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The Panthers’ interior offensive line was decimated by injuries at both guard positions. They’ll keep that in mind this spring.
If any team knows about the importance of interior offensive line depth, it’s the 2023 Carolina Panthers—who fielded six different starters at left guard and seven different starters at right guard. So while Brady Christensen and Austin Corbett will both likely be back, there’s still some work to be done.
Here are the best interior hog mollies the Panthers could take a look at in free agency:
Pro Football Focus lists the New York Giants as a potential landing spot for two impending free agent guards.
New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen has his work cut out for him this offseason. There are needs at just about every position and depth has become a long-standing issue in East Rutherford.
Needs along the offensive line are near the top of the list, especially at the guard positions.
Fresh off a season in which the Giants allowed 85 sacks, second-most in NFL history, and ranked near the bottom of the league in almost every O-Line metric, Schoen recognizes that he must add quality bodies.
Pro Football Focus recognizes that as well and recently listed the Giants as a potential landing spot for two of the available free agent guards.
First up is Kevin Dotson of the Los Angeles Rams, whom PFF has ranked as the 23rd-best available free agent.
Dotson earned himself a lot of money in 2023 following a trade to the Los Angeles Rams, earning a career-high 88.8 run-blocking grade. While his pass blocking dipped compared to prior years, a 68.3 mark serving as a career low is a pretty strong floor.
The Giants desperately need to improve the league’s worst offensive line from 2023, and while much will be made of the right tackle spot, where 2022 top-10 pick Evan Neal has really struggled, adding a top-end pass protector next to the right tackle could go a long way in stabilizing the right side of the offensive line.
Dotson’s pass protection regression could be a cause for concern for the Giants but as PFF notes, that is a career anomaly. If it’s a red flag Schoen can’t ignore, their next option is Dalton Risner of the Minnesota Vikings, whom PFF has ranked as the 65th-best available free agent.
The Giants could look to lock down their other guard spot with a good pass-protecting left guard in Risner, who settled in after his late arrival to Minnesota this season.
Either or both of these players would provide an immediate upgrade for the Giants, who desperately need to stabilize their interior offensive line.
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Kevin Dotson is widely viewed as one of the best pending free agents, with ESPN ranking him 24th on its top-50 list
Kevin Dotson has established himself as the Rams’ top free agent this offseason after a terrific first year in Los Angeles. The Rams would love to re-sign him and maintain some continuity on the right side of the offensive line, but he’s going to have his fair share of suitors in free agency.
That could make it difficult for the Rams to bring him back.
Whichever team signs him will be getting a powerful guard who’s great in both pass protection and the run game, and he’s only 27 years old, too.
Pro Football Focus ranked Dotson as the 23rd-best free agent of 2024, and ESPN has him up there among the best, too. ESPN’s Matt Bowen ranked him as the 24th-best free agent available this offseason, the only Rams player to make the top 50.
After being traded from Pittsburgh in the 2023 offseason, Dotson put up the best tape of his career. He finished with a pass block win rate of 92.4% and run block win rate of 73.5%. A phone-booth brawler, he’s at his best in a gap run scheme.
Dotson fit seamlessly in the Rams’ scheme, playing well at right guard from the first opportunity he got to start between Coleman Shelton and Rob Havenstein. The offensive line got a big upgrade when he stepped in, improving the protection for Stafford and helping open up big running lanes for Kyren Williams.
The Rams’ top priority this offseason should be re-signing Dotson and then addressing their other needs after that.
Pro Football Focus considers Kevin Dotson a free agent the Rams must re-sign this offseason
Just before the start of the 2023 season, the Los Angeles Rams swung a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers to acquire guard Kevin Dotson in a swap of draft picks in 2024 and 2025. It wasn’t a flashy move by any means, but it’s one that helped the Rams significantly over the course of the season because Dotson turned out to be one of the best guards in the NFL.
The one downside to the trade is that Dotson had just one year left on his contract, so he’ll hit free agency this offseason – and he probably won’t be cheap.
He’s one of several Rams starters who will hit the market in March but according to Pro Football Focus, Dotson is the one player the team can’t afford to lose.
The Rams’ trade for Dotson from the Pittsburgh Steelers before the season should have served as a signal about the change in rushing scheme McVay was adopting, and Dotson was a picture-perfect fit as Los Angeles pivoted to an inside-zone/gap-heavy attack on the ground with great success.
Over the past two seasons on different teams, Dotson’s 77.2 pass-blocking grade is a top-10 mark among guards and his 3.2% pressure rate allowed ranks sixth.
The Rams don’t have many great options at guard if Dotson does end up leaving in free agency, with Joe Noteboom essentially being the only one under contract who can play guard opposite Steve Avila. Noteboom is also a potential cap casualty, so that could make it even more important to re-sign Dotson.
For a team that’s lacked continuity along the offensive line in recent years, bringing back Dotson to maintain a similar group to the one the Rams deployed in 2023 – even if it comes at a high cost.
The Minnesota Vikings have a lot of options at their disposal in free agency. Judd Zulgad explores 4 targets, including Christian Wilkins.
The internet has been flooded with NFL mock drafts each day in the past month, even though the season isn’t complete. That isn’t a complaint, but it is a reminder that the mocks could change significantly once teams begin to address needs in free agency.
There are plenty of unknowns when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings. What we do know is that Over The Cap has the team with $24.9 million in salary-cap space and $19.8 million in effective cap room. The latter figure is the most realistic because it’s based on the space a team will have after signing at least 51 players and its projected rookie class.
The Vikings have the ability to create more room with various moves to cut contracts or restructure them. Of course, that space could be eaten up by the potential return of free agents such as quarterback Kirk Cousins and defensive end Danielle Hunter.
But those possibilities aren’t going to stop us from examining some potential free agents the Vikings could target.
Kevin Dotson was one of the top guards in the NFL this season and will be a premier free agent, but the Rams would like to extend him
One of the Rams’ best and most important moves in an otherwise quiet offseason was the acquisition of Kevin Dotson. They traded for him just before the season began, adding the Steelers guard to their offensive line room with the hope that he’d eventually become a starter.
He took over the right guard spot after Joe Noteboom got injured and never let go, performing as one of the best interior offensive linemen in the NFL. According to PFF, he was the second-highest-graded guard with an overall mark of 84.4.
The only downside to the trade is that Dotson had just one year left on his contract, so he’ll become a free agent in March. Given the way he played and the need for great guards around the league, it could be hard for the Rams to re-sign him, but that’s what they hope to do.
Rams GM Les Snead told reporters on Friday that they want to extend Dotson, knowing full well that other teams will also be trying to ink him to a deal.
“He’ll definitely have a marketplace, for sure. People are going to want him to come play football for them,” Snead said. “We’re one of those teams.”
Snead added that the Rams aren’t going to rush to make any offseason decisions just yet, but will take some time to reset and evaluate their situation, including their potential moves in free agency.
“We’ll take it a little bit slower. We’ll go decompress, come back and assess who we are, where we want to go into 2024, also into the future,” he said.
Dotson, 27, was a centerpiece of the offensive line and should remain as such next season and for years to come. The Rams have a chance to fortify the guard position by re-signing him and pairing him with Steve Avila, who just finished his rookie year.
There are a lot of holes the Rams would like to fill, but guard should be one of them with Dotson.
From guards to cornerbacks, there are plenty of free agents for the Lions to consider this offseason
The NFL season is a long journey full of ups and downs, moments of triumph, and moments of despair for a franchise and its fans. If anything that Lions fans and the team know change is certain. The current staff and front office have shown they will be active in the offseason and they need to continue to be despite their record this year.
Week 18 showed that the secondary needs work, the pass rush needs more depth, and the receiver needs size. These are just a few of the positions and situations they need to address this offseason.
The list of looming free agents for the NFL and the Lions is glaring. Tough decisions will need to be made, some have yet to be made with players who have contracts beyond this year. The talent pool is deep and for now, here are ten that Lions fans should hope the franchise goes after.
Now that the 2024 Pro Bowl rosters have been announced, here are the biggest snubs — the players who should have made it, and didn’t.
The NFL announced the 2024 Pro Bowl rosters on Wednesday night. The rosters were determined by the consensus votes of fans, players, and coaches, making the NFL the only sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players to select it’s All-Star rosters.
That said, as there is every year, there were multiple notable snubs that were left off the Pro Bowl roster, and these are the five biggest names to no be 2024 Pro Bowlers.
Pro Football Focus ranked Kevin Dotson as one of the 50 best free agents in 2024, projecting him to sign a $69M contract
The Los Angeles Rams have lost several key players in free agency over the last few years, including Von Miller, Matt Gay, Darious Williams, Austin Corbett and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo. Les Snead and Sean McVay often focus on keeping their own free agents before looking at outside options, and that should remain the case in 2024.
One player who should be a top priority in free agency next year is Kevin Dotson. He’ll become a free agent in March and given the way he’s played this season, he’s going to command a sizable contract from someone, whether it’s the Rams or another team.
Pro Football Focus released its list of the top 50 free agents for 2024 and Dotson came in at No. 23. PFF projected his contract, as well, putting him in the range of being one of the top-paid guards in football with a deal worth $69 million for four years, including $41.25 million guaranteed.
Dotson was traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Los Angeles Rams this offseason, and what first appeared like an odd fit should have instead been a signal that head coach Sean McVay was reinventing his offense to much success in 2023. McVay has pivoted from a wide-zone rushing attack to a heavy gap scheme, and Dotson has been a picture-perfect fit. He has always been a strong pass protector, which has carried over, as well.
Snead and McVay deserve a ton of credit for acquiring Dotson from the Steelers before the season began because it’s a trade that’s worked out brilliantly for Los Angeles. Dotson took over as the starting right guard in Week 4 and has played at a high level ever since.
According to Pro Football Focus, Dotson has the 11th-highest grade of any lineman and the third-highest among all guards, so he’s established himself as one of the best interior linemen in the NFL.
The Rams are projected to have $43 million in cap space next year, so they’ll have the room to retain Dotson. Whether they want to pay up to keep him or give a player such as Logan Bruss or Tremayne Anchrum Jr. a shot to start next year remains to be seen.
Matthew Stafford wasn’t sacked in the Rams’ 36-19 victory over the Browns in Week 13.
Matthew Stafford has strung together back-to-back productive outings for the Los Angeles Rams after throwing for 279 yards and three touchdowns versus the Cleveland Browns in Week 13. Stafford dealt with a clean pocket for the majority of the game, which led to the veteran quarterback making it a priority to credit his offensive line for their performance in Sunday’s win.
“Thank you. I was going to say something if nobody asked me,” Stafford said of the O-line. “My guys were balling today so I was so fired up. That’s a hell of a rush. They were bringing pressures, they were rushing four, they were doing all sorts of stuff to us and our guys to step up there and protect the way they did today was amazing. And then be able to really lean on them in the fourth quarter too and run the rock when we needed to. A couple times, Kyren (Williams) got downhill and we were able to ice the game that way. So proud of those guys. It shows up the way they work, the way they go about their business every single day. I thought we had a great plan but shoot, we threw the rock. We weren’t sitting there just protecting those guys up front. We were just saying let’s go play our game and have a lot of confidence in those guys and proud of the way they played.”
The Browns entered Week 13 as one of the best defenses in the NFL, with Jim Schwartz dialing up exotic blitzes to generate pressure on quarterbacks. While Myles Garrett wasn’t fully healthy on Sunday, the Rams didn’t allow Stafford to be sacked and the Browns totaled 14 pressures.
Those numbers are mighty impressive considering the Browns have four players who have tallied 24 or more pressures this season. The five starting offensive linemen for the Rams were credited with only nine pressures allowed as rookie Steve Avila didn’t surrender a single pressure in pass protection.
The current starting group of Alaric Jackson, Avila, Coleman Shelton, Kevin Dotson, and Rob Havenstein has become a cohesive unit in the last month or so. Following two straight dominant performances in the trenches, the offensive line will look to carry their success into Week 14 versus the Baltimore Ravens.
