Surpassing Expectations: Free Agencies Biggest Losers and Winners

With some of the biggest names in the NFL’s free agency period gone, let’s review some of the biggest losers and winners of the 2024 NFL free agency.

Free agency in the NFL comes after players have played through their contract. It’s a time where they can visit and accept/decline offers from other teams. Trades often occur between teams in this period. These trades can be for players or even draft picks ahead of the NFL draft.

The free agency period for the 2024 NFL season began on March 13th. For restricted free agents, it goes on until April 19th. For unrestricted free agents, free agency runs until the beginning of next season or until July 22.

In my opinion, to be a free agency winner a team needs to make significant changes to their roster and improve it for next season. The severity of how much a team improves depends from team to team.

However, any improvement is better than no improvement or no change at all. A free agency loser is a team that doesn’t make good financial decisions or doesn’t shake up their roster enough. Let’s have a look at who won and lost free agency this year.

Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears in the 2023–2024 NFL season went 7–10. They came in last place in their division, the NFC North. After 3 years with Justin Fields at the helm, the windy city has finally decided to move on from their 1st round pick three years ago.

They traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 6th round pick which could turn into a 4th round pick depending on playing time. It is now highly likely that they will be drafting USC’s Caleb Williams with the 1st overall pick. They acquired this pick from a trade with the Carolina Panthers last year.

The rest of their free agency moves included shoring up their defense and adding offensive weapons to complement Williams’s first year in the league. One of their first moves was to give an extension to their star cornerback Jaylon Johnson.

Every year he’s been in the league, he has gotten better. They have him locked down for the next four years.

Then, one of the bigger signings for them was the acquisition of D’Andre Swift from the Eagles. In one year with the Eagles, he put up over a thousand yards and scored 6 touchdowns total.

He has also steadily improved every year he has been in the league. They gave him a 3 year contract worth 24 million. Now, it’s important to point out that he was behind a stacked Eagles offensive line that allowed him to flourish in Philadelphia. Despite that, I still believe he can be successful in Chicago.

Big Splash Signing: Keenan Allen

Finally, their biggest free agency move was trading with the Los Angeles Chargers for wide receiver Keenan Allen.

Keenan Allen has been a cornerstone for the Chargers franchise for more than ten years now! He had over a thousand yards and despite his age, he is still a very productive wide receiver. However, there is always an injury concern with Allen. And factoring in his age, there is potential this trade doesn’t go the way they want.

What makes this trade so impactful is the new-look Bears offense. The prospect of Allen on one side, DJ Moore on the other, Swift at running back, and rookie Caleb Williams at center sounds exciting. This is easily the best the Bears offense has looked in years. In addition, with a generational quarterback prospect in Williams, the Bears have quickly turned their franchise around. They’re hoping buying all in on Caleb Williams will make them a contender for years to come.

I think the Chicago Bears are free agency winners because of the roster they have surrounded Caleb Williams with. Now, trading Justin Fields for a bag of potato chips is unfortunate.

It’s basically admitting that the last three years have been for naught. But in my opinion, admitting is the first step. They traded him away while he was still on his rookie contract so they get out of having to pay him franchise quarterback money when they don’t believe he is their guy.

The Bears have never really had a component roster around Fields, so it sucks that now when they finally have a respectable offense, it’s for Fields replacement.

The Chicago Bears understand that it’s not every day that a generational quarterback prospect becomes available. They are taking advantage of it.

Houston Texans

Similar to the Bears, the Texans realize the importance of taking advantage while your quarterback is still on his rookie contract. CJ Stroud was a revelation to the Texans last year. He broke records and even won them a playoff game. He played like a veteran when it was only his first year. The Texans know they have something special in their hands.

Going into his second year, it only gets harder for Stroud and the Texans. This is because opposing teams will have an entire off season to game plan and watch tape on the rookie sensation. For the first time in a while, the Texans have expectations. And for some, making it out of the first round of the playoffs won’t be enough. The Texans are aware of these expectations and are going all in to maximize these next couple of years.

Their biggest free agency signing has to be Danielle Hunter. The linebacker from Minnesota has been an anchor for their defense for years. Now, he brings all of that experience to a relatively young Texans defense.

Last season, he put up 16.5 sacks with 83 total tackles and 4 forced fumbles. They signed him to a 2-year deal with 48 million dollars guaranteed. This signing is very aggressive but it shows that they are in a “win now” mode. If he replicates that kind of success alongside defensive rookie of the year, Wil Anderson, that Texans defense will prove to be a problem.

Additionally, if Stroud plays anything like he did last year, they are a lock to make the playoffs. They could potentially even go on a Super Bowl run.

Mixon Mixes It Up

Another big signing for the Texans was the trading and extension of former Bengals running back Joe Mixon. The Texan’s biggest problems last year were their defense and lack of running game.

He’s a seasoned player: he has 7 years of experience in the league. For his position, though, running backs tend not to age gracefully due to the immense strain on their body.

However, Mixon is a stellar workhorse back who has consistently shown that he can handle multiple carries of the ball. He had a thousand-yard season with 12 touchdowns total. And a couple of years ago he helped lead the Bengals to the Super Bowl, so why couldn’t he do the same with the Texans?

Overall, the Houston Texans are free agency winners. They took themselves from playoff contention to a roster that can compete with just about anyone. They covered all of their weakness, and now barring any major injuries, this team lives and dies through CJ Stroud and if he doesn’t regress, the sky is the limit.

Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers are an interesting team to talk about because on paper, their roster is filled with talent and they should always be in talks to compete with the Chiefs for the AFC West.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case for some time now. Last year they ended up last in their division, and while that can be attributed to Justin Herbert going down with an injury, when he was playing he went 5–7 as a starter.

A lot of the Chargers’ misfortunate has been credited to their head coach Brandon Staley and his head-scratching decisions. Fortunately for them, they were able to acquire Jim Harbaugh fresh out of his NCAA championship win with the Michigan Wolverines.

For that reason alone, they should be considered winners. But it’s the moves that the Chargers have made since the new head coaching hire that concerns me.

They have released a lot of starters, most notably their wide receiver room has taken a big hit. Herbert is a quarterback with a superb arm, and he is capable of making breath-taking throws.

He had the help of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams to catch these throws and both of these guys were able to make spectacular catches to complement the throw. Now both of them are playing for different teams.

Gerald Everett was another player they lost in free agency. He only played for them for two years, but he was solid. They also lost running back Austin Ekeler. A couple years ago, he was one of the rushing touchdown leaders in the entire NFL. He has shown some decline due to his age, but this is still a notable loss to that offense.

To be fair, a lot of those guys were getting old, and they needed the cap space after paying Herbert so much money. However, now they are left with a worse roster than before and have not made many significant moves to make up for all the starters they have lost. While they can replace positions such as tight end and running back, I believe the wide receiver room is just lacking too much after losing the top two receivers in that offense.

I know that Harbaugh wants to implement a different kind of offense, one with a bigger emphasis on the run game and more utilization of tight ends. As well, they still have the 5th overall pick which can be used to draft a premier wide receiver.

As of now, I can’t see the vision that Harbaugh has for this team but only time will be able to tell. I think the Los Angeles Chargers walk out of free agency as losers because they lost too many starting pieces and haven’t got the players to replicate what they lost.

Bronco’s Country…Let’s Go Home

Staying in the AFC West, the Denver Broncos are losers for a very simple reason. They are taking the biggest dead cap hit in NFL history by paying Russell Wilson 85 million dollars for him not even to be on the team.

Two years ago, the Broncos organization made a move that set their franchise back years. They signed Russell Wilson and gave him a ludicrous contract before even seeing him play in a Broncos jersey. They also gave Nathaniel Hack a head coaching job. Arguably, he had one of the worst head coaching tenures in NFL history. These moves were supposed to take the Broncos into Super Bowl contention but instead, all that’s come of it is two back-to-back losing seasons.

Now, Wilson has signed with the Steelers for one year and a minimum while the Broncos are expected to pay him the majority of his money. They are left without a competent quarterback to start the season. Additionally, with the loss of notable starters such as Jerry Jeudy and Justin Simmons, this roster looks like one of the worst in the entire league.

They sit on pick number 12 in the draft which isn’t high enough to draft one of the many impressive quarterback prospects in this draft, unless they reach one. Alternatively, they can trade up in the draft but that would take assets that frankly they don’t have.

Luckily for them, they still have Sean Payton as head coach. He can at least start to build a culture in Denver as they look towards a rebuild.

It’s quite simple why the Broncos are the biggest losers of free agency. They made irresponsible decisions two years ago and are now paying the price for it, the 85-million-dollar price.

Free agency may not be over yet but a lot of the big names heading into the off season have already found new teams to call their homes.

With the end of the NBA season in sight, check out my previous article about which teams are heating up at the right time.