The age of Sundays without football is upon us once again. While many NFL team’s seasons have been over for a while (looking at you Carolina), the off-season has arrived for every NFL fanbase. The doom and gloom of failed seasons will soon begin to morph into the eternal optimism that a new season promises. All the records around the league are reset to 0-0, bringing the hope that it could be any team’s year to win the Super Bowl. Before we get back to playing football, teams must decide how they are going to build their teams. While most teams will look fairly similar to this year's roster, many teams will be tasked with making franchise altering decisions. Today, we discuss the biggest decisions around the NFL during this off-season.
Justin Fields and The Bears?
The first question of this off-season is how the Chicago Bears will decide to handle the number 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and where that leaves their young quarterback, Justin Fields. Fields has shown much promise in his first three years in the league, after being drafted 11th overall by the Bears in 2021. The Bears, during this time, have been a bad team, sometimes at the fault of a horrible supporting cast and other times due to Fields' poor play. Even through these tough seasons, Fields remained both a leader and a locker room favorite. Fields would be all but guaranteed to stay as the Bears quarterback, if the Bears did not have the 1st pick in this April’s draft and if the best college player, USC’s Caleb Williams, wasn’t a quarterback. The Bears need to decide whether Fields has shown enough to keep him around, or if the allure of Caleb Williams makes Fields expendable. If they keep Fields, the first overall pick will most likely be traded and that pick will become the most valuable available asset around the league. If the Bears instead decide to bet on Caleb Williams, expect teams like the Atlanta Falcons, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and others to try to trade at least a second round pick for Fields. Either way, this decision will loom large over the Bears organization for years to come.
The Annual NFL QB Carousel
Last year we saw Aaron Rodgers get traded to the New York Jets, Derek Carr get signed by the New Orleans Saints, Jimmy G get signed by the Las Vegas Raiders, and many other quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson and Daniel Jones for example, stay put with their current teams. As is the case every year, the NFL will have some unexpected, and seemingly desperate moves involving the most important position in sports: the Quarterback. Some of the top potential available quarterbacks this off-season seem to be; Kirk Cousins, a 34 year old coming off a torn Achilles, Baker Mayfield, a former 1st overall pick who had a career resurgence last year, Russell Wilson, a former Super Bowl winner in the tail end of his career, and the aforementioned Justin Fields, a 24 year old who has shown great promise in flashes. Will these quarterbacks be brought back by their former teams, the Vikings, Bucs, Broncos, and Bears respectively, or will they find a new NFL home? If it proves to be the latter, there are countless homes waiting to be filled. Just about half the teams in the league could, or at least should be interested in a new quarterback this off-season. This year’s NFL Draft seems to be a very good QB class as well, with 5 or 6 QB’s expected to be picked in the first round including; USC’s Caleb Williams, UNC’s Drake Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Michigan’s JJ McCarthy, Oregon’s Bo Nix, and possibly even Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. Teams will most likely decide to go after either these young quarterbacks or the free agent QB’s, but not both. This time of year is when teams get a chance to show what they really think about their own QB situation compared to the available QB’s, which is why the QB Carousel will always be something to monitor during the off-season.
Major Wide Receiver Questions
The Wide Receiver market is usually fool’s gold each off-season, when many WRs are expected to hit free agency, just for them to wind up back with their original teams. This is not always the case, however, as we saw in 2022, when Tyreek Hill was traded from the Chiefs to the Dolphins, Davante Adams was traded from the Packers to the Raiders, AJ Brown was traded from the Titans to the Eagles, and Amari Cooper was traded from the Cowboys to the Browns. Receivers expected to hit free agency this year include Michael Pittman Jr from the Colts, Tee Higgins from the Bengals, and Mike Evans from the Bucs. While these players might not be brought back and could be free to sign with any team, all are candidates for the franchise tag, which is a one-year contract that every team is allowed to give to any one player at a preset amount, which would effectively guarantee that player is back with their current team. The franchise tag is a major reason that we have seen acquiring a WR through trades, is the more likely avenue. So, who could be on the move? Stefon Diggs and his family have voiced major concerns with his role in the Bills offense. Brandon Aiyuk has not been paid yet and could also want a more prominent role in the 49ers offense after his breakout 2023 season. Last, but certainly not least, is Davante Adams. Adams, the future Hall of Famer, came to the Raiders in 2022, in large part to play with college teammate Derek Carr. After just one season, however, the Raiders pulled the plug on the Carr Adams duo, replacing Carr with the perpetual underwhelming Jimmy G. Given this, it would not be surprising to see Adams request a trade out of Las Vegas. The WR market might prove to be stagnant, but if even one of these star WRs become available, there will be a line of teams willing to pay them.
Off-Season Expectations
The NFL season just ended, but this off-season is just over the horizon, with free agency officially starting on March 13th at 4 p.m. ET and the NFL Draft starting on April 25th. Ultimately, the Bears Justin Fields decision, the QB carousel, and how the WR market plays out during this off-season, are all bound to alter the NFL landscape for better or worse. All of these decisions should be decided by the end of the first day of the NFL Draft, and if a WR or Fields end up becoming available via trade, we could realistically see the trade develop before free agency begins. No matter what, this off-season will prove to be just as chaotic as each of its predecessors.
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