Darnold Doomed In Seattle? NFL Free Agency Day 1 Winners & Losers
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Sam Darnold to Seattle
This is not an upgrade from Geno. Darnold has had one good season in his career and I’m gonna go ahead and say he had everything in his favour. Great play caller in Kevin O’Connel, the best WR in the game in Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addision, Hockenson, Aaron Jones, also played in a dome. He made the most of it for the first 17 weeks then absolutely shit the bed in weeks 18 and the first round of the playoffs. He proved to us he is not clutch. He had to important games and he didn’t show up for either.
Now let’s look at what he’s getting into in Seattle. They have a subpar o-line. They just got rid of DK Metcal and Tyler Lockett. They have JSN and Jake Bobo available. They are going to need to spend draft capital to beef up that WR corps. He’s also playing in the Pacific North West where we know it absolutely pours up here. This is going to be a much more difficult situaiton for him.
I said on Thursday that I do like the move to trade DK, as I don’t think he’s a $30M wide receiver. They traded him to the Steelers on Sunday for a 2nd rounder, and they now have 5 picks in the top 3 rounds. I gotta believe they’re still going to be looking to move up for Jaxon Dart, the Ole Miss QB. Now they’re also going to have to attack WR.
The contract for Darnold was decent. He’ll be the 18th highest paid QB in the league and I think that’s around where he stands as a quarterback. It’s too early to predict what type of season he’ll have as we’ll need to see how they use their draft capital. If they’re able to shore up the offensive line and grab a couple weapons, it could workout for Sam. If they use those picks to grab his potential backup, Dart, he will be in trouble.
Steelers Trading For DK
The first thing that comes to mind is they now have the two most unhinged WR’s in the league. DK is the most penalized WR since he entered the league 6 years ago as a first rounder from Ole Miss. Pickens is regulary on ESPN for losing his cool, throwing punches and tempertanrums. These are two the most physically gifted WR’s in the league with the highest potential, but they’ve both shown to be mental midgets.
These guys are gonna be throwing punches at each other for targets, DB’s in practice and every week of the season, I would not want to be a rookie corner going against these two.
At the time of recording, they have not made a move for their QB yet. The rumours are calling for 41 year old Aaron Rodgers.
Free Agency Winners
Chicago Bears
Rookie Caleb Williams had a good rookie season despite constantly being under pressure, they addressed that right away by completely replacing their interior O line. Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson create one of the IOL in the league and gives them flexibility at 10.. They are going Jeanty if he’s there.
Commanders
They had the cap space and came out spending. They packaged four draft picks for LT Jeremy Tunsil and a 5th rounder to ensure Jayden Daniels safety. 92% and 93% pass block win rate in the last two seasons, but also led the league in penalties last year with 19.
LA Rams
I had him as my #2 WR available today. The Rams were actually able to sign him on Sunday because he was released by the Jets. They sign him to a 2 year $46M deal. A huge winner from this is Puka, who now gets to learn from two of the best WR’s of our generation in Cooper Kupp and now Davante Adams. The Rams O is looking loaded, weeks after shopping Stafford. They’ve mentioned they are trying to trade Kupp, so I don’t think they’ll have all three of these guys. A much different type of receiver than Kupp, he’s a big body WR who runs great routes and has great hands, absolute monster in the red zone. I think this is a win-win for the Rams and Davante as $23M per year is a fair deal. Stafford can still sling it so I think both him and Puka will put up numbers and keep defences honest for Kyren Williams. The NFC West is looking stacked.
Arizona Cardinals
We’ll stay in the NFC West as Jonathan Gannon and the cardinals pick up the best available pass rusher in former eagles edge, Josh Sweat. Gannon was previously Eagles DC before taking the Cardinals head coaching job in 2023. Sweat had his best season registering 11 sacks the last time he played for Gannon. This gives the Cards a top pass rusher which can instantly help any defence.
Denver Broncos
Woah woah woah. Payton is building in Colorado. They had one of the top D’s last year and they just came out swinging by adding Greenlaw and Hufanga. Two studs from San Fran. Somehow this defense will get even better. They have the 20th pick in the draft and I expect them to go RB or WR to give Bo Nix another option. He had a great rookie season. They are a threat in the AFC West.
LA Chargers
Speaking of AFC West, Chargers signed Najee Harris, 1 year $9.5M. Harbaugh absolutely loves the run game and he gets a physical back. Najee is a real lunch pail guy. He’s never missed a game in his career, produced 1,000 yards and 6 TD’s in each of his 4 seasons while only fumbling the rock 5 times in his career. I’m going to assume they’ll pair him up with more of a speed, change of pace back and he should be effective for them.
This next one is a winner for the player, but loser for the team.
Justin Fields
Justin Fields who is only 26 just secured a 2 year $40M bag after going 4-2 as a starter in Pittsburgh last year before being taken over by Russell Wilson.. Fields joins former Ohio State teammates Garret Wilson. He had a strong defence and running game helping him, he’s a solid game manager but the Steelers O looked capped with him running it as they only topping 24 points twice. The Jets will need that D to come back to life to win games next season.
Free Agency Losers
The Patriots
All the hype about bringing in a bonafide WR1, big names getting thrown around like Tee Higgins, Tyreek, Davante, Kupp and all you end up with is Mack Hollins. Way to help your rookie QB out. Vrabel comes to town and overpays a lot of guys. They just dished out over $270M on 9 guys, with 7 of those being on D. They picked up 4 starters on D so I expect the D to improved under Vrabel next season. Check out these contracts they dished out on day 1:
Milton Williams 4 year $104M - He was the top ranked DT, but he was also playing beside Jalen Carter and an absolutely stacked Eagles DL
Carlton Davis - 3 year $60M - I like this deal.. This was another position of need and now gives them two stud corners, as he’ll line up across from Christian Gonzalez
Harold Landry - 3 year $45M - This was vrabel bringing his fellow Titan up to foxborough
Rob Spillane 3 year $37.5M - Tough inside LB to shore up the run D.
We will see if Vrabel has a plan, but I am skeptical.
New York Giants
A lot of QB rumours heading in but they did not grab one. Instead they dished out more money to Darius Slayton 3 year $38 million than they offered Barkley the previous year.. Let that sink in for a minute. I do think Slayton is a solid WR2, but he’s never had 800 yards in a season and they gave him more than Barkley.
San Francisco
Check this list of players they lost:
Offense: Deebo Samuel, Fan favourite FB Kyle Juszczyk, OT Jaylon Moore, OG Aaron Banks, RB Elijah Mitchell, QB Josh Dobbs
Defense: LB Dre Greenlaw, CB Charvarious Ward, Safety Talanoa Hufanga, and two DT’s Hargraves and Malik Collins.
They currently have $34M in cap space and still need to re-sign Brock Purdy.
Dallas Cowboys
Jerry and the Cowboys continue to shy away from free agency. They have not paid a free agent more than $6 since 2015, when they signed Greg Hardy, who found himself literally fighting in the UFC octagon a couple years later. Staying in fashion, they only made one signing yesterday. Javonte Williams 1 year $3M. This guy is a bum. Check his YPC over his first 4 years.. 4.4, 4.3, 3.6, 3.7. I thought there is no way our rushing attack could’ve been worse than last year.. But this is a start that will rival it. The RB draft class is loaded this year, we better hit on one in the mid rounds.
Who do you think the biggest winners and losers of NFL Free Agency Day 1 were? Comment below or shoot me a line.
Have a great week and we’ll see you on Friday!
