Eagles GM Howie Roseman added RB Saquon Barkley on a three-year, $37M pact, stealing him from the GiantsGetty Images
NFL free agency began yesterday and as team's started making moves, there was plenty of reaction from across the media landscape.
CONTINUING THE RUN: NFL.com's Jeffri Chadiha wrote Buccaneers GM Jason Licht has “been on quite a run over the last four years,” as the team is back in position to compete for another division crown because of “all the heavy lifting Licht has done over the last two weeks." Licht was able to retain WR Mike Evans and S Antoine Winfield JR. and worked out a three-year $100M deal with QB Baker Mayfield. He also agreed to acquire a third-round pick in this year's draft in a trade that will send CB Carlton Davis III to the Lions along with a couple sixth-round picks. This offseason “could've been rough for Licht” if Evans and Mayfield walked. Instead, the Bucs have a "great shot at returning to the playoffs for a fifth straight season” (NFL.com, 3/11).
PROVIDING A RESET: SI’s Matt Verderame wrote Eagles GM Howie Roseman “might be the league’s best general manager, and he’s about to show why once more.” With the Eagles “reportedly looking to move off” DEs Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat, Roseman deftly signed DE Bryce Huff to a three-year, $51M deal. With the draft capital received for the eventual trades of Reddick and Sweat, the Eagles “will be able to bolster the remainder of the defense, specifically down the middle.” Roseman also added RB Saquon Barkley on a three-year, $37M pact, stealing him from the Giants. The Eagles “needed a reset after collapsing down the stretch last season,” and Roseman is “well on his way to providing just that” (SI, 3/11).
STARTING NEW: USA TODAY’s Nate Davis wrote the Commanders spent on DE Dorance Armstrong and C Tyler Biadasz, who follow new coach Dan Quinn from the Cowboys to the Commanders and weaken a division rival, while also adding RB Austin Ekeler and LB Frankie Luvu. The NFL “mandates a spending floor to the salary cap," yet it "doesn’t feel like they’re notably better despite having more spending power than any other team entering free agency.” Maybe Quinn, GM Adam Peters and the rest of a new regime "should be credited for some level of prudence that’s generally been foreign in these parts for the past quarter-century” (USA TODAY, 3/11).
STILL MAKING PROGRESS: THE RINGER’s Austin Gayle writes Raiders GM Tom Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce "came out swinging in free agency." The new regime agreed to terms with DT Christian Wilkins, a "top-five player at his position and arguably the best player on the open market" yesterday. The positives to this signing “should be obvious” as Wilkins is a “game-wrecker, and he will be a force multiplier” when paired up with DE Maxx Crosby on the defensive line. However, Wilkins is not an upgrade to the quarterback room, and QB Gardner Minshew -- the other big-name free agent who agreed to terms with the Raiders yesterday -- "isn’t much of one, either.” Wilkins nor Minshew “change the fact that the team is still a ways away from being a legitimate contender” (THE RINGER, 3/12).
DARK DAYS: In Ft. Lauderdale, Dave Hyde wrote one by one, hour after hour, LB Andrew Van Ginkel after G Robert Hunt after Wilkins, the names of departed Dolphins free agents “piled up,” until by late yesterday afternoon an “annual day of hope became such an exodus you expected the Red Sea to part.” Calling it the “worst Dolphins day in free agency doesn’t do it full justice.” That is “not just because of the good players lost, the holes made, the questions added.” It is also because of the "organizational bungling that made it financially necessary to the point none of the departures was even surprising.” The past three years, the Dolphins have "thrown money and draft picks like confetti to bring expensive veterans in the front door" like WR Tyreek Hill, DE Bradley Chubb, LT Terron Armstead and CB Jalen Ramsey. Now they "lose talented players out the back door" and they "don’t have anyone waiting to fill their spots because, well, they traded so many draft picks for those aforementioned big names" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 3/11).
