After a wild weekend, the opening day of the NFL’s legal tampering period of free agency wasn’t far behind. There weren’t any shocking trades or truly massive contracts, but there were at least four contract reports that required me to double-check I wasn’t being duped by a fake account on social media. Every number seems a little bit bigger than expected in a league in which the salary cap has risen by more than $54 million over the past two years. With so many teams fighting over a handful of top options, some of the fallback contracts and Plan B moves made by organizations that didn’t land their preferred player were truly stunning.

We’re still waiting for the ink to dry on these deals and for the full reports of these contracts and their structures to hit the presses, but we also know enough about most of the general terms to draw some conclusions. There are teams, players and positions that were clear winners or losers on Monday. Let’s break them down here.

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Those terms are relative. Any player who got paid guaranteed money is a winner. The vast majority of fans around the NFL are happy right now because their team just added a player (likely at a position of need) for nothing more than money. Replacing nothing with something certainly feels like a victory.

Of course, we know it doesn’t play out that way in reality. Players might end up getting less than they expected or land in spots that don’t make sense for their skill set or future. Teams incur opportunity costs by paying a premium to land their preferred option at the beginning of free agency, costing them the ability to pay more for a true star or to add another player to their roster with the savings they would have made by being patient. History tells us winning the opening day of free agency is usually a Pyrrhic victory. I’ll attempt to differentiate between teams that spent money and teams that spent money wisely below.

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49ers | Bengals | Colts | Jaguars
Patriots | Darnold | Jarrett | Tunsil
Young players | Left tackles

Loser: The Jaguars

Let’s consider an example when more might not necessarily be better considering the prices being paid. The Jags have another new regime in place with coach Liam Coen and general manager James Gladstone, and given that they’ve been in their respective positions for merely a matter of weeks, it was always going to be tough to self-scout and get a strong handle on what’s going on with their roster in advance of free agency. If they had been relatively quiet, I would have understood.

Instead, the Jaguars were extremely active on the first day of free agency, but some of their deals don’t really make any sense.

Wide receiver Dyami Brown joined from the Commanders on a one-year, $10 million contract. The deal sounds similar, if not identical, to the one Tutu Atwell inked to stay with the Rams, Gladstone’s former franchise. I wasn’t sure I saw the logic or value in that move, especially after the Rams followed it by signingDavante Adams.

Brown’s deal might be even more curious. While acknowledging he had 229 receiving yards during an impressive postseason run, he had been anonymous for four years in Washington beforehand. He had 59 catches for 784 yards and four scores across four combined seasons. His 308 receiving yards in 2024 was a career high.

That’s not a $10 million player. In fact, Brown will make more than Derrick Henry in 2025. The Jags already had a player designed to serve as their downfield threat in Gabe Davis, who has $12.3 million guaranteed due in the second year of his contract. That’s not a great deal, and perhaps they will try to unload it to free up space for Brown, but Davis has been a much better player over his career than Brown. Brown might not even be better than Parker Washington, who would have otherwise been Jacksonville’s third wideout in a slot/underneath role.

Let’s say Brown impresses in a larger role with the Jaguars. Great! Then what? He’s back to free agency in 2026. If they were going to make this sort of commitment to a player who has been a replacement-level wideout, they needed to get at least one nonguaranteed year on the back end of the contract to gain leverage and have the ability to retain him if he actually is the caliber of player worth paying $10 million or more. I would be surprised if he was.

If the Jaguars thought Brown was the speedy receiver they needed to add, maybe it would be a weird one-off. I’m even more confused by the decision to sign Jourdan Lewis. The longtime Cowboys cornerback has been solid in the slot without ever being spectacular or warranting Pro Bowl consideration. A year ago, when he finished out a three-year extension, he re-upped with Dallas for one year and $2.8 million.

Now, one year older, after a season in which he allowed an 85.3 passer rating in coverage, the Jaguars just made Lewis one of the league’s highest-paid slot cornerbacks on a three-year, $30 million pact. The most memorable moment of his season might have been Jayden Daniels throwing the ball just over his head to Terry McLaurin on that miraculous 86-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter in Washington.

It’s rare for cornerbacks turning 30 to get paid significant money, and teams are usually hesitant to pay significant guarantees to defenders who spend the vast majority of their time on the inside. Lewis fits both of those boxes, and the Jaguars still decided to give him $20 million in guarantees. He isn’t the same sort of questionable signing as Brown — he has a much better résumé — but what happened to turn him from a player who was worth paying $2.8 million for his age-29 season to one who will make four times as much over each of the next two seasons?

The Jags ranked 21st in expected points added (EPA) per play allowed on targets to slot receivers in 2024, but there were reasons to be optimistic about second-year cornerback Jarrian Jones, whose role expanded as the year went along. I would have liked to see them keep Jones in the slot and work on landing a cornerback on the outside across from Tyson Campbell. Even if they were going to add a slot corner, however, paying this sort of premium for Lewis doesn’t add up.

Eric Murray also joined Jacksonville on a three-year, $22.5 million deal, which is shocking given what the market looked like for veteran safeties last year and how many of them are available again this time around. He’s a good special-teamer, but he was badly stretched in coverage when he was used as a safety in Houston; he allowed passer ratings north of 100 in each of the past five seasons. Murray had been pushed back into a reserve role in 2022 and 2023 before injuries forced him back into the lineup on a more regular basis last season. Adding him to serve as a third safety and special-teamer is fine, but I don’t see a market where a lot of teams are lining up to pay this sort of player $12 million in guaranteed money.

Not all of the Jaguars’ decisions were curious. I loved the decision to bring in Patrick Mekari on a three-year, $37.5 million deal, given the former Ravens offensive lineman’s versatility. He’s likely to start at right guard alongside Robert Hainsey, who followed Coen from Tampa to take over center from the retiring Mitch Morse. The decision to replace Evan Engram with the combo of Johnny Mundt and Hunter Long will give the Jags more physicality at tight end at a discounted price.

There’s nothing wrong with adding a slot corner, a third safety or a young receiver, but Jacksonville paid premium prices in spots where I believe it could have gotten much better deals by waiting a week and being a little more flexible with its player archetypes.

Winners: Left tackles who waited for free agency to begin

Two of the league’s newest eight-figure players can attest to the value of being patient. In a market that didn’t have many left tackle options, two unexpected players earned significant deals to protect blind sides.

First, the Chiefs took a surprising swing on a relatively unknown player. I suspect there was a spike in Google searches for Jaylon Moore in Kansas City on Monday, as the Chiefs became one of the many teams to raid the 49ers’ roster for talent. After spending most of his time in San Francisco, Moore signed a two-year, $30 million deal with $21.2 million guaranteed to step in the limelight as Patrick Mahomes‘ new protector.

The bigger move came in Tennessee, and Steelers fans might have done a double take when they saw the numbers for their outgoing left tackle. Pittsburgh spent most of the past four seasons trying to find solutions to replace Dan Moore Jr., but through injuries and inconsistent play from his competitors, the 26-year-old fended off all challengers. After 66 starts over four years, the Titans won’t be pushing Moore anywhere: He signed a four-year, $82 million contract — with $50 million in guarantees — to join the Titans.

For both of these teams, adding a left tackle was a move to both acquire a competent player and create a more positive solution downstream. The Chiefs will presumably move Kingsley Suamataia to left guard, where he can get much-needed reps after struggling badly in a brief stint at left tackle last season. The 2024 second-rounder might still be a tackle in the long run, but he could end up landing on the right side when Kansas City eventually moves on from Jawaan Taylor.

The Titans have prioritized their offensive line over the past two drafts with mixed results, as since-departed general manager Ran Carthon used back-to-back first-round picks on Peter Skoronski and JC Latham. Skoronski played left tackle in college, but the Titans have played him exclusively at guard with mixed results. Latham, a right tackle at Alabama, spent all of 2024 at left tackle and allowed 14 sacks, the second most of any player in the league, per NFL Next Gen Stats.

The guy who allowed more sacks than Latham is the guy taking over the job at left tackle in Tennessee. Moore allowed a league-high 16.5 sacks, although he probably wasn’t as bad as that sounds. Some of those sacks were a product of playing in front of Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, who have a habit of extending plays. Moore allowed only 14 quick quarterback pressures, which was a much more reasonable total, ranking 53rd among all linemen. Latham allowed 26, which was tied for second behind Seahawks tackle Charles Cross.

Signing Moore means the Titans will keep Skoronski at guard and move Latham to his natural role at right tackle. That should be the best version of their line, but I don’t think many people around the league would regard Moore as close to a league-average left tackle. I’d want to defer to legendary offensive line coach Bill Callahan, who will get to work with him in Tennessee, but there’s not much of a discount here. Moore is getting about what Taylor Decker and Jordan Mailata signed for in terms of average annual salary on their extensions a year ago. He needs to improve to justify this deal, let alone outplay it.

As for the Chiefs, they continue to try to avail themselves of a solution on Mahomes’ blind side after moving on from Eric Fisher in 2021. They’ve now committed something in the ballpark of a first-round pick in the trade for Orlando Brown Jr. and used a second-round pick (Suamataia) and third-round pick (Wanya Morris) on potential solutions. They’ve also signed Donovan Smith and now Moore in free agency.

Things could have gone differently. The Chiefs nearly signed Trent Williams in 2021 before he chose to re-sign with the 49ers. Over the past couple of weeks, they were reportedly interested in signing Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley, only for him to head back to Baltimore. And hey, speaking of Stanley …

Losers: Left tackles who didn’t wait for free agency to begin

… is he really getting paid less than Moore? The only explanation in terms of on-field performance is availability, as Moore has been healthy for most of the past four years, while Stanley missed 36 games between 2020 and 2023 after suffering a career-altering ankle injury. After a Pro Bowl-caliber season in 2024, though, there was reportedly significant interest in Stanley, who ended up signing a three-year, $60 million deal to return to Baltimore before free agency began.

The same holds true for Alaric Jackson, who has spent the past two seasons at left tackle for the Rams. After Los Angeles managed to bring back Matthew Stafford, the team came to terms with his blindside protector on a three-year, $57.8 million deal that guarantees the 26-year-old more than $35.4 million over the next two years.

It’s hard to say anyone’s a loser when these players are getting tens of millions of dollars in guaranteed money, but it also feels like both Jackson and Stanley left meaningful money on the table by not waiting for free agency to begin. The Rams and Ravens didn’t have obvious replacements for either player on their respective rosters, and there are still openings at left tackle around the league. Even if they just wanted to get the best possible offer before returning to their current teams, it’s difficult to imagine they would have missed out on the opportunity to return on these deals if they had waited until Monday afternoon to make a final decision.

Winner: OT Laremy Tunsil

Nobody has parlayed being traded at the right time into more money than Tunsil. In 2019, when the Texans traded two first-round picks to acquire him from the Dolphins, he declined to sign an extension as part of the deal. A year later, he took then-general manager Bill O’Brien to the cleaners, signing a three-year, $66 million contract that both moved the left tackle market forward and allowed him the potential to hit free agency again before turning 30.

Before the Texans drafted quarterback C.J. Stroud in 2023, they gave Tunsil another three-year deal, this time for $75 million. Now, with Stroud entering the final year of his bargain deal before presumably getting paid next offseason, the left tackle is on the move again. The Texans traded Tunsil to the Commanders on Monday, swapping fourth-round picks while landing second- and third-round selections from Washington in the process.

The Commanders were reportedly happy with what they saw from rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman over the second half of 2024, but his ability as a run blocker might make him a better fit on the right side, where he could take over from Andrew Wylie. Tunsil is coming off a disappointing season in which he led the league in penalties, but I’d chalk up some of the issues with the Houston offensive line to the broader struggles that plagued the offense last season. He will have to adjust to an offense that plays out of the pistol and shotgun, but he was able to do that just fine during the Deshaun Watson era in Houston.

The Texans are understandably upset with what they saw from their offensive line a year ago and are cleaning house. In addition to firing offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik and Chris Strausser in January, general manager Nick Caserio released guard Shaq Mason over the weekend before trading away Tunsil. The two most experienced players on Houston’s line are no longer in the building.

Juice Scruggs should take over at right guard for Mason, but the tackle situation is still up in the air. Blake Fisher, a second-round pick last April, finished the year at right tackle with Tytus Howard kicking inside to guard, but Howard has insisted in the past that he wants to play tackle. Kenyon Green, the team’s 2022 first-round pick, has been a disaster at left guard and has been alternately injured and a liability when on the field. I’m not sure he’s going to be guaranteed a roster spot in 2025.

If the Texans add a left tackle in free agency or (more likely) the draft, they could play Fisher at right tackle, Howard at left guard, Scruggs at right guard and move Green to the bench. If not, they’ll have to try Fisher or Howard at left tackle, neither of whom is an appealing option. Either way, outside of Howard, this is going to be a very young and untested offensive line protecting one of the league’s most promising quarterbacks.

As for Tunsil, he’ll be just fine. Moving from Houston to Washington means the 30-year-old is in position to block for another quarterback on a rookie deal in Jayden Daniels, who won’t even be eligible for an extension until after the 2026 season. With two years left on his existing deal, expect Tunsil to land another three-year extension for top-of-the-market money over the next 12 months. He’s a pretty good tackle, but as one of the few players who represents himself in contract negotiations, he might be an even better agent.

Loser (so far): Sam Darnold

While acknowledging that anyone getting paid more than $30 million a year to play football is decidedly a winner, I’m not sure Darnold ended up in as auspicious of a situation as I would have hoped. To start, the money he got from Seattle came in below expectations. As a former top-10 pick with one impressive season under his belt, I thought he would be looking at an updated version of the deal Daniel Jones signed with the Giants in 2023, which was two years of guarantees at $41 million per season. In an updated cap environment, that same deal would have been just under $51 million per year.

Instead, Darnold’s three-year deal with the Seahawks came in at $100.5 million, an average of $33.5 million per season. We have to wait to see the specific structure of the contract, but this is essentially what Baker Mayfield got from the Buccaneers last year. Given that the cap has risen by more than 9% between 2024 and 2025, it actually is a smaller deal than the one Mayfield signed to stay in Tampa. The only veteran starter on a smaller multiyear deal is Geno Smith, and he is expected to sign a new deal with a meaningful raise with the Raiders — who traded for him Friday — in the coming weeks.

It doesn’t appear that there was a huge market driving up Darnold’s price in free agency. For whatever chatter there was that the Vikings would do their utmost to bring him back, it’s clear they didn’t have any intention of doing so if they weren’t willing to match or top this deal.

What might be more concerning for Darnold is what the Seahawks have done to address their weakness up front along the offensive line … which is very little. I understand not wanting to pay the prices teams were paying for Dan Moore Jr. and Jaylon Moore at tackle, which is why there’s that “so far” caveat above, but many of the more prominent offensive linemen available are already off the market. The one addition they made late Monday night was to add former Ravens backup Josh Jones, who played 46 snaps last season, to a one-year deal. Jones slots in as a sixth or seventh lineman, leaving Seattle multiple starters away from feeling good about protecting Darnold.

On top of that, the Seahawks probably need to address wide receiver after cutting Tyler Lockett and trading DK Metcalf. They can afford to be more patient here, given that veterans such as Amari Cooper and Stefon Diggs are still available and Cooper Kupp is soon to join them. I’m willing to stick with my incomplete grade for the Seahawks in terms of serving as a potential landing spot for Darnold — and this is a reasonable deal for them — but the job of rebuilding their offense is only half-done.

Winners: Young players

In what has become a more consistent trend in recent years, teams have focused on prioritizing young talent at the top of the market as opposed to paying a short-term premium for well-known veterans. It’s just a lot harder for a player on the back end of his career to make significant money in free agency than it was five or 10 years ago.

In 2015, five of the 22 largest contracts by average annual salary went to players who were 29 or older. (Three players were tied for 20th place.) In 2020, six of the top 20 fit that same billing.

This year, as I write this Monday evening, just two of the top 20 signings by average salary are 29 or older. Davante Adams and Charvarius Ward are the lone exceptions. And just one of the next 10 players by average annual value qualifies, as Haason Reddick‘s one-year, $14 million deal with the Buccaneers is tied for 22nd.

It’s not hard to understand why organizations fixate on younger players, even if they aren’t the same sort of household names we’ve seen at the top of the market in the past. Teams are paying for future performance, not what players have done in the past. They’re more conscious of aging curves than they once were. Tape is easier to come by and break down in the digital era, so veterans who might have been able to coast on their reputation 20 or 30 years ago are exposed more quickly nowadays.

As that preference becomes clearer, we’re going to see players on second contracts — the pacts they sign after their initial rookie deals expire — get more aggressive in wanting to negotiate before they hit the market for a potential third contract. We’ve seen teams such as the Eagles get aggressive in moving money around to satisfy wideout A.J. Brown and running back Saquon Barkley, getting ahead of a potential third contract problem while attempting to ensure the years they’re locking up are their stars’ prime seasons. In years to come, expect players and agents to get more aggressive the moment the guaranteed money runs out on a second contract, even if there are a couple of years of non-guaranteed salaries to go before that player returns to free agency. That space between the second contract and third contract — call it Contract 2.5 — is going to become the last chance for the vast majority of players in the league to lock up meaningful guaranteed money.

Loser: The Bengals

The Bengals face a real conundrum with the top of their roster. They have four stars who play key positions in quarterback Joe Burrow, wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, and edge rusher Trey Hendrickson. One of those guys has a significant multiyear deal in Burrow. Higgins is on his second franchise tag. Hendrickson wants a raise. Chase is on his fifth-year option. Burrow is publicly frustrated by the franchise’s inability to get these deals done, contrasting their struggles to how easy it’s seemed for the Eagles to lock up their core players.

Do the back-of-the-napkin math for these deals and you’ll see why it’s hard for Cincinnati. Burrow is making $55 million a year. Chase is going to want to be the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback, which is now $40 million a year. Higgins is one year from unrestricted free agency and won’t settle for anything south of $30 million a season. And given that the Bengals allowed Hendrickson to seek a trade just after Maxx Crosby got his extension from Las Vegas, it’s easy to speculate that the 30-year-old was looking to become the NFL’s highest-paid edge rusher, which has only risen higher after Myles Garrett‘s new deal with the Browns over the weekend.

Let’s say Hendrickson is willing to settle for $36 million. In all, that’s $162 million in average salaries for four players. The Bengals can structure those deals in cap-friendly ways, but they’d still be devoting more than 58% of their cap to four players. No other team is near that figure. The league high in terms of cap percentage for the top four guys in 2024 was the Dolphins, who were at 53%. They missed the playoffs. Of course, if they want to remember how hard it is to win with four stars on the roster, the Bengals had Burrow, Chase, Higgins and Hendrickson in the lineup last season making a combined $99.5 million in average salary and also missed the postseason.

If the Bengals want to pay those four guys, they’re going to need to be disciplined in how they spend elsewhere around the roster. They have no choice but to draft well and let players at inessential places leave in free agency while trusting they can find their replacements on the cheap. One of the ways they can justify paying Burrow, Chase and Higgins massive contracts is with the idea that it’s easier to be the guys around them.

All of that brings us to Mike Gesicki. A year ago, coming off a season in which he wasn’t a regular for the lowly Patriots, the quasi-tight end signed a one-year deal with the Bengals for $2.5 million. As the de-facto third wideout in the offense, he caught 65 passes for 665 yards with two touchdowns. He ranked 59th among wideouts and tight ends in yards per route run and tied for 114th in ESPN’s receiver score, which docked him for issues catching the football and making plays after the catch. At $2.5 million, Gesicki was fine.

Needing to squeeze every dollar out of their budget, the Bengals somewhat inexplicably decided to bring him back on a three-year, $25.5 million contract, paying him $12 million in 2025 in the process. Gesicki hasn’t been that caliber of player for the vast majority of his career. As something much closer to a wideout than a tight end, he plays a position that is well-stocked in free agency with veteran options. And the Bengals are already attempting to re-sign both Chase and Higgins, which would keep Gesicki in his role as the team’s third option in the passing game.

Bringing back B.J. Hill on a three-year, $33 million deal to start at defensive tackle is one thing, given that Cincinnati doesn’t have much on its defensive line, especially if it plans on trading Hendrickson. Using the money it has budgeted outside of its big three/four to shore up the weak spots on its roster makes sense. Retaining a third wide receiver does not. Adding running back Samaje Perine on a one-year deal for $3.6 million is another example of where the Bengals need to trust their ability to find cheaper solutions so they can divert those resources to their irreplaceable stars.

Winner: The Colts

In what could be a make-or-break season for general manager Chris Ballard and coach Shane Steichen, I liked what I saw from Indianapolis on the opening day of free agency. The Colts typically have been conservative in adding talent to their organization; before Monday, the only free agents they had added on deals worth more than $10 million per season had been two quarterbacks (Philip Rivers and Gardner Minshew) and cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who was only signed in mid-April in 2022 after his market failed to develop. They hadn’t been competitive bidders for prime free agents.

Monday saw them come away with two critical players for new defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo in the secondary. Charvarius Ward was a Pro Bowl-caliber corner as recently as 2023, with off-field tragedy interrupting his 2024 season. And Cam Bynum was a valuable free safety for the Vikings, with the 26-year-old breaking up 19 passes over the past two years for Brian Flores, the seventh-most of any safety over that time span.

After relying on waiver wire additions and late-round picks in the secondary last season, the Colts can feel like they’re set with Ward on the outside, Kenny Moore in the slot and third-year corners JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones competing for the other starting role. Bynum will play the same role Jessie Bates did for Anarumo in Cincinnati, where the star safety was a reliable last line of defense and a playmaker who helped Anarumo disguise his coverage intentions.

Those two guys didn’t come cheap, as their combined average annual salary will be $35 million, but this was a much-needed investment at a major point of weakness for the Colts. They’ll probably look into offensive line depth with center Ryan Kelly leaving for the Vikings and guard Will Fries expected to head elsewhere, and there are still questions about who ends up competing with Anthony Richardson at quarterback, but they needed to be more aggressive this offseason and made the right sorts of investments.

Loser: The 49ers

This is more literal than figurative. It’s tough to recall a team losing more than $88 million worth of talent on one day of free agency, but that’s the combined average annual salary of the seven 49ers players who left for other teams Monday.

At the time of writing, 20 players had signed deals with an average salary of at least $15 million per season. Four of those players were former 49ers. We already talked about Moore joining the Chiefs and Ward heading to the Colts. Aaron Banks signed one of the most surprising deals of the day when he joined the Packers on a four-year, $77 million contract, where he’ll presumably take over at guard and shift Elgton Jenkins to center.

The fourth was Talanoa Hufanga, who was one of the youngest members of San Francisco’s core of stars. While injuries limited the 2022 All-Pro over the past two years, the 26-year-old signed a three-year, $45 million deal to join the Broncos. He’ll be joined by another player who wasn’t able to battle all the way back from injuries in 2024, as linebacker Dre Greenlaw left to join Denver on a three-year, $35 million deal. The only player the 49ers have added is former Jaguars tight end Luke Farrell, who totalled 318 receiving yards over the past four seasons.

All of this doesn’t even cover what’s happened to the 49ers outside of free agency. They traded wideout Deebo Samuel to the Commanders on March 1 to clear out cap space. General manager John Lynch had already cut defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins before adding fullback Kyle Juszczyk to that list Monday evening, removing from the roster one of the longest-tenured players in the organization. The move to release the nine-time Pro Bowler will free up $4.2 million in cap space.

If you’ve been paying attention over the past year, you’ve known why this has been coming. The 49ers are clearing out cash and cap space to address their quarterback and the massive raise likely coming his way. Brock Purdy is going to go from being the most underpaid quarterback in football to appropriately compensated, and while San Francisco can play hardball and use the threat of the franchise tag to try to get a favorable deal done, the only teams that have been willing to go down that path are Washington with Kirk Cousins and Dallas with Dak Prescott. Neither of those negotiations went well for the teams involved.

Even by that standard, this offseason feels like a bit of a cultural and financial reset for the 49ers. Last season was something close to an all-in year for them, one final opportunity to build an elite roster around a quarterback making a fraction of his market value. They spent a league-high $334 million in cash, handed out new contracts to running back Christian McCaffrey, receiver Brandon Aiyuk and offensive tackle Trent Williams, and went 6-11. In previous years in which they disappointed, quarterback injuries were usually an easy scapegoat. Purdy was healthy for 15 games last season, and they still weren’t competitive.

The good news for the 49ers is they’ll be in position to recoup some much-needed draft capital as part of the league’s compensatory pick formula. One of the reasons they had to spend so much last year was because they were missing significant draft capital from the trades for McCaffrey and Trey Lance, which is why they ended up signing disappointing veterans such as cornerback Isaac Yiadom and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell to play starting roles.

Where the 49ers go next will be interesting. Are they going to save money and treat 2025 as a reset year despite the presence of veterans McCaffrey, Williams and tight end George Kittle on the roster? Or will they take some of the money they’ve saved by letting players leave and go after some veterans who won’t impact the compensatory formula? Edge rusher Joey Bosa seems like one obvious addition, but San Francisco has bigger needs in the secondary and along its offensive line.

Winner: DT Grady Jarrett

Sometimes, getting dumped is the best thing that ever happens to someone. The only thing vaguely passing for a successful pass rusher in Atlanta for most of his career, Jarrett’s production has slowed down as he has passed age 30. Over the past two years, he has four sacks and 20 knockdowns over 25 games, with his 2023 season derailed by a torn ACL. Jarrett’s 5.6% pressure rate last season ranked 125th in the league, although the only regular Atlanta’s defense with a pressure rate over 6% was edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie.

The Falcons are still desperate for pass-rush help, so it was a little surprising to hear that Atlanta was moving on from its longtime defensive tackle Monday. The move saved the Falcons $16.3 million in non-guaranteed cash, which general manager Terry Fontenot & Co. are yet to use on any veterans for their roster.

Veterans on the wrong side of 30 who get cut as the legal tampering period begins can languish. Jarrett was already on a new team by the end of the evening. Wanting a defensive tackle to line up next to promising third-year lineman Gervon Dexter, Chicago gave Jarrett a three-year, $43.5 million contract. Instead of making that $16.3 million in 2025 and hitting free agency, he appears set to make a minimum of $28.5 million guaranteed over the next two years.

That’s a great deal for Jarrett. Sacks can come and go for defensive tackles, and he has been a solid run defender, but he’s turning 32 in April and didn’t play dominant football after returning from the ACL tear last season. Those types of players are usually looking at one-year guarantees without any sort of long-term commitment. Landing what amounts to a two-year commitment at an average salary close to the number the Falcons balked at paying is a pleasant surprise for his camp.

I’m not sure that’s a great deal for the Bears. Center Drew Dalman‘s three-year, $42 million pact got them another interior lineman as part of their offensive line overhaul, and while that was much-needed, they might be paying a premium to add a guy who isn’t much better than league average. I was more impressed by backup Ryan Neuzil when he filled in for an injured Dalman last season. The move to add Dayo Odeyingbo, who gives the Bears a second edge rusher across from Montez Sweat, was their best signing of the day.

Somewhere between winner and loser: The Patriots

Every year, there’s one team that qualifies as the “Take My Money” champions of free agency’s opening day. They have loads of cap space, holes throughout their roster and a fan base that’s not going to settle for anything short of a spending spree. They get better, so it’s tough to call them losers, but they end up doing a bunch of deals that aren’t generating surplus value and end up creating meaningful opportunity cost, which doesn’t make them winners, either. The 2022 Jaguars and 2024 Panthers are recent examples of this phenomenon.

This year’s version of that team is the Patriots, who weren’t going to let free agency pass them by for the second consecutive offseason. They reportedly took a big swing at wide receiver Chris Godwin, with multiple reports suggesting he left meaningful money on the table to re-sign with the Buccaneers. Given that his deal ended up being for three years and $66 million, there’s a reasonable estimate the Patriots were offering the 29-year-old something close to $30 million per season to become their top wideout.

Godwin stayed home, but the Patriots were able to land one star player on the opening day of free agency. Apparently embroiled in a bidding war with the Panthers, they went all the way to $26 million per season to land Eagles standout Milton Williams, who signed a four-year, $104 million pact. He was spectacular in the Super Bowl and underrated for most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons in Philadelphia, but he’s yet to play even 50% of the defensive snaps in a season. He’s now the league’s fourth-highest paid defensive tackle by average annual salary.

(The move the Panthers made after missing out on Williams was much worse. Tershawn Wharton has been a rotational tackle for the Chiefs and re-signed with them last year for one year and $2.5 million. While he racked up a career-high 6.5 sacks and 11 knockdowns in 2024, all but one of those sacks came on plays in which somebody else won with their pass rush and he cleaned up as the quarterback scrambled away. As a better measure of his pass-rush production, Wharton ranked 124th in pressure rate. I wouldn’t have minded giving Wharton $5 million for 2025. The Panthers gave him a three-year, $45 million deal. Is he really six times the player he was this time last year?)

Williams was the only player the Patriots signed to a significant second contract. Their other moves were for players who will all be 28 or older in the 2025 season. They gave Carlton Davis a three-year, $60 million deal, landing another man-to-man cornerback to play across from young star Christian Gonzalez. Edge rusher Harold Landry, a cap casualty in Tennessee, signed a three-year, $43.5 million deal. The Pats added familiar faces such as wideout Mack Hollins and quarterback Joshua Dobbs and brought in an underrated linebacker by signing Robert Spillane to a three-year, $33 million contract.

The Patriots handed out deals with a combined average annual salary just north of $90 million per year and have landed only one offensive lineman: 34-year-old Morgan Moses, who should be locked in at right tackle and allow Mike Onwenu to stay at guard all season. Hollins and Spillane are the sorts of guys former coach Bill Belichick would routinely find on the cheap from the back of other team’s rosters or develop within the building. They’re fine additions, but paying meaningful money to add them prevents New England from spending more in the spots teams can’t typically fill with waiver-wire acquisitions or second draft candidates.

Something is better than nothing, and Patriots fans who were frustrated by last year’s inaction and put to sleep by last season’s on-field product should be happy about the additions to the roster. The Patriots will be a more competitive team in 2025. Even compared to a team like the 2024 Commanders, though, there’s just not the same influx of young talent that we saw Washington make in adding Dorance Armstrong, Frankie Luvu and Jeremy Chinn. If the Patriots want to add guys who can outperform their contracts, they need to look for younger options in the days to come.