First - and this goes without saying - we clearly do not know who will be at the wheel for personnel decisions this spring. This discussion is less about figuring out who will be making the decisions, and what their mindset will be. This is more just a practice to take a look at our current roster, evaluate FA's, and see what we feel like will be moves we want to see made with the current FA's scheduled to be on the market.
First, our current FA's, for reference:
2024 NFL Free Agents Tracker
2024 NFL Free Agency Primer: Top 10 free agents at every position | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF
Here is a list from PFF projecting the top 10 players at each position. It is PFF, so some of these rankings I don't entirely agree with. But it still gives us good references at who will be available at each position. I will copy this down, just so those can reference who will be on the market.
All in all, what all should we be targeting? I think priority one is to determine what the plan is at QB. If we are in a great position to land a QB in the top 2-3, I would say we could probably sign a lower end vet to pair off with Zappe as the backup. However, if we are not in that position, and looking like we would be more likely to take a developmental guy in late round 1-3, it would be better to be more aggressive and pursue a Cousins, or even a Minshew.
After that, I would say to evaluate our FA's on the market with whomever else is on the FA market.
I think resigning Dugger, Henry and Bourne and Jennings feel like good moves, because I don't expect any of those four to hit major numbers on the market.
With how deep the FA class is at edge, even a guy like Uche may even come back cheap at this rate, although I would not mind looking elsewhere at the position with how many options there are out there. I feel the same with Elliott at RB. I'm not opposed to him re signing, but there are plenty of quality RB options on the market. We may be able to upgrade at the position looking elsewhere.
I do think resigning one of Brown/Onwenu looks to be a good move to maintain a level of stability. Bring one back, so you can at least build up off on the base of Andrews, Strange, one of those two, McDermott and the several mid rounders we selected last year.
After that, I do go all in on targeting a potential 1 at WR that is below the age of 30. (only exception here is if you decide to go all in on targeting Marvin Jr.) Given the problems we have had at the position, I'm good with us breaking the bank here. Go after Higgins, Brown, Ridley, and Pittman. Would have to think at least 1-2 will be available. I also really like the upside of a Gabe Davis there, too.
I would also spend on another quality starter on the OL. Not many options at tackle besides our own guys already on the market, preferably someone who could be a long-term starter here so that would make a guy like Tyron Smith not the best fit. Jonah Williams would probably be the one other option here. Interior OL has several good options here, Hunt, Dotson, Brewer, Jonah Jackson Cleveland, and Williams/James at C would all be quality starters that I would be pursuing. Ideally resigning one of our OL, signing one quality starter, and drafting another with the 2nd rounder feels like the best route to fix the OL.
I don't have any other positions I'd consider immediate needs on the roster to pursue in FA, but definitely could use another piece or two on defense. Would be smart to continue to add young pieces there.
Thoughts?
