravens Defense Started The Year Terribly, Allowing 34 Points a Game Over The First Five Games, and ranked 30th in EPA Per Play Weeks 1-8, but rebounded in the second half of the year, ranked 10th in EPA Allowed On Defense But Still Finished 23rd In Yards Allowed(348.0) and 17th in Defensive DVOa, Indicating The Unit Still Needed Upgrades. Last Season, the Ravens ranked 29th in pressure rate. Hendrickson Suffered An Oblique Injury Last Season, Which Knocked Him Out Of All But 6.5 Games, But In 2024, he led the NFL with 92 pressures, 46 in under 2.5 seconds, and Back-To-Back 17.5 Sack Seasons In 2024 and 2023. The Ravens Expect The more Motivated Version of Trey Hendrickson To Bookend The Defensive Transformation For Baltimore under new head coach Jesse Minter.

New England Patriots:

Under the guise of rebuilding the team, the Patriots emerged from football's basement and made away with the AFC Crown and an unexpected appearance in the Super Bowl. The Patriots suffered a near-historically bad and a near-historically fortunate playoff run that left many critics skeptical about New England's long-term viability as a contender. The Patriots' first major move looks like a subtraction in terms of Production, Cutting Number One Receiver Stefon Diggs, whom the team signed last year to a three-year, $69 million max deal in March 2025. Diggs suffered an ACL injury that cut short his stint in Houston, where he racked up 47 receptions for 496 yards and three touchdown catches in eight games, after leaving the Buffalo Bills. Diggs Lived Up To His Billing In His First Season In New England: 85 Receptions, 1013 receiving yards, +0.64 EPA Per Target, 2.4 Yards Per Route Run in His First and ultimately lone season with the Patriots, Coming Off An ACL Injury At age 31. Ultimately, off-the-field drama doomed Diggs' Time With The Patriots More Than A $26 Million Cap Hit. The Patriots signed Romeo Doubs, a Receiver From The Packers, to A four-year, $68 million contract worth up to $80 million. A former fourth-round pick, Doubs Played In A Repleted Packers Receiving Group With A Game Plan That Utilized Their Group Of Moderate Talent Receivers As an Ensemble Cast With No True Number One Guy. Far From A Household Name, Doubs Finished His Final Season In Green Bay with his most productive output in yardage, with 724 Receiving Yards +0.32 EPA per Target, 1.8 Yards Per Route Run, and closed the season with eight receptions for 124 yards and a touchdown against the Bears In The Wild Card Round. The Patriots Hope Doubs Emerges As A Potential Number One Option For The Offense. The Patriots' Offensive Line Garnered Tons Of Attention During Their Super Bowl, And Offensive Lines' Attention Usually Indicates Struggle. To Help Bolster The Unit The Patriots Locked Up Former Jets Guard Alijah Vera-Tucker To a Three Year $42 Million Contract On A High Risk and High reward Deal As Tucker Struggles With injury and Missed The Entire 2025 Season With a Triceps Injury and Suffered An Achilles Injury In 2023 But HHe'sA Solid Option At Guard For New England If He Can Stay Healthy HHe'sA High Up option At 27 Years Old. AAVT's Triceps and Achilles Injuries Have Some Merit Because, Although They Cost Him Multiple Seasons, Those Injuries Don't Have Lingering Effects After Shocks Like Knee, Ankle, and Even Shoulder Injuries. The Achilles Injury Has Taken Away From Players' Explosiveness In The Past. Still, offensive linemen don't Lean On Explosion As Much As Running backs Or Even Quarterbacks, so Tucker's Body Could Be Well Rested Headed Into This Season. The Defensive Line Gets A Bump With The Addition Of Edge Rusher Dremont Jones From The Ravens, As He Replaces Edge Rusher KK'LavonChaisson. The Patriots still have cap space on the spreadsheets, but I'm surprised they didn't play the aggressive game and go after more offensive tackle depth and Youth Behind A 35-Year-Old Right Tackle, Morgan Moses.

Trades:

I Like The Bills Making The Move To add DJ Moore, a veteran receiver not on his last leg in the league, who looks prime to contribute seamlessly to the Bills. Moore suffered an "own" Year In Terms Of Statistics Last Season, 50 receptions on 80 targets for 682 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns. Still, some of that fell on how the Bears utilized his skill set, aligning DJ Moore in the backfield as a running back Type 33 times, the most of any receiver in football. Moore Demonstrated In The Playoff Against The Packers He'sin the wild card round that he'sBest Utilized Out Wide and downfield. He caught 3 of 4 targets for 88 yards, On Pass 10 Plus Air yards, and a 46-yard game-winning touchdown catch in overtime. In a game, he caught five passes for 97 Yards. The Bills Already Have A Backfield Receiver Creator In Kahlil Shakir, leaving Moore, Who Has Never Played with a Quarterback of Allen's caliber, to possibly experience his best season yet with Allen and the Bills' offense.

Broncos Trade For Jaylin Waddle: The Broncos didn't need to make this move, but with another arms race in the AFC, the conference regular season champions made the move to stay afoot with the Bills and Patriots by trading a first-round pick in the 2026 Draft for Dolphins Star Wide Receiver Jaylin Waddle. Beneath all the theatrics and soap operas in Miami, with Tyreek and Tua Tagovailoa, Waddle stood in place as the top 12 receiver in the league, consistently developing and producing in Five Seasons Since The Dolphins Drafted Waddle Sixth Overall HHe'sProduced Three 1000 Yard seasons, Four Straight Seasons Of +25 Receiving EPA, and three seasons of 2.0 Yards Per Route Run Or Better. Last Season, With The Absence Of Tyreek Hill, Waddle Became The Dolphins' Offense's Leading Receiver, Accounting For 42.8% of the Dolphins' Air Yards Share. This Season, 50.7%. Since Week 5, after Tyreek Hill Went Down With An Injury. Waddle Finished Last Season with 64 receptions, 99 targets, 910 receiving yards, 6 touchdowns, +2.6 EPA Per Target, +1.1% Catch Rate Over Expected, 2.3 Yards Per Route Run. In His Collegiate Days At Alabama, Waddle Earned Fame For His Speed, and This Translated To The League. Last Season, Waddle Caught 21 Of His 34 Targeted Vertical Routes, +0.55 EPA Target, for 481 Receiving Yards, Three Touchdowns, and 22.9 Yards Per Reception On Such Routes. The Broncos' Offense: Dropback To Pass. Last season, they had 680 dropbacks, and while their deep passing offense doesn't make defenses shudder, Waddle's presence provides a complete threat on the outside.