Now that the NFL’s legal tampering period has begun, the vapor-deals for impending free agents, who can officially sign their contracts when the new league year begins at 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 15, are coming thick and fast. While none of those deals are officially official, they’re as official as they can be from a legal perspective, and we can go with the years and numbers as written by various NFL insiders.
So, with that in mind, it’s time to assign grades to these deals months before we have seen these players in their new schemes, working with their new coaches, and aligning with their new players. It’s an inexact science at best, but based on tape and metrics to date, as well as how these players’ new teams are building their rosters in this free agency period, we have enough of an idea to at least opine on the transactions.
Here are our far-too-early grades for all the impact (almost) free agent signings in 2023.