The significant moves of the NFL’s free agency period have, for the most part, already happened. The first few days of this week at the start of the new league year is where all the action happens, and where most of the best players that will change teams during the offseason, find their new landing spots.
That’s where we are right now, so this is as good a time as any to take stock of some of the most interesting transactions we’ve seen to date. We began on Friday by highlighting a few of our favorites on the offensive side of the ball. Below, we do the same on defense.
Hunter’s two-year deal that contains just $1 million in non-guaranteed money (out of $49 million total) was clearly designed to protect other owners from having to start handing out fully-guaranteed contracts. That aside, the fit here is fantastic.
Hunter doesn’t turn 30 until October and has reached double-digit sacks in five of his last six healthy seasons, including last year. Will Anderson, the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year, now has another premiere edge rusher to push the pocket along with him, and DeMeco Ryans has the bookends of a strong defensive line to run his system the way he wants to. And after signing Denico Autry and Tim Settle, the Texans got stronger up the middle, too.
This is the kind of stuff you can do when you have a superstar quarterback in the second year of a rookie-scale contract.
Putting Wilkins on the same defensive line as Maxx Crosby almost seems unfair to opposing offenses. Crosbye essentially never leaves the field and just continually racks up pressures and run stops, and now he’ll have a true game-wrecker working next to him on the interior. Wilkins is coming off the best season of his career, having racked up 9 sacks and 23 quarterbacks hits in addition to his standard 10 tackles for loss. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has shown an ability to coax pass rush out of…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-free-agency-danielle-hunter-to-texans-among-most-intriguing-free-agent-signings-on-defense/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2024-03-16 14:25:33
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