With fewer and fewer top players reaching the open market thanks to extensions and franchise tags, all-out spending sprees by teams are increasingly rare. When agreements began materializing Monday, March 9, as the league’s negotiating window opened, only a handful of pacts entailed truly surprising sums.
But the stakes are still high in March, and several teams took bold action to reshape their fortune for the coming season – and not always for the better.
USA TODAY Sports will be grading all of the biggest deals and trades, so check back often for all the latest:
Falcons add QB Tua Tagovailoa on one-year, $1.215 million deal
Grade: B+
It sure would be nice for Kevin Stefanski if he could fuse the best qualities of each of his quarterbacks – Tagovailoa’s accuracy and Michael Penix Jr.’s ability to drive the ball into tight windows – into one passer. Instead, he’s stuck with two players who each amount to a half-measure behind center. While it’s fair to question whether Tagovailoa is a sustainable solution for the franchise, the Falcons weren’t going to find meaningful competition for Penix elsewhere at this price point. Atlanta now has insurance in case the third-year signal-caller’s return from a torn ACL has any hiccups, or if Stefanski merely wants a different look than a player who doesn’t appear to be much of a fit in the coach’s system due to his preference to work from the shotgun and his reluctance to operate over the middle.
Commanders add DE/OLB Odafe Oweh on four-year, $100 million deal
Grade: C+
Ahead of free agency, I wrote in my latest mock draft that the Commanders might be priced out of landing a big-name veteran pass rusher. Whoops. Washington instead doled out one of the more stunning sums to land Oweh, who came on strong late with all 7 ½ of his sacks after being traded to the Los Angeles Chargers last season. In terms of pure disruptiveness, there’s plenty to like about the five-year veteran. But he’s never played the role of lead option and true catalyst for a pass rush before, and Washington is betting $68 million guaranteed that he can make the leap. Maybe it was a nearly necessary one given how badly the team has whiffed on cobbling together an edge rush, but it’s an inherently risky gamble.
Titans add WR Wan’Dale Robinson on four-year, $78 million deal
Grade: C
Tennessee wasn’t trigger-shy at the outset of free agency, pulling in three players on deals of $60 million or more. The richest agreement came in the deal for Robinson. It’s difficult to square what he can offer an offense as a run-after-catch threat with this kind of payout. There’s something to be said for providing Cam Ward with an option who will encourage more checkdowns and fewer heroic efforts in and out of the pocket. But it feels as though the Titans overbid for another piece new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll knows and is comfortable with.
49ers add WR Mike Evans on three-year, $42.4 million deal
Grade: A
This is probably the rare case when you can believe an agent when he says a decision wasn’t driven by money. Evans’ deal was first reported as a $60.3 million pact, but that’s actually the maximum value with incentives rather than the base. And with only $16.3 million guaranteed, this partnership is pure upside for San Francisco. Evns sizes up as the kind of well-built X receiver to whom Kyle Shanahan used to love funneling targets. He doesn’t need to be anything beyond what he is at this stage in his career to make a massive difference for the 49ers offense. San Francisco just needs to settle the Trent Williams saga to make sure the offense is in top form for a title push.
Saints add RB Travis Etienne Jr. on four-year, $52 million deal
Grade: C-
Similar to the Chiefs, the Saints seemed desperate to invigorate a lackluster ground game, which ranked 31st in yards per carry. But what’s the rush? New Orleans isn’t anywhere close to Kansas City in establishing contending credentials, and the famously atypical spender doesn’t need to get bogged down in paying top dollar for running backs – especially one who is an effective but not transcendent talent. Having Tyler Shough on a rookie contract confers some advantages and flexibility. Still, the more reasonable route might have been to look to the middle rounds of the draft for a ball carrier. New Orleans has more work to do up front to get its rushing attack right, though linking up with offensive guard David Edwards was a nice start to that effort.
Raiders add C Tyler Linderbaum on three-year, $81 million deal
Grade: B-
Few numbers from Monday were as jarring as Linderbaum’s $27 million per year average annual value, which represented a 50% increase over Creed Humphrey’s previous market-setting rate at center. For a Raiders team flush with cap space, however, paying a premium for protection doesn’t seem so outlandish. Linderbaum will fit in perfectly with new coach Klint Kubiak’s zone runs, and reliability at the pivot could pay off in a big way for expected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza’s development. The Raiders’ free agency strategy at times resembled mashing all the buttons on a controller at once, but this addition could help establish the foundation needed for the Silver and Black to get off the ground floor for once.
Colts trade WR Michael Pittman Jr. for late-round pick swap
Steelers grade: C+
Colts grade: B-
For some teams, free agency can be a mechanism by which teams change their identities. For the Steelers, however, it seems to be a way in which the team can lean into its long-running vision for itself. Pittman, who averaged a meager 9.9 yards per catch last season and posted the fewest receiving yards since his rookie year, can still feast on in-breaking routes as a short-to-intermediate threat. But don’t expect him to revolutionize the outlook for a receiving corps that still might be a little stale even after his addition. This will be easier to stomach if the Steelers keep at that mission, but it still feels a bit risky to hand the 28-year-old a three-year, $59 million extension. The Colts’ salary dump might not move the needle much, but Indianapolis managed to navigate keeping Pittman in he fold until it had worked out the extension with Pierce.
Dolphins add QB Malik Willis on three-year, $67.5 million deal
Grade: A-
Ahead of this week, there was plenty of handwringing about the kind of offer that Willis might field after starting just three games in the last two years as Jordan Love’s backup on the Green Bay Packers. The actual bottom line, however, is entirely reasonable for the Dolphins. Miami gets to pivot from the Tua Tagovailoa era into an outlook with a decidedly higher upside, as Willis and De’Von Achane might be one of the NFL’s most explosive backfield tandems. New general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley know Willis’ capabilities thanks to their shared time in Green Bay. And with the alternative being forging ahead with Quinn Ewers, the Dolphins at least went with the more promising choice among unproven passers. The financial commitment isn’t daunting, either, as the cap space allotted to Willis might simply have gone to waste elsewhere as part of a significant rebuild.
Panthers add DE/OLB Jaelan Phillips on four-year, $120 million deal
Grade: B
Whether it’s via the draft or the open market, upgrading a pass rush will come with a hefty price tag. Carolina tried to take the former route last year with Day 2 picks Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen, but that just led the team to a point of impatience. Enter Phillips, who isn’t in the league’s first tier of edge threats but already can be a fearsome presence. Now, for the first time since the Panthers traded Brian Burns to the New York Giants, defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero has a legitimate force off the edge capable of creating havoc.
Chiefs add RB Kenneth Walker III on three-year, $43.05 million deal
Grade: B-
Seems only natural that Kansas City would try to solve its explosiveness problem in the ground game by securing a running back who had more than three times as many 20-plus yard runs (10) as the team’s entire offense engineered last season (3). With Eric Bieniemy back as offensive coordinator and Walker stepping in, it seems like a good bet that the Chiefs make a large leap with their rushing attack. But the cost here was fairly exorbitant for a team that was saddled with cap problems and now might need to get creative to find solutions for a tattered secondary. Kansas City’s insistence on rediscovering its big-play roots feels a bit misplaced amid wider roster problems, but at least there’s reason to believe Walker’s arrival could expedite an overall offensive resurgence, even if the resource allocation is questionable at best.
Colts re-sign WR Alec Pierce to four-year, $116 million deal
Colts grade: B-
Is it an overpay? Almost certainly. It’s difficult to look at a $29 million average annual value – not to mention the $84 million guaranteed – and conclude otherwise for a player who still relies so heavily on his wins in the vertical game to sustain himself. But general manager Chris Ballard and coach Shane Steichen are entering a make-or-break campaign, and they couldn’t afford to flinch as they try to reassemble the pieces that made them successful in the first half of last season. Indianapolis might not have managed this in an ideal fashion, but at least the team avoided the very real threat of losing Pierce in a booming receiver market.
Packers trade DE Rashan Gary to Cowboys
Cowboys grade: C
Packers grade: A
So much for Jerry Jones’ rumination that the Cowboys could be uncharacteristically aggressive in free agency this year. This feels less like a splash and more like a belly flop for Dallas’ defense. Gary’s 7 ½ sacks last season belie his limited effectiveness as a pass rusher, with a pressure rate that has continued to plunge yearly before falling to 12.1% last year. He neither properly capitalized on Micah Parsons’ arrival nor stepped up when the All-Pro edge rusher was lost for the season to a torn ACL. Gary can stop the run and register some clean-up sacks, but that hardly feels like an efficient use of a $19.5 million cap hit. Meanwhile, Green Bay somehow extracts a fourth-round pick – albeit in 2027 – for a player who otherwise might have just been cut loose.
Dolphins trade S Minkah Fitzpatrick to Jets
Jets grade: B
Dolphins grade: Incomplete
Despite entering Monday with a good deal of spending space, Gang Green mostly scrounged through the bargain bin in the early stages of free agency. Their one splurge might have come in the form of acquiring Fitzpatrick, whom they signed to a three-year, $40 million extension – essentially the going rate for a nice-but-not-elite safety. The five-time Pro Bowler is hardly at his playmaking peak anymore, but he’s a respected leader who can get the back end of the Jets’ defense in order. That’s nothing to sneeze at for Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey, who don’t have much to count on beyond their floor-raising pick-ups in free agency. New Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, meanwhile, gets a reprieve for cleaning up the missteps of his predecessor.