2018 NFL free agency - best values, worst overpays Worst overpays 1. Sammy Watkins, Kansas City Chiefs | Deal: Three years, $48 million 2. Star Lotulelei, Buffalo Bills | Deal: Five years, $50 million 3. Nate Solder, New York Giants | Deal: Four years, $62 million The Giants were negotiating from a position of extreme desperation within a market featuring few established starting tackles. This deal reflects those realities. "What they paid [Solder] was unbelievable," an evaluator said, "but they had to help their quarterback and that helps him." It would be tough to fault the Giants for overpaying a top-shelf left tackle given their issues along the offensive line. Solder has not recently been a top-shelf left tackle, however, and there is a good chance he will fail to meet unrealistic expectations after the Giants made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league. They'll pay $34.8 million guaranteed to Soldier over the next two years. 4. Trey Burton, Chicago Bears | Deal: Four years, $32 million 5. Sam Bradford, Arizona Cardinals | Deal: Two years, $40 million 6. Trumaine Johnson, New York Jets | Deal: Five years, $72.5 million 7. Anthony Hitchens, Kansas City Chiefs | Deal: Five years, $45 million 8. Taylor Gabriel, Chicago Bears | Deal: Four years, $26 million 9. Jimmy Graham, Green Bay Packers | Deal: Three years, $30 million 10. Jonathan Stewart, New York Giants | Deal: Two years, $6.9 million Best values 1. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints | Deal: Two years, $50 million 2. Julius Peppers, Carolina Panthers | Deal: One year, $5 million 3. Sheldon Richardson, Minnesota Vikings | Deal: One year, $8 million 4. Bradley McDougald, Seattle Seahawks | Deal: Three years, $13.5 million 5. AJ McCarron, Buffalo Bills | Deal: Two years, $10 million 6. Richard Sherman, San Francisco 49ers | Deal: Three years, $27.15 million 7. Eric Ebron, Indianapolis Colts | Deal: Two years, $13 million 8. Tyrann Mathieu, Houston Texans | Deal: One year, $7 million Mathieu did not accept a pay cut from Arizona; he took one from Houston on a prove-it deal. There's a chance Mathieu is just a decent slot corner at this point in his career, but there's also a chance he'll take another step forward in his second season back from injury. There's some risk for Houston in that the Texans already have multiple key players coming off injuries, but the upside for Mathieu justifies the investment. 9. Mike Wallace, Philadelphia Eagles | Deal: One year, $1.9 million 10. Russell Bodine, Buffalo Bills | Deal: Two years, $5 million
Disagree with Trey Burton. He was just stuck behind two other good TEs. He can play. Wish the Texans had gotten him.
I could care less about the monetary value of the contracts, ain't my money, as long as the team gets players under salary cap that bring the team a championship.
Except when they overpay for Brock Osweiler it has real long term costs. Specifically a second round pick, in this case
Honestly I'm not tripping about that one. Considering, it was a good contract. They could have hung on to him for one more year and be done with his contract. It was essentially a two year contract with a team option for year 3 and 4. They got rid of him because they wanted to make room for more talent in 2017. And they did. That might end up being the best draft class by the Texans. Injuries just derailed the team. If Brock was the 15th best QB in the league and was paid like the 5th best, it would have been okay. With the pieces on the Texans' D, the 15th best QB would have gone deeper in the playoffs.
Addition of Watt - that could be 'impact signing' no one else can match. Big concern is OL & has been for awhile. Unbelievable how bad this OL was a season ago. Led NFL in total pressures surrendered(253 across the regular season). Pass blocking efficiency numbers, everyone in the league is in the same spectrum. It's a steady graph from the top to the bottom. Everyone tails off at a level and then there's a drop to the Houston Texans. All they've done to fix that is bring in a group of substandard retread OL, none whom will have the impact to overhaul this line the way it needs to be overhauled. Plus you're missing a 1st round draft pick. This is a glaring hole on this roster and there's no easy way of fixing it right now. Can they get back to the 2016 team defensively? I don't know if they'll get back that far but those two players(Colvin/Mathieu) can be significant additions. Mathieu was let go because the contract numbers no longer made sense in Arizona. He was playing pretty well last season. Not at his DPOY level season but a pretty good addition to this secondary. Colvin has potential to be a nice addition. 62 targets without surrendering a TD. Those two could be useful additions & we'll see if guys like Kevin Johnson can get back to previous levels of play with improved talent around them. Mathieu is a safety by name but is a slot corner. When you tap into that all around ability, he can play the run like a LB, rush the passer, play zone, play man. He's a matchup weapon. [Draft] Best thing for the OL may be getting Deshaun Watson back. This is a draft they'll have to attack the OL. They'll probably need to do it a couple a times. This is such a bad unit. They've made modest attempts to patch it up in free agency. I don't know if any will actually do the job. In the draft, they need to target more than one guy. You'll need to dedicate a significant portion of your draft to fix this OL. Also keep an eye on WR. They brought in Will Fuller. Hopkins is great. Miller hasn't worked out. TE as well with C.J. Fiedorowicz retiring. This is a team that needs a playmaker at that position. If not WR, it could be TE. Story of this offseason: playmakers & OL to help out Deshaun Watson
