One has to hand it to the NFL for creating opportunties for folks like us to continue to talk about them virtually year-round. We’re just about a month removed from the Super Bowl and still more than a month away from the draft and yet they’re still as relevant with March as college basketball madness and baseball spring training.
We’re just two days into this cycle and already we’ve seen more than a billion dollars of deals being cut with players switching teams and nearly as much being invested to keep some from doing so.
And yet, as CBS SPORTS’ Kyle Stackpole reminded, technically the green flag hasn’t yet officially dropped on this race:
The new NFL league year doesn’t kick off until Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET, but the chaos of the offseason is in full swing.
We’ve had stars receive franchise tags (Tee Higgins and Trey Smith), Pro Bowlers get traded (Geno Smith, Deebo Samuel and DK Metcalf), franchise quarterbacks receive pay raises (Matthew Stafford and Josh Allen), All-Pro edge rushers land record-breaking extensions (Maxx Crosby and Myles Garrett) and a whole lot more. And that was before the NFL’s legal tampering period began at noon ET on Monday!
Since teams have been able to negotiate with other clubs’ impending three agents, several high-profile deals have already been agreed to. The biggest ones on Monday were the Seahawks signing Sam Darnold to a three-year contract worth $100.5 million and the Jets signing Justin Fields to a two-year deal worth $40 million.
Day 2 has brought even more movement, headlined by quarterback Daniel Jones signing with the Colts on a one-year deal worth $14 million. Meanwhile, the Vikings spent big for guard Will Fries and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen.
And there’s a lot more still to come, as THE SPORTING NEWS’ Vinnie Iyer reminded this morning, though the caveat of there are still a lot of unsigned players remaining who can help teams with more reasonably priced and sometimes bargain contracts does need to be front and center. But in a world where eight-figure payouts are seen as a compromise, the word “bargain” should be accompanied by a two exclamation point e-moji. And who knows how desperate some team’s management might get in the heat of even muted negotiations?
Because as a telling Reddit post from an informed fan with the unlikely handle Humanzees Are Real revealed, those that are empowered and capable of such largesse don’t exactly have the best track records when they do open their wallets–er, safes:
I’d like to present the following list of NFL teams by total money spent in free agency over the last four years , which was obtained from a very helpful Athletic article that I recommended reading. I’ve also included how many playoff appearances (PA) each franchise has made during the same period, as well the number of conference championships (CC) and Super Bowls (SB) they’ve won. Teams are listed in descending order, and monetary figures are rounded to the nearest million.
Though I doubt this information will mollify the ever-present and rapidly-expanding legion of hysterics who’ve decided that Chicago Bears fandom is a good fit for their overexcitable temperaments, I hope everyone else finds it interesting.
Top 16 NFL Teams by Free Agent Spending: 2020-21 – 2023-24
- New York Jets: $346MM; 0 PA
- Jacksonville Jaguars $324MM; 1 PA
- Cincinnati Bengals: $287MM; 2 PA; 1 CC
- Miami Dolphins: $270MM; 2 PA
- Las Vegas Raiders: $249MM; 1 PA
- New York Giants: $240MM; 1 PA
- Carolina Panthers: $234MM; 0 PA
- New England Patriots: $230MM; 1 PA
- Denver Broncos: $229MM; 0 PA
- Chicago Bears: $227MM; 1 PA
- Los Angeles Chargers: $222MM; 1 PA
- Houston Texans: $206MM; 1 PA
- Cleveland Browns: $204MM; 2 PA
- Buffalo Bills: $198MM; 4 PA
- Washington Commanders: $197MM; 1 PA
- Tennessee Titans: $159MM; 2 PA
As you can see, the 50% of NFL teams who spent the most in free agency during the past four years combined for a grand total of 20/56 playoff appearances, 1/8 conference championships, and zero Super Bowls during that period. To get a little more granular, the 10 highest spending franchises made nine total playoff appearances and won one conference championship – with three top 10 teams missing the playoff in all four seasons.
So yeah, when the Jets think the backup quarterback on a mediocre Pittsburgh team whose career record is 14-30 is worth $20 million per and when the Raiders are willing to write Maxx Crosby a nine-figure check after how his leadership has produced exactly one playoff appearance in their Las Vegas history, these are not exactly decisions that seem to be being made with the hope of winning in December and January. But these teams and their billionaire buddy managements ARE winning March, for all that’s worth.
Hey, at least they’re doing that well. From the looks at objective polls these days, those others might want to start writing a few sizable checks to their rank and file sooner than later, too.