Detroit Lions
Free-hand building is usually considered unwise, but several teams fixed vulnerabilities this month without overpaying
Thursday 23 March 2023 at 08:00 GMT
Winner: Detroit Lions
With Aaron Rodgers ready to leave Green Bay, the Lions are in pole position to win the NFC North. They overhauled a seedy secondary school in the early days of free agency, adding CJ Gardner-Johnson, Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley.
They wrested Gardner-Johnson from the Eagles and reunited him with Dan Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, both of whom had worked with the player in New Orleans. Gardner-Johnson is only 25 years old. He plays the invaluable fullback on defense wherever you need me nickel/safety/corner/box. Last season, he co-leaded the league in interceptions. He entered the off-season looking for a mega-money, multi-year deal. Instead, the Lions were able to land him on a year-long, $8 million Proof-It deal.
They also retained a number of disappointing players that fit Campbell’s Rah-Rah culture. Could they have found upgrades? Secure. Does it make sense to keep players you know and try to develop plays that you know fit your scheme and culture? Absolutely.
The lions preached patience. With Rodgers’ impending announcement and the conclusion of last season, it would have been easy to splurge early on in the free hand. But the Lions’ Brain Trust took a long-term view instead. They’re building to compete with a playful-looking Chicago Bears squad for the next 10 years rather than chasing the next 10 months.
Questions remain about quarterback. Should they take a big swing in the draft? Should they sign Lamar Jackson for an offer sheet? Is there another disgruntled star quarterback they could acquire? How does Tom Brady feel about Detroit this fall? All are interesting paths. The Lions should investigate them. But don’t tell that to general manager Brad Holmes, who is second only to Mrs. Goff in the Jared fan club.
Losers: Las Vegas Raiders
Josh McDaniels struggled in Las Vegas in his freshman season. Photo: Matt York/AP
The Raiders have made a series of moves that make sense on their own, but collectively they’re head scratching. What do the Raiders want to be in 2023? Do you have an idea of what you want to look like in 2025 or 2027? The answer appears to be the Bill Belichick-led Patriots 2.0 – again.
Head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, both alumni of the Patriots cult with no personality, spent their early free agency days doing what they were doing when they first showed up in Vegas a year ago: chasing Familiarity.
Adding Jimmy Garoppolo makes sense. The Raiders landed the quarterback on what effectively acts as a two-year deal that they can throw out after a season without too much pain. Overall, it’s a three-year, $72.5 million deal with a $34 million guarantee at signing.
Garoppolo knows the McDaniels system. He knows the personality of McDaniels. He can execute the details of a complex system that was a mess for much of last season. But in the AFC, in the Mahomes-Burrow-Allen-Herbert conference, that’s not going to be enough. They’re asking a lot of the rest of the roster to face opponents in the best conference in the NFL with Garoppolo as quarterback.
The Raiders don’t have that roster – and the rest of the team’s moves raise questions about whether they ever will. They traded dynamic Darren Waller for the welcoming arms of Brian Daboll with the New York Giants. Waller and McDaniels reportedly fell out after the coach leaked details about the player’s marriage, in what is McDaniels-most happening since moving to Vegas. As a pseudo-replacement, they signed former Patriot Jakobi Meyers to try and inject some pop into a lumbering offense.
A dour and vengeful Aaron Rodgers will be in his happy place with the Jets
It feels like the things that sank McDaniels in his first round in Denver have returned: inflexibility, arrogance, a trust in players (and people) he’s previously worked with and falling out with those who he hadn’t. McDaniels is 17-28 as head coach and 11-28 in his last 39 games. McDaniels, like all Belichick students, preaches culture. He’s preaching to the collective about stars a year after being traded for Davante Adams and Chandler Jones.
Do the Raiders want to win now? Do you want to remodel? You are stuck between the two poles at best and confused at worst. In a division with Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, it only goes one way.
Winner: New York Jets
It’s only a matter of time before Rodgers officially trades Green Bay for New York. When Rodgers confirmed that he was ready to ditch one of the most enduring franchises in the NFL in favor of the perpetually hapless Jets, Robert Saleh’s team became an instant offseason winner.
Whatever you think of Rodgers’ declining game. Whatever you think of his insane antics — and the domino effect in the locker room — even at this point in his career, he instantly becomes the most talented quarterback the Jets have ever played. Rodgers’ worst season, last season, was statistically more impressive than anything a Jets quarterback has put together in the last 50 years. Even if a lunar cycle hiccup causes him to torpedo the locker room talking about lizard people, or enters a presidential primary, or chooses to only play on Sundays and skip Thursdays and Mondays, he’ll be a huge improvement over Zach Wilson.
Rodgers instantly transforms the Jets from a fringe playoff team into a true contender. In no other quarterback change this offseason would the Jets have climbed so many rungs up the championship ladder. If it’s a one-off season for Rodgers, it represents the Jets’ best shot at a championship game since Rex Ryan led an undercooked team to back-to-back AFC title games. Adding two solid receivers in Allen Lazard and Mecole Hardman won’t hurt them either.
Losers…so to speak: Philadelphia Eagles
Holding Darius Slay is an important move for the Eagles. Photo: Matt Slocum/AP
The Eagles would always fight at arm’s length. They went into the offseason with between 10 and 12 of the top 100 players in free hands. It was conceivable that without the Lifers (Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham) they would lose their entire free agent class.
And they lost a lot of talent. As mentioned above, Gardner-Johnson joined the Lions. But Javon Hargrave (DL, Niners), Marcus Epps (S, Raiders), TJ Edwards (LB, Bears), Isaac Seumalo (G, Steelers) and Miles Sanders (RB, Panthers) also went out. Losing Hargrave, one of the best central defenders in the league, hurts the most – and losing him to a rival in the NFC is particularly painful.
But the Eagles did a good job of completely staving off the pain. They had a clear goal of letting the non-premium positions run and putting their money into retaining their two star cornerbacks, Darius Slay and James Bradberry. They will bet on Jordan Davis, for whom they moved up to 13th overall in last year’s draft, to keep up with the loss of Hargrave. And they were able to keep Kelce and Graham, two faithful ones.
Winners…so to speak: Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals were more passive in the early stages of the free hand than their fans would like. The team is preparing for the costly renewals that lie ahead for Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins. And the Bengals’ notoriously frugal owner, Mike Brown, is unlikely to embark on a spending spree before he has to hand his star quarterback and one of the team’s top receivers $300 million.
The loss of the league’s most dynamic safety duo, Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell, hurts. Bell and Bates allowed the Bengals to run one of the most flexible defenses in the league and allowed defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo to be unusually creative. They have been two of the pillars of Cincy’s success over the past two seasons.
But relying on a defense to keep service past three years is risky. What’s not risky: Bet on your all-time quarterback remaining an all-time quarterback during their prime. To stay competitive year after year, the Bengals need to keep Burrow up. The rest will snap into place. In a few years, Burrow will have to wear a rope-like defense. Other years, good defense will help push the Bengals to the top.
After it became clear that Orlando Brown Jr. misjudged his market value, the Bengals stepped in to add tackle to the former Chiefs. The two sides agreed to a four-year, $64.09 million deal with a $31 million full guarantee. That makes Brown the 10th highest-paid left tackle in the NFL. The deal looks even better for the Bengals after Laremy Tunsil reset the market Monday with an extension from the Texans that will net him $25 million annually.
Burrow’s protection is the be-all and end-all for the Bengals. After three seasons of disastrous line play, in which the team suffered big swings and misses, they’ve now added a safe, stable piece. Brown isn’t in the top 5 for left tackle…but he’s certainly in the top 10 when he’s healthy. Adding a player of Brown’s caliber in a prime position usually requires a monstrous overpayment. The Bengals were able to add Brown in value and pinch him from a conference rival.
Who knows? Denver Broncos
The impact of the Russell-Wilson deal will be felt in Denver for years to come. Photo: Tommy Gilligan/USA Today Sports
What do these signings tell you? Mike McGlinchey, OT; Ben Powers, OG; Chris Manhertz, TE; Samaje Perine, RB; Jarrett Stidham, QB. Correct: Russell Wilson will no longer cook.
Sean Payton has his hand tipped with the Broncos’ work. The team grossly overpaid for Mike McGlinchey, who is a good, not great, player. It reeks of the Broncos still paying for the sins of the Wilson trade. The lack of draft picks cost the Broncos here. They didn’t have many other opportunities to improve. They couldn’t turn to a talented drafting class to improve their porous right tackle spot. They also couldn’t do the sensible thing: give the Packers a second-round pick to pinch restricted free agent Yosh Nijman, a player with McGlinchey-like talent (with more perks) that would cost a fraction of the amount.
They then doubled down on O-line help by adding guard powers and the blocking-centric tight end Manhertz. Payton clearly wants to return to a Seattle-Lite offense to see if he can squeeze the remaining juice out of Wilson.
We’ve seen what happens when you try to put this version of Wilson in a time-based dropback offense that prompts him to operate from the pocket 40 times per game. It was a disaster. In a more run-centric, boot-action based offense, Wilson may just be good enough for Payton to navigate through the years beeping our cap to keep going.
And if not, Stidham will be waiting in the wings. Adding the quarterback on a two-year, $10 million contract wasn’t a mistake. Stidham was fine on relief duty for the Raiders last season. If Wilson doesn’t execute the Payton offense, he’ll be ripped early and replaced by the team’s new backup.
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