NFL: The Best and Worst Off-Season, So Far…
With the NFL free agency period coming to an end and the draft upcoming let’s look at which team has had the best offseason and who has had the worst offseason thus far in the NFL. When looking at each team not only is the fit taken into consideration but the contract is taken into consideration as well. Long-term deals are seldom honored by the team, but signing bonuses and guaranteed money is held against each team if they release a player before the contract is up creating “dead money” (money spent on players not on the roster but counts against the cap). For example, the Bill have 21 million dollars in cap space, but 35 million in dead money thus making their actual cap space smaller. This is will come into play later
BEST: Vikings
Minnesota had the best total defense in the NFL and made a shrewd off-season move to improve that number by signing Sheldon Richardson (1 year 8 million dollars) to an already stout front seven. Pairing Richardson with Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter make for a chilling defensive line that only rivals the Eagles (more on them later). Coupled with an impressive secondary Minnesota’s defense should remain stout. The crown jewel of Minnesota’s free agent haul was quarterback Kirk Cousins. Cousins is the missing piece to an already very talented football team that lacked at the quarterback position. The offensive system and players made Case Keenum a pro bowl type quarterback; Cousins should exceed those standards. The downside to signing Cousins (3 years 84 million guaranteed) is that the guaranteed money will handicap Minnesota’s cap space in the next few years when it comes to re-signing Danielle Hunter and Anthony Barr
BEST: Eagles
The Defending Super Bowl champions have had a really impressive off-season that started with trading for Michael Bennet that only cost them Marcus Johnson and a 5th round pick. Adding to an embarrassment of riches on the defensive line is the Haloti Ngata signing at 1 year 3 million dollars. Philadelphia now boasts Derek Barnett, Timmy Jernigan, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Chris Long, Ngata and Bennett across an imposing defensive line that will surely wreck NFC East offenses. Philadelphia also made a pretty underrated move in trading Torey Smith to the Panthers for Cornerback Daryl Worley. Worley is not a Pro Bowl caliber player but he is a solid player that is still under his rookie deal enabling the Eagles the ability to resign Nigel Bradham. In addition to building the greatest defensive line in the history of football; Philadelphia also gets Carson Wentz back from injury. Wentz was having an MVP like season prior to injuring his knee against the Rams last season.
BEST: Rams
It seems that the Rams and Eagles are in an arms race to see how can build the better defense. Instead of building the defensive line the Rams built up their secondary with trades for Pro Bowl corner Marcus Peters and his team friendly contract of 1.7 million dollars this year and 9.5 million next year; in addition to Peters, are the Rams also traded for Aqib Talib reuniting Talib with his former defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. Franchising safety Lamarcus Joyner was key to build one of (if not) the best secondary in the NFL. Los Angeles also rebuilt its draft capital by trading away Robert Quinn and his monster contract (more on that later) to the Dolphins for 4th round pick and a swap of 7th round picks. LA also pick up another 4th round pick from the Giants for Alec Ogletree. There have been reports that free agent defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh top choice is the Rams. Pairing Suh with Aaron Donald makes a terrifying defensive line.
WORST: Dolphins
On the other side of the coin, the Miami Dolphins had one of the more puzzling off-seasons to include the signing Albert Wilson to a 3 year 24 million contract, and signing Danny Amendola to a 2 year 12 million contract. Both Wilson and Amendola were not especially productive last season and they both play the same position! This includes a roster which the Dolphins already have receivers Kenny Stills and Devante Parker entrenched as starters. Odd to invest multi-million dollar contracts to receivers who are slated to be 3rd and 4th on the depth chart. As I alluded to earlier the Dolphins traded for Robert Quinn who has two years $24 million dollars left on this contract. Not of that contract is guaranteed but releasing Quinn after a season is throwing a 4th round draft pick down the drain.
WORST: Jets
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New York’s quarterback offseason quarterback situation has been murky (to say the least). Teddy Bridgewater was signed to a 1 year $5 million dollar contract, but then they signed Josh McCown to a 1 year for $10 million dollar contract, then traded four picks (1 first round pick and 3 second round picks) for the #3 overall selection. Signing Bridgewater and McCown are not bad signings with Bridgewater’s injury history but to trade four picks to select a quarterback (perhaps not even the quarterback that you want, given the needs of quarterback for both the Browns and Giants.) is quite baffling. In addition to trading away four draft picks (never a good idea when you’re a rebuilding franchise) the Jets used their cap space to sign Trumaine Johnson to a $72.5 million dollar contract for 5 years ($34 million guaranteed). Johnson is a fine player, but to pay Johnson that amount of money for a rebuilding team is odd. New York should have saved the picks and continued to build their team through the draft.
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