The so-called legal tampering period of NFL free agency continues apace, and we are now mere hours away from the official start of Wednesday’s new league year. As has become the norm, the major dominoes of free agency have all pretty much fallen by now. The first two days of free agency are where all the action is at these days.
Because so much happens, and so quickly, it’s always important to take stock of what went down. We’re doing that in a host of different ways this week here at CBSSports.com, and one of those ways is by declaring our free agency winners and losers each and every day this week.
In the space below, we’re digging in on Day 2, which got off to a hot start early in the morning, but cooled pretty considerably by the afternoon, because that’s just the way things go when most of the big-time deals get done within the first few hours of the starting gun.
Minnesota continued to splash the pot in a big way on Tuesday, landing three high-priced free agents early in the morning. Importantly, all three deals continued the Vikings’ fortification of the trenches: They are signing Jonathan Allen to a three-year, $60 million deal, Will Fries to a five-year, $88 million deal and will sign Javon Hargrave to a contract once he’s officially released by the 49ers. This is the path the Vikings set themselves on when they moved on from Kirk Cousins and landed on J.J. McCarthy as their quarterback of the future. They could potentially still get in the mix for someone like Aaron Rodgers (more on him later), but for now it seems like they’re going to build out the rest of the roster around their rookie-contract quarterback.
Dallas cleared over $54 million in cap room … and has basically done nothing with it. The only outside free agents the team has signed are Javonte Williams, Robert Jones and Solomon Thomas, none of whom has been an impact player in recent seasons. Dallas has still also yet to get a deal done with any of Micah Parsons (whose price keeps going up day by day), Tyler Smith or Daron Bland. The Cowboys just continue to do the same things year after year and somehow expect the results to change.
Jones got himself a $14 million contract to go compete for the starting job in Indianapolis. Even if he loses out to Anthony Richardson — which seems likely unless Jones dramatically outperforms Richardson in training camp, given how much the franchise has invested in Richardson — he still made himself a nice chunk of change just months after being benched in favor of Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock, and without doing anything in the interim that suggested he’s worthy of a shot at a starting spot.
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Cody Benjamin
Loser: 49ers
The Niners have seemingly lost half their roster in the first two days of free agency. Stretching back to last week, the Niners have traded Deebo Samuel, cut Kyle Juszczyk, will soon release Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins, and seen Dre Greenlaw, Charvarius Ward, Talanoa Hufanga, Aaron Banks, Jaylon Moore, Elijah Mitchell and Josh Dobbs leave in free agency. That is a lot of production on both sides of the ball. And it’s not like San Francisco has a ton of draft capital to acquire ready-made replacements. There could be a significant retool coming for this team, and it might not look great in 2025.
Winner: Return specialists
KaVontae Turpin landed a three-year, $18 million deal from Dallas, making him the highest-paid special-teamer in the league. Turpin also played 27% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps last year so he is not value-less on offense, but he is primarily a return man and he just made the price of the brick for players at that spot go way up.
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Cody Benjamin
The game of quarterback musical chairs is nearly over, and neither veteran signal-caller has found a home just yet. The only spots left are seemingly in Pittsburgh and New York (with the Giants), and only one of those (Pittsburgh) seems like a spot where you’re guaranteed to be the season-opening starter. Unless the Vikings surprisingly get in on the action, or the Titans or Browns change course from where they are right now, one of these two guys is going to be pretty unhappy — and the other might not be too thrilled with his landing spot, either.
Winner: Cam Ward (and Shedeur Sanders)
Speaking of the Titans, more and more signs seemingly point to them drafting the former University of Miami quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick. There was speculation that the Titans would get involved in the veteran quarterback market this week, and that has not happened. Instead, they chose to invest in the offensive line by signing a new left tackle. Could they still draft Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter? Sure. But they probably would’ve gotten themselves a bridge QB by now if they were going to do that. Even if Ward doesn’t go No. 1, well, the Browns and Giants still badly need quarterbacks, and that could potentially benefit Sanders as well.
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