2025 NFL Free-Agency Tracker: Grading Every Major Move | Super Bowl Odds for Every Team After Free Agency
NFL free agency isn’t over yet. But most of the headliners, save for a few big-name quarterbacks and older receivers, are off the market.
There’s a lot to account for over the past week or so, including re-signings, trades and signings, so we asked our reporters to weigh in on some hot topics over the next few days.
Let’s dive with today’s question.
Which signing will have the least impact?
Verderame: I don’t understand the Dan Moore signing for the Tennessee Titans. This is a team that has done nothing but throw major assets at the offensive line for years under general manager Ran Carthon, including first-round picks JC Latham and Peter Skoronski. Now, they sink $82 million over four years into Dan Moore.
Moore is a decent player, but paying him $20.5 million per year when the Titans could have spent $30 million over two years on Jaylon Moore, or even gotten Cam Robinson on a one-year flier seems odd. With the Pittsburgh Steelers, Moore started for three seasons and the Steelers saw fit to draft Broderick Jones in the first round to replace him. It was that big of a need.
While the Titans certainly needed to upgrade on the line, they have so many other needs that spending wildly on Moore seems questionable for first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi.
Manzano: It’s tough seeing Sam Darnold having a successful season with a Seattle Seahawks squad that has issues on the offensive line and isn’t as talented as the Minnesota Vikings, whose surroundings helped Darnold deliver a breakout 2024 season. Darnold isn’t as good as Smith, something the Seahawks essentially admitted when they prioritized re-signing Smith before pivoting to Plan B because the price tag got too high with their former starting quarterback.
Darnold will have a quality wideout in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who will be a friendly target on pivotal downs. But it’s unknown whether Smith-Njigba can be a No. 1 wide receiver without DK Metcalf on the field. Kupp’s best days are likely behind him and the Seahawks are missing vertical threats, which might not matter because Seattle doesn’t have the offensive line to buy Darnold the time to take shots downfield. The Seahawks will probably regret taking a chance on Darnold’s full 2024 sample size and not focusing enough on the two disastrous outings to end the breakout campaign.
Orr: If we’re talking about scope versus what a team would actually get back in terms of net wins, I think you have to look at the Washington Commanders. Washington was a 12-win team in actuality but in reality was a nine- or 10-win team that benefitted from some incredibly good fortune (and unprepared opponents). So going out and signing Samuel and trading for Tunsil makes them, what exactly? Is this now a division-winning, 14-victory team? I don’t see it that way given that most players available in March are available for a reason.
Breer: Daniel Jones signing a one-year deal with the Colts at $14 million. The idea, I get—push Anthony Richardson the way you did last year when you benched him. And I don’t hate Jones as a bridge quarterback for someone. But I worry that it came at the expense of an offensive line that now has to replace Will Fries and Ryan Kelly (though the Indianapolis Colts were without both for long stretches of 2024). I’d also be concerned that the talent on that side of the ball is average in general, which is something I don’t think Jones can solve, and makes me question what adding him will accomplish.
Iain MacMillan: It seems like every offseason there’s a veteran receiver on the back end of his career who signs with a team to more fanfare than it deserves and this year’s version of that is DeAndre Hopkins to the Baltimore Ravens.
Hopkins had his chance to prove he can still be a weapon when the Kansas City Chiefs traded for him last season and even with Patrick Mahomes throwing him the ball, he was ineffective. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he was playing less than 40% of snaps and just 18.2% of snaps in the AFC championship. The betting market didn’t budge when he signed with Baltimore and for good reason. We’ll hardly hear his name this season.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The MMQB Debates Which NFL Free Agent Will Have the Least Impact.