Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
I think every front office in the NFL took Thursday off to watch the first day of the NCAA Tournament, because it was a slow day around the league. However, we never have any slow days here, which means we have a loaded newsletter coming your way.
Not only do we have some winners and losers from the second week of free agency, but we’re also going to take a look at some of the most intriguing signings on the offensive side of the ball, plus it seems that Nashville wants to host an upcoming Super Bowl and we’ll be covering the details of that.
As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.
- NFL winners and losers after the second week of free agency
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Getty Images
Now that we’re about to wrap up the second full week of free agency, it’s time to judge every team on how they did and to make that happen, we had Garrett Podell come up with some winners and losers from the first two weeks combined.
WINNERS
The Bengals offense: “Joe Burrow put on his general manager hat this offseason and spoke to anyone who would listen about how the franchise needed to re-sign both of his top two wide receivers: Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. He got his wish, and his boys got paid with Chase (four years, $161 million with $112 million guaranteed) and Higgins (four years, $115 million) each signing four-year deals. The offensive fireworks will continue in Cincinnati.”
Jayden Daniels: “The Commanders acquired Pro Bowl wide receiver Deebo Samuel from the San Francisco 49ers to give Daniels a capable No. 2 receiver opposite Terry McLaurin. They also acquired five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil in a trade from the Houston Texans to shore up Daniels’ blind side. And they also re-signed Daniels’ red zone security blanket in tight end Zach Ertz. Continuity is hard to possess in the NFL, but Daniels has it while other key parts of his offense improved.”
LOSERS
Free agent running backs: “None of the running backs to actually hit the open market got paid this offseason, and Aaron Jones was the only pending free agent this offseason to receive a sizeable contract. A year after it appeared the running back market might be back thanks to Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard, the free agency market was financially barren for the 2025 class at the position.”
Cowboys: “The Dallas Cowboys are still scared to make big moves in free agency despite having the cap space to do so. They either re-signed most of their own guys, or they went bargain-bin hunting, mostly on ex-first-round picks who haven’t hit in their previous stops.”
We’ve also been tracking free agent grades all week and we’ve got more of those here.
- NFL free agency: Most intriguing signings on the offensive side of the ball
In Thursday’s newsletter, we covered the most intriguing free agency signings on the defensive side of the ball, so today, we’re going to flip things around and look at the most intriguing signings on the offensive side of the ball.
Jared Dubin went over every signing that’s been made since the start of free agency and came up with eight intriguing signings on the offensive side of the ball. We’re going to take a look at three of those below:
Justin Fields to the Jets. “He also has some better weapons in New York (Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall) than he did in Chicago or Pittsburgh, so that could take his game to another level.”
Davante Adams to the Rams. “Adams has played in this style of offense before during his time in Green Bay, and he can be both the prototypical X receiver and the guy who moves around the formation and forces defenses into uncomfortable situations. Pairing him with Puka Nacua and giving Matthew Stafford a different kind of weapon than he had with Cooper Kupp is going to be really cool to watch.”
Jaylon Moore to the Chiefs. “The Chiefs going out and paying Moore — who has been a backup throughout his entire four-year career — to protect Patrick Mahomes’ blind side is, technically, really interesting. Maybe not in a good way. But it’s definitely something to which we need to devote a lot of attention. … Moore has given up 36 pressures on 446 pass-blocking snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, an 8.1% pressure rate. That’s … not great. Kansas City is betting on some major improvement.”
If you want to see Dubin’s full list, you can check it out here.
- Top 10 free agents left on the market: Five defensive players and five offensive players crack the list
NFL: Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills
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With the second week of free agency now coming to a close, you might be wondering who’s still left on the market and as it turns out, there’s still quite a few good players out there.