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The NFL’s free agency frenzy is underway, with a chaotic first day seeing the biggest domino of them all fall while the Philadelphia Eagles made some big swings in a bid to get back to the Super Bowl.
The second day of the tampering period saw Baltimore land superstar running back Derrick Henry while losing free agent linebacker Patrick Queen to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
With so many players on the move a number of intriguing storylines have already started to surface, including ones that only add to the interest ahead of next month’s NFL Draft.
Here, foxsports.com.au unpacks five talking points to kick off a frantic free agency period.
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Russell Wilson to sign with Steelers | 00:26
With Falcons and Steelers out of the question, what is next for Chicago and Justin Fields?
All signs seem to be pointing towards the Bears drafting Caleb Williams with the first overall pick, so what’s with the delay in trading current starting quarterback Justin Fields?
The longer they wait the more the potential trade market for Fields dries up, which in turn limits the kind of return they can get for the 25-year-old.
Atlanta and Pittsburgh were both floated as the most logical landing spots for Fields in a trade but both teams have since made moves for Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson respectively.
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport said on Monday that while the Bears “seem to be open” to trading Fields they want to “make sure” Williams is “their guy at No. 1” before making the move.
“This is not a Justin Fields discussion,” he said.
“This is a Caleb Williams No. 1 overall pick discussion. What the Chicago Bears are committed to doing — and really, what they’ve been committed to doing the entire time — is fully evaluating the quarterbacks they could take at No. 1, including Caleb Williams.”
Now, who knows if this is the reality or just what the Bears are putting out there to cover for the fact the trade market they expected for Fields.
Comments from Adam Schefter suggest the truth may be somewhere closer to the latter, with the ESPN insider reporting if Fields leaves Chicago for another team he will probably be a back-up.
“The teams that are looking at him would be looking at him as a backup,” Schefter said on ESPN’s ‘First Take’.
“It doesn’t look like there is a starting job out there at this particular moment.”
The Vikings were another option, although it was always going to be tricky given they were NFC North rivals and the signing of Sam Darnold suggests Minnesota is more likely to trade up in the draft to take a rookie quarterback instead.
The Raiders could do similar, having landed free agent Gardner Minshew on a two-year deal worth up to $25 million with now second-year quarterback Aidan O’Connell on the books.
If Fields is going to land as a back-up at a rival team, the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts both make plenty of sense given both franchises are running with mobile first-choice quarterbacks.
The Eagles and Colts also need recognised back-up options after losing Marcus Mariota and Minshew in free agency.
As for teams where the quarterback picture is still a bit murkier, the Denver Broncos are without a recognised starting option after Wilson’s move to Pittsburgh.
They have the 12th pick in the draft and would likely need to trade up to be able to land one of the top quarterback options in this year’s class.
The Giants could also try to make a move for Fields if they would prefer to use their No. 6 pick in this year’s draft to either bolster their wide receiver room or offensive line.
The same goes for the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots, while the Seattle Seahawks could be a dark horse option if they start planning for life after Geno Smith.
What is seemingly working in favour of all those teams is the fact Fields’ trade value appears to be dwindling every day.
Expect Fields to be traded near next month’s draft but for the time being he is in limbo with his two strongest landing spots off the board.
Falcons make $100 million gamble worth taking as Cousins gets paid again
The biggest domino in free agency fell early on Tuesday morning when it was announced the Atlanta Falcons would be signing Kirk Cousins to a four-year deal reportedly worth $180 million, with $100 million guaranteed.
For the Falcons, there is risk involved given Cousins will be 36 years old when the new season starts and is barely four months removed from a torn Achilles tendon.
However, the biggest concern for any quarterback coming off an Achilles injury is reduced mobility and that has never been a big part of Cousins’ game or what makes him so good.
Instead, the Falcons need to make sure their offensive line is doing its job early in the season so Cousins, one of the league’s best clean-pocket throwers, can get the ball to their weapons.
That is the whole reason why they aggressively went out and signed him in the first place, with Dianna Russini of The Athletic reporting the Falcons were “going to go as far as they needed to make this happen”.
Whether it was Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder or Taylor Heinicke, the Falcons have not been able to find a consistent option at quarterback that gives them stability at the position.
Cousins offers that along with the kind of accuracy that those past three quarterbacks were lacking, which capped Drake London and Kyle Pitts’ ceiling as a result.
London in particular has shown a consistent ability to win in contested catch situations and has all the makings of a true alpha receiver in the league. All he needs is reliable quarterback play, something which has been missing since his rookie season.
The pressure was on general manager Terry Fontenot too, who is yet to oversee a winning season since taking over the position in 2021.
With Arthur Smith already gone, the writing was on the wall for Fontenot without any clear improvements.
Meanwhile, the structuring of his contract means there is flexibility for Atlanta regardless of how Cousins performs given he is being paid $45 million in each of the next two seasons, with only $10 million in guaranteed money past the 2025 season.
In other words, if Cousins is the answer at quarterback the Falcons have been looking for they can restructure the remainder of his contract to free up more cap space to further bolster their roster.
If not, they won’t take a huge cap hit to move either.
The move is also aided by the fact new Falcons head coach Raheem Morris was in Washington for the first three years of Cousins’ career in the NFL while Atlanta offensive coach Zac Robinson worked under Kevin O’Connell with the Rams.
As a result, the shift from Minnesota to Atlanta won’t require too much of a schematic transition, not that a veteran like Cousins would be fazed by one anyway.
As former quarterback Dan Orlovsky said on ‘NFL Live’ on Tuesday morning, the Falcons signing Cousins is in many ways a “perfect marriage”.
“While these young players played under Arthur Smith last year, Arthur Smith’s offence has elements of the same offence that Zac Robinson is bringing over from McVay and Kirk Cousins thrives,” Orlovsky said.
“You’re going to see Bijan Robinson get plenty of touches and I think they’re going to have a multitude of different ways to get him the football. Drake London is going to become a superstar.
“If they can get some vertical speed and then Kyle Pitts to potentially get healthy and impactful on the field, you will see this Atlanta offence — not in December with it taking time — you’ll see them in September look very similar to the one we’ve seen Kirk operate in Minnesota under Kevin O’Connell.”
Panthers front office keeps finding ways to lose
You know things are bad when Luke Combs is so fed up that even he has to weigh in.
The country music superstar took to X, formerly known as Twitter, after the Panthers traded two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Brian Burns to the Giants, to voice his frustration despite admitting he doesn’t “usually comment on these kinds of things”.
But Combs didn’t just comment on it. He let rip.
“WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!?” he wrote.
“No first round pick for McCaffrey a few years back and now none for Burns?!?!“Are we just fire bombing the whole team here or what? I usually don’t comment on these kinds of things but it’s just becoming slow torture at this point.”
For context, the Burns trade is particularly hard for Panthers fans to take given multiple reports at the 2022 trade deadline indicated the Rams had offered two first-round picks and a second-rounder for the outside linebacker.
Carolina turned that down and instead now settled for a 2024 second-round pick (No. 39 overall) and 2025 fifth-found pick in exchange for Burns.
It is just the latest gut punch for the NFL’s worst team, which didn’t receive a single first-round pick when it traded away superstar running back Christian McCaffrey, who was firmly in the MVP conversation last season after leading the 49ers to an NFC championship.
And then there was the trade with the Chicago Bears which saw the Panthers send two first-round picks (2023, 2024) and top wide receiver DJ Moore in order to draft Bryce Young.
It is still too early to make an assessment on Young, who has some more receiver help after Carolina traded for Diontae Johnson on Wednesday, but it leaves the Panthers without a first-round pick in this year’s draft and plenty of glaring holes to fill in an incomplete roster.
It is “slow torture”, as Combs put it, watching talented, young players sent out the door with limited trade compensation coming back in return.
And unless Young show signs next season, it may be a long time before the torture is over.
Truth behind Saquon’s move to Giants’ most hated rivals
Saquon Barkley made the right move for his career. The New York Giants made the right move for their future.
And yet, with Barkley officially signing with NFC East rivals Philadelphia, the reaction from former Giants running back Tiki Barber was swift and, to be frank, quite extreme.
“He’s dead to us now. You’re dead to us, Saquon,” Barber said Monday on the ‘Evan & Tiki’ show.
“Good luck, you’re dead to me.”
This is despite Barkley, who was drafted by the Giants with the second overall pick in 2018, gutting it out as the team’s only real consistent weapon in the past few seasons and behind an offensive line that ranked 31st in run block win rate last season.
“@TikiBarber you been a hater since I got to New York … and all the ‘Dead to me’ talk don’t smile in my face when you see me,” wrote Barkley in response on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While tensions were always going to be high given Barkley was joining New York’s most hated rivals, all you have to do is take a step back to understand why this move makes sense for both parties.
For Barkley, he thought he was worth more than what New York was offering him and got a much-deserved payday as he signed a three-year deal worth up to $46.75 million, including $26 million guaranteed.
For the Giants, meanwhile, running back is definitely not the priority with the team a long way from contending for a Super Bowl so a three-year, $16.5 million contract for Devin Singletary better fit their timeline.
Giants free-agent offensive lineman Justin Pugh put it in simple terms on X defending Barkley, who he wrote “sacrificed it all for the team and organization”.
“No @Giants fans can be mad at @saquon,” Pugh wrote.
“He sacrificed it all for the team and organization. The Giants decided they could only pay him a set amount, Philly was willing to pay more. Plain and simple. Business of football.”
Still, it will do little to make some Giants fans feel better, especially considering the fact they will now face Barkley two times a year and be reminded of what could have been if the franchise decided to pay him instead of quarterback Daniel Jones.
For Philadelphia, meanwhile, the move only really makes sense if they are open to involving Barkley in the passing game more given that is one of his biggest strengths.
Otherwise, the Eagles would have been better served going down the cheaper route by adding someone like Zack Moss to use alongside Boston Scott and Kenneth Gainwell.
Patriots make shrewd move in start of post-Belichick era
On a side note, while the Eagles and Raiders made big splashes, the Patriots made one of the shrewdest moves on the first day of the legal tampering period.
As New England plans for life without Bill Belichick, the franchise agreed to a reunion with Jacoby Brissett on a one-year, $8 million contract that could be worth up to $12 million with incentives.
It is a smart move from the Patriots, who now have a bridge quarterback to open the season as the starter while New England likely develops the rookie signal-caller it selects with the third overall pick in this year’s draft.
While Brissett has not been a full-time starter since his time with the Colts, he has impressed whenever given an opportunity in recent stints as a back-up with Washington and Cleveland.
And if Patriots fans want another reason to be optimistic about the Brissett signing, he had one of his best seasons in the NFL in 2022 under then-Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, completing 64 percent of his passes for 2,608 yards, 12 touchdowns, and six interceptions
Van Pelt is now the Patriots’ play caller and Ben Volin of The Boston Globe wrote that he “loved coaching Brissett” and that New England “view Brissett as a hard worker who can be a good role model for the rookie and help establish a positive culture in the locker room”.
That is why Brissett will be valuable regardless of how he performs in camp.
If he outperforms the rookie quarterback or whoever else they bring in, the Patriots have an experienced option to lean on instead of the revolving door of mediocrity that was Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe.
If not, they have a veteran, team-first player to help mentor the younger starting quarterback. It is an ideal, low-risk move for New England’s first rebuilding year without Belichick.
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