NFL free agency Day 1 winners and losers among the chaos

Rumors and moves went wild in NFL free agency but there were some winners and losers s well

The first day of NFL free agency is in the books and a lot of players have changed teams. It is hard to keep up with just the rumors and news surrounding the Cleveland Browns much less the entire NFL.

All of the Browns news and rumors can be found in our Day 1 blog and we are rolling again with rumors and reports in our NFL Free Agency Day 2 blog. You can also check out our quick profile on the newest Cleveland linebacker, Jordan Hicks.

Since we know you can’t keep up with everything that happened (reportedly since nothing is official until Wednesday at the earliest), here is our list of winners and losers from Day 1:

Winners: RBs – A year after running backs complained about not getting paid, a wide variety received decent-sized contracts with decent-sized guarantees. The talent may have earned the contract but the lack of top-level talent in the NFL draft pushed the contracts up a little bit as well.

Losers: Bengals – The signing of Geno Stone was a solid one but WR Tee Higgins demanded a trade to start the day. That the team hasn’t negotiated with their franchised receiver is a bad sign that their owner can’t afford to keep two top receivers and a top-paid quarterback.

Winner: DE Brian Burns – Burns got away from a Carolina team that seemed to just go through the motions. He also got a huge contract making him the second highest-paid defensive end in the NFL and joins a really good defensive line.

Losers: Giants and Panthers – Carolina is a loser for how they handled Burns (turning down two first-round picks last year), losing LB Frankie Luvu but signed OL Robert Hunt to a huge deal to play guard then signed another guard, Damien Lewis, to a hefty deal as well.

The Giants lost RB Saquon Barkley but added Burns. The problem for New York is spending draft capital and salary cap space on the defensive line without having any sort of offensive identity.

Winner: DT Christian Wilkins – One good year as a pass rusher got Wilkins paid paid. Good for him.

Losers: WRs – The opposite of the running backs group, only a couple of receivers moved on Day 1 and none for huge deals. With a deep and talented group coming out in this year’s NFL draft, receivers might have a similar issue that running backs had last year. Not to the same extent but shorter years and less money than recent history.

Winner: QB Kirk Cousins – Another masterclass is getting paid as Cousins will pull in another $110 million on a four-year deal that starts when he is 36 years old.

Losers: Vikings – Not only did Minnesota lose Cousins but they continued to spend like a team that has a quarterback despite not having one. The team gave DE Jonathan Greenard a huge deal, brought in LB Andrew Van Ginkel for $13 million a year and signed LB Blake Cashman to a $22.5 million deal. (Day 2 started with the Vikings signing RB Aaron Jones as well.) The moves themselves are fine but without a quarterback, it is spending money just to spend money.

Like the Giants, if Minnesota answers their QB question they can be removed from the list.

Winners: Eagles – Adding Barkley and DE Bryce Huff just continues to build on a very good roster. Whether they can overcome whatever happened last year or not is up to the coaches and players but Howie Roseman is always changing around his roster and adding players to try to compete.

Who do you think was a winner, loser from Day 1 of NFL free agency?

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